Alberta · Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis

AGLC liquor licence lookup, and which class a premises needs.

Alberta lets you search liquor service providers by name or location, and its licences come in classes A to F. Pick a kind of premises to see which class AGLC lists it under.

Short answer: Use AGLC’s Liquor Provider Search to find a licensed lounge, bar or store by name or location. Alberta liquor licences are grouped into Classes A to F, and AGLC’s class pages list 24 kinds of premises across them: three under Class A, seven under B, four under C, six under D, three under E and one under F.

Source: AGLC licence class and provider search pagesRetrieved October 2026Unofficial guide

Find the class for a premises

Kind of premises

Result

Pick a kind of premises and press Show the class.

How AGLC’s provider search works

AGLC’s Liquor Provider Search page describes a liquor service provider database that you search by name or location. The form offers a Licensee Name field and a Location choice of City, Postal Code, with a long list of Alberta municipalities. AGLC’s resource page says it can be used to find any liquor service provider, such as a lounge, bar or retail store, by name, location or licence type. The pages read for this guide do not say how current the data is or what fields a result shows, so confirm a result you plan to rely on with AGLC.

Open the AGLC Liquor Provider Search ↗ Open AGLC liquor licences ↗

The six licence classes

AGLC’s liquor licences page lists Class A to Class F. Class A is for liquor service in premises open to the public and splits into minors allowed, where food service is the main source of business, minors prohibited, where liquor is the main business, and a manufacturer’s taproom. Class B is for liquor service when there is an entrance fee. Class C covers clubs, canteens, institutions and travellers’ lounges. Class D is for the sale of liquor that people consume in another location. Class E is for manufacturers, estate manufacturers and blending or packaging. Class F is for ferment-on-premises facilities.

Worked example: three premises, three answers

Take a bowling alley that wants to serve beer while people pay an entrance fee. AGLC lists a recreational facility, with golf, bowling and billiards as its examples, under Class B, the class for liquor service when there is an entrance fee. A shop selling bottles to take home is a retail liquor store under Class D. A brewery that wants a room where visitors drink on site needs two classes: the manufacturer’s taproom is a Class A type that AGLC issues only to a manufacturer holding a Class E licence, so the brewery’s Class E licence is the first of the two.

The counts are simple to check against the picker. Class A has 3 entries, B has 7, C has 4, D has 6, E has 3 and F has 1, which is 24. Class D is the largest group after B and is the only one built around sales for use elsewhere, which is why delivery from a retail liquor store and a hotel off-sales area sit there, with the hotel needing a Class A licence of its own.

Reading a search result against the class

If a provider search returns a business with a licence type you did not expect, the class table is the quick check: a bowling alley should sit under the class AGLC lists for recreational facilities, and a brewery taproom under the taproom entry. Because the pages read here do not list the fields a result shows, match on the licence type the search displays, and treat a mismatch as a reason to ask AGLC rather than as a finding.

Method

The picker looks up a fixed table in your browser. Each of the 24 premises types is copied from AGLC’s class pages and mapped to the class heading it appears under, with the class’s own one-line description. Class totals are counted from that table. Nothing you pick is sent to our servers and nothing is looked up live.

What this does not cover

A search for a named licensee. Use AGLC’s Liquor Provider Search for that.
Licence fees, application steps or the Online Licensing Portal, which AGLC runs separately.
Special-event, competition, hospitality or industrial-use licences, which AGLC lists apart from Classes A to F.
How current the provider search data is, which the pages read do not state.
Whether any specific licence is valid today.

Sources

AGLC, Liquor provider search (retrieved October 2026)
AGLC, Alberta Made resource page: Liquor provider search (retrieved October 2026)
AGLC, Liquor licences (Class A to Class F) (retrieved October 2026)
AGLC, Class A licence overview (retrieved October 2026)
AGLC, Class B licence overview (retrieved October 2026)
AGLC, Class D licence overview (retrieved October 2026)

Common mix-ups

Often assumedA brewery taproom needs only a manufacturer's licence.

What the source saysAGLC lists the manufacturer's taproom under Class A, issued to a manufacturer that has a Class E licence, for premises open to the public where manufacturing is the primary business, so the taproom sits on top of the Class E licence. ^[1]
Often assumedOne licence class covers both serving drinks on site and selling bottles to take home.

What the source saysAGLC describes Class D as the licence for the sale of liquor that people will consume in another location, such as a retail liquor store or hotel off-sales area. On-premises service falls under Classes A to C. ^[2]

Checked against these sources on 2026-10-26.

Frequently asked questions

How do I look up an Alberta liquor licence?

Use AGLC’s Liquor Provider Search, which lets you search for a liquor service provider by licensee name or by location, and by licence type according to AGLC’s resource page.

What are the Alberta liquor licence classes?

AGLC lists Class A to Class F: A for on-premises service open to the public, B for service with an entrance fee, C for clubs and institutions, D for sales to consume elsewhere, E for manufacturers and F for ferment-on-premises.

What is the difference between Class A minors allowed and minors prohibited?

AGLC says food service is the main business for minors allowed, with food available during all hours of liquor service. For minors prohibited, liquor is the main business and at least a snack-type menu is required, with food not required after 11 p.m.

Which class does a liquor store need?

AGLC lists a retail liquor store and a general merchandise liquor store under Class D, the class for sale of liquor that people will consume in another location.

Can a brewery run a taproom in Alberta?

AGLC lists a manufacturer’s taproom under Class A, issued to a manufacturer that has a Class E licence, for premises open to the public where manufacturing is the primary business.

Can I search AGLC’s database by licence type?

AGLC’s resource page says the tool can be used to search by name, location or licence type. The search form itself shows licensee name and location fields.

Guide only: not an AGLC tool

This page is an unofficial guide. It is not run by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, does not search or copy AGLC records, and nothing you pick is transmitted anywhere. A class listed here is what AGLC’s own pages say, not advice on which licence you need or will be granted. Confirm with AGLC. General information, not legal advice.