A hunting license or hunting permit is a regulatory or legal mechanism to control hunting, both commercialand recreational. A license specifically made for recreational (game) hunting is sometimes called a game license or game permit. Hunting activities beyond the permission of such licensing are typically regarded as poaching and thus wrongful or criminal.

Hunting may be regulated formally via game laws issued by a legislature or government agency, or informally by unwritten conventions, self-restraint ethics or moral code among the hunter community. The purposes for requiring hunting licenses include natural resource management, conservation of vulnerable/endangered species and raising tax revenue (often, but not always, to dedicated funds). Some laws require a specific waiting period between application and receiving a license.

Hunting licenses are millennia old. Amongst the first hunting laws in the Common law tradition was from the time of William the Conqueror (reign in England starting 1066). In the Peterborough Chronicle entry of 1087, The Rime of King William reported in verse that:

This was because "William the Conqueror's moral life lives in the landscape. His control of the forest mirrors his control of the people, and his establishment of hunting laws reveals the dissonance between his love for animals and his contempt for the populace: ...".

A whole distinct field of law was created outside of the Common Law, called the Forest Law, in the Middle Ages, although there were some restrictions in Magna Carta.

Mandating of hunting licenses are done for several purposes, include:

The safety issues are especially highlighted in urban/suburban areas and shopping districts. For example, after in an incident in November 2012 whereby a man allegedly shot at a deer in a Walmart parking lot in Pennsylvania, he was charged with "reckless endangerment, ... hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game".

All gun owners in Australia must have a firearms licence (see gun laws in Australia), but normally do not require a licence to hunt feral or invasive pest species (e.g. rabbits, foxes and feral pigs). Most introduced species that can be hunted recreationally during open seasons (mostly deers) do still require a hunting licence, whether with firearms or using bows, and almost all native animals (except some duck, quail and kangaroo species) are protected. Landowners may obtain a "Destruction Permit" to kill or remove native species when their numbers impact agriculture. Hunting in New South Wales national parks requires a R-licence issued by the Game Council, but (as of mid-2013) this situation has been suspended pending review.