ACC, PCC or MCC: which ICF credential fits your next step?

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) offers three individual credentials: Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Certified Coach (MCC). Compare your eligible education and experience with each level, then check its mentoring and assessment requirements. You do not need ACC before applying for PCC. To apply for MCC, you must hold or have held PCC.

A training certificate comes from your coaching school. It can provide evidence for an application, but completing a programme does not award an ICF credential. ICF membership is separate again: joining the organisation does not confer a credential or reduce its requirements.

This guide describes requirements in the September 2026 source record, with announced 2027 changes separated below. Confirm your application path with ICF before paying for further education or mentoring.

What does each level require?

These are the main substantive requirements. The ACC, PCC and MCC pages also identify the relevant application paths. Documents, fees and ethics declarations need checking separately.

The experience requirements give the paid, client-count and recency conditions. Recent hours can be paid or pro bono. Paid figures are minimums, not limits on donated coaching; additional pro bono hours do not reduce the paid minimum.

Count coaching you delivered to real clients in real time. Received coaching, roleplay, AI rehearsal, mentor coaching and supervision do not add to that total. Training practice counts only when outside the classroom, with a real client and separate from training credits. Barter can be payment, but neither meeting another coach nor joining a platform establishes an eligible exchange.

Experience also has to follow the start of qualifying coaching education. ICF's experience page uses a course of at least 30 hours with at least 24 Core Competency hours; its candidate guides give more specific programme-type and 80% competency-content conditions. For a longer course, 24 competency hours alone may be insufficient. Check your credential's candidate guide, linked under Sources, and ask ICF about borderline education before counting from its start date. Education totals also have path-specific composition and evidence requirements, covered in the application guide.

Which level fits your existing evidence?

If you have finished or nearly finished a first programme, compare its education evidence and your client experience against ACC and PCC. Ask your provider which mentoring and evaluation requirements the completed programme fulfils, what its fee covers, and what you will still complete with ICF.

If you have coached for years without applying, audit your records before choosing a level. A total over 500 does not establish that you have 450 paid hours, 25 clients and 50 recent hours. Some earlier experience may also predate qualifying education. Separate those checks rather than estimating eligibility from the grand total.

If you hold or have held PCC and are considering MCC, you meet the credential prerequisite. Check the MCC column against your records. For MCC Portfolio, the ten mentor-coaching hours must be new hours, not hours used for a prior credential, and your mentor must currently hold a valid MCC. A completed Level 3 programme fulfils the MCC mentoring requirement. How long the remaining work takes depends on the evidence and education you already have.

Keep documented consent for identifying client records. Where an organisational confidentiality policy covers internal or third-party clients, use the required signed reference letter instead of confidential identities. Without client consent, omit the name; ICF warns those sessions could not be verified in an audit. The log guide provides the fields and reconciliation method.

What does assessment add to the hours?

Every level asks you to demonstrate your coaching. Under the current performance-evaluation rules, ACC Portfolio applicants submit one audio recording with a transcript; PCC Portfolio applicants submit two; MCC applicants submit two on both Level 3 and Portfolio paths.

The completed programme evaluation fulfils the requirement for ACC Level 1/Level 2 and PCC Level 2 applicants, without a separate evaluation submission to ICF. That does not mean the programme will never require recording. Before recording a client for an ICF evaluation, obtain written permission to record and use the session for that purpose. Submitted audio must be a complete, unedited 20–60-minute session with a real, regular client; check the full technical and transcript rules before preparing files.

All three levels require ten mentoring hours over at least three months, including at least three individual hours. The remaining seven may be individual or in groups of no more than ten. Current eligible mentors are a valid ACC renewed at least once, PCC or MCC for an ACC applicant; a valid PCC or MCC for PCC; and a valid MCC for MCC. Supervision does not substitute for mentor coaching. See ICF's mentor-coaching requirements.

The exam is separate. ACC uses the ACC Exam; PCC and MCC use the ICF Credentialing Exam. The PCC Candidate Guide waives a resit for applicants who passed the ICF Credentialing Exam for ACC and apply within 12 months of that pass. The MCC guide gives the corresponding waiver for applicants who passed it for PCC and apply within 12 months. The newer ACC Exam is not the ICF Credentialing Exam.

ICF sends the exam scheduling invitation after accepting your application. An unbooked exam is not a pre-submission evidence gap.

What changes if you apply in 2027?

ICF's 2027 ACC/PCC guidance changes mentor eligibility and the Portfolio assessment process. New mentoring from 1 January requires the relevant Mentor Coach Specialization (MCS). ACC applicants may receive ACC-level mentoring from an MCS-ACC or PCC-level mentoring from an MCS-PCC; PCC applicants use an MCS-PCC.

For ACC/PCC Portfolio applications, January–March allows either the current evaluation process or a specialised mentor's Competency Review Form. From 1 April, the form is required. The standard enhanced mentoring process includes at least three observed sessions. Performance evaluations continue until 1 August for transition candidates; those still unsuccessful then move to a specialised mentor for the form, which may involve one or multiple observations rather than three new sessions in every case.

Earlier eligible mentoring remains usable, but retaining the hours does not waive the April-onward form requirement. Read the ACC or PCC bridging guidance alongside the newer transition article. Completed ACC Level 1/Level 2 and PCC Level 2 programme certificates remain accepted. Keep enhanced mentoring's Session Observation Forms for any audit; these are separate from client coaching logs.

MCC performance evaluations remain. New MCC mentoring from 1 January must be with an MCS-MCC; earlier eligible mentoring and completed Level 3 certificates remain accepted under the separate MCC guidance. The ten-hour, three-month and minimum-three-individual-hour requirements do not change.

Check the next application, not renewal rules

Applying for a higher level and renewing a credential are different processes. Use ICF's renewal guidance for renewal.

For your next application, fill the requirements worksheet from your records, then ask your provider which remaining requirements its programme will satisfy for your intended application date.

Related guides: When does peer coaching count as paid? · Planning your first 100 ACC hours · Keeping an ICF coaching log · Coaching accreditation explained.