ICF credentials explained
Including ICF Level 1 vs Level 2 · Updated August 2026
Short answer: the one your coaching hours qualify you for. Longer answer, and the part that saves money, is choosing the right education level to sit underneath it, because that is the decision you can only make once.
| ACC | PCC | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Associate Certified Coach | Professional Certified Coach |
| Education pathway | ICF Level 1 | ICF Level 2 |
| Coach-specific training | 60+ hours | 125+ hours |
| Client coaching hours | 100 | 500 |
| Mentor coaching | 10 hours | 10 hours |
| Performance evaluation | Yes, at ACC standard | Yes, at PCC standard |
| ICF Credentialing Exam | Yes | Yes |
| Typically expected by | Private clients, early practice | Corporate and institutional buyers |
If you have researched this before 2023 you may have met ACSTH and ACTP. ICF retired both in June 2023. ACSTH became Level 1, ACTP became Level 2.
This is the part people get wrong. PCC requires 500 logged client coaching hours. If you have 40, no programme can sell you a PCC, and any provider suggesting otherwise is selling you a timeline they do not control.
So the credential you apply for is largely determined by where you are. What you actually choose is the education level underneath it.
Level 1 education supports an ACC application. Level 2 education supports ACC or PCC, depending on your hours at the time you apply.
Which means Level 2 has a property worth understanding: it does not expire and it does not need repeating. Take Level 1 now and decide in two years that you want PCC, and you buy an education level again. Take Level 2 now, apply for ACC while your hours are still building, and progress to PCC later with no further education purchase.
Both are real standards and worth holding. But it is worth being clear-eyed about what they assess: that you can demonstrate defined competencies in an evaluated session, that you have logged hours, and that you have passed a written exam.
They do not assess what happens when a client brings something the model does not cover. They do not measure whether you can stay present while somebody's world moves, or whether your own unresolved material is quietly steering the session.
A coach can hold PCC and still reach for a technique because silence has become uncomfortable. That is not a criticism of the framework, which was never designed to train the practitioner underneath it. It is just a gap, and it is the gap where most coaching careers stall.
So the useful question is not ACC or PCC. It is: which programme gives me the credential and trains the capability?
We teach one body of work, the RS Method, and include the appropriate ICF education pathway as standard rather than selling it as a separate product.
RS Method Coach includes the ICF Level 1 education pathway toward ACC. RS Method Complete includes the ICF Level 2 pathway, which supports ACC or PCC depending on your hours.
The credential is awarded by ICF, not by us. What we are responsible for is the practitioner sitting underneath those letters: the methodology, the judgement, and the ability to work with an actual human being when the conversation goes somewhere no framework anticipated.
ACC is the Associate Certified Coach credential and PCC is the Professional Certified Coach credential. They differ in three ways: the amount of accredited education (60+ hours versus 125+), the client coaching hours you must log (100 versus 500), and the depth of coaching competency demonstrated in your performance evaluation.
It depends on your hours, not your ambition. If you have not yet coached 500 hours, PCC is not available to you yet regardless of which education you buy. Most people starting out target ACC. Coaches already in practice, or those who know they will keep going, often take Level 2 education so they never have to buy an education level twice.
Yes, and it is often the smartest route. Completing Level 2 does not force you to wait for 500 hours. If your experience currently meets ACC requirements you can apply for ACC now and progress to PCC later as hours accumulate, without returning to buy more education.
Often yes. PCC is the level most corporate and institutional procurement teams look for when hiring coaches, particularly for senior populations. For private clients the credential matters far less than whether you can actually help them.
The gap is 400 client coaching hours, so it depends entirely on how much you coach. A full-time coach might close it in a year or two; someone coaching part-time alongside another career will take longer. The education, if you did Level 2, is already behind you.
MCC, Master Certified Coach, requires 200+ hours of education and 2,500 client hours. It is a long-horizon credential for career coaches, not a starting decision. Nobody needs to plan for it at the point of choosing a first programme.
No. It demonstrates you have met a defined standard of education, experience and assessed competency, which is genuinely worth something. It does not train the judgement, presence and methodology that decide what happens when a session goes somewhere unplanned. Those are a separate piece of work, and choosing a programme that trains both is the actual decision.
Sara will work it out with you in a free conversation, including whether Level 1 or Level 2 is the better economics for where you actually are.
Speak with Sara →