A method and apparatus for performing application specific access control in a wireless communication system is provided. A user equipment (UE) receives access control related system information from a network, identifies initiation of a specific application, and determines whether or not access attempt for the specific application is allowed, based on the received access control related system information. Accordingly, the UE may determine whether or not to skip access control barring (ACB) check for the specific application, or whether or not to skip random access backoff for the specific application.