A method and apparatus for performing application specific congestion control for data communication (ACDC) in a wireless communication system is provided. A radio resource control (RRC) layer of a user equipment (UE) receives ACDC barring information for a plurality of ACDC categories via system information from a network, determines whether the ACDC barring information for the plurality of ACDC categories contains ACDC barring information for a specific ACDC category selected by upper layers, and if it is determined that the ACDC barring information for the plurality of ACDC categories does not contain ACDC barring information for a specific ACDC category selected by upper layers, performs ACDC barring check by using ACDC barring information for last ACDC category among the plurality of ACDC categories.