APC word count rules: what counts and how it is counted
The APC written submission has three word limits. The summary of experience is at most 1,500 words across all the mandatory competencies and at most 4,000 words across all the technical competencies, and only the text in the summary of experience column is counted. The case study is at most 3,000 words, counted from the start of the introduction to the end of the conclusion with headings included. The official counts are made in Microsoft Word, so count the way Word does: every run of characters between spaces or line breaks is one word.
The three limits and what each one covers
The candidate guide (June 2025, amended March 2026) sets the limits, and the RICS submissions page, published 10 August 2026, repeats them. The August 2026 edition of the guide that page now links to carries the same numbers.
| Document | Limit | Counted | Not counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary of experience, mandatory competencies | 1,500 words in total | Your text in the summary of experience column, including references and citations | Titles, competency names and levels in the first two columns |
| Summary of experience, technical competencies | 4,000 words in total | The same column, for every core and optional competency | The same first two columns |
| Case study | 3,000 words | Everything from the introduction to the end of the conclusion, headings, sub-headings, tables and charts in the body | Project name, date of the project, confidentiality statement, table of contents, table of competencies demonstrated, appendices |
The two summary totals are separate. Spare words in the mandatory total cannot be moved to the technical total, and the other way round. There is no separate limit per competency; how you share each total between competencies and levels is your decision.
The guide also says the assessment team may cancel an interview when a submission breaks the word count, and that the case study must state its own word count at the end. The submissions page adds that you enter the case study total on the assessment platform when you upload it.
How Word counts a word
Word does not look for dictionary words. It splits text wherever there is a space, a tab or a line break, and counts the pieces. That one rule explains almost every surprise candidates meet: a hyphenated term, a figure with commas, a web address or a reference in brackets is one word because it has no space inside it. The table shows each rule the draft workspace applies, with an example counted by the workspace itself.
| Rule | Example | Words | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| A word is a run of characters with a space, tab or line break on each side. Several spaces in a row, blank lines and leading or trailing spaces add nothing. | Two spaces between words. | 4 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| Hyphenated words are one word, and so are words joined by a slash. | A well-known and/or long-standing term | 5 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| Numbers are words: a figure with commas, decimals, a currency sign, a percent sign, a unit written against it, a date or a time is one word each. | £1,250,000 at 2.5% on 12/03/2026 at 10:30 | 7 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| Punctuation attached to a word does not add a word: brackets, quotation marks, full stops, commas and apostrophes stay with the word they touch. Abbreviations such as e.g. are one word. | (see the client's report, e.g. page 12) | 7 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| A web address or an email address is one word. | See https://www.example.com/page or office@example.co.uk | 4 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| Two words joined by a dash with no spaces are counted as one word, as for a hyphen. | 2024[en dash]2026 and sharply[em dash]then | 3 | Check in Word, not yet checked in Word |
| A dash, ampersand or other symbol standing alone between spaces is counted as a word. | Smith & Jones [en dash] the agents | 6 | Check in Word, not yet checked in Word |
| A bullet or number you type at the start of a line is counted. If Word turns it into a formatted list, Word stops counting it, so the workspace tells you how many such lines you have. | - first item / - second item | 6 | Check in Word, not yet checked in Word |
| Text in tables counts: each cell is counted like any other text. Text pasted from a table arrives separated by tabs, which separate words. | Item [tab] Quantity [tab] Rate / Concrete [tab] 12 [tab] £95.00 | 6 | Word's rule, not yet checked in Word |
| A non-breaking space separates words like an ordinary space; a zero width space also separates them; a soft hyphen does not. | 10[non-breaking space]km and pre[soft hyphen]contract | 4 | Check in Word, not yet checked in Word |
| Chinese and Japanese characters count one word each; Korean, written with spaces, is counted by its spaces. | 日本語 | 3 | Check in Word, not yet checked in Word |
Rules marked "Check in Word" are the ones we could not confirm against Word itself, so treat them as likely rather than certain. They affect a handful of words at most, and the workspace tells you when your text contains any of them. "Not yet checked in Word" means the test paragraphs for that rule have not yet been pasted into Word desktop and compared; Microsoft does not publish how Word counts, so until then the counts follow the widely reported behaviour described here.
Where another counter will disagree with Word
- Online counters and some editors treat hyphens and slashes as word breaks, so "well-known" becomes two words and your total rises.
- A bullet or number you type at the start of a line is counted, but if Word turns it into a formatted list the marker stops counting. The workspace says how many such lines you have.
- A dash with spaces round it is a word of its own. Removing the spaces, or rewriting the sentence, changes the count.
- Text pasted from a table arrives separated by tabs. It still counts, cell by cell, because tables in the body of the case study are counted.
Worked example
Take this sentence as it might sit in a case study: "The survey of the four-storey block (about 3,200 m² built in 1987) found wet rot in 12 window frames and/or cills; see https://www.example.com/report for the photographs."
The workspace counts 26 words, and splitting on single spaces gives 26, which agrees. "four-storey", "3,200", "m²", "and/or" and the web address each count once, and "(about" counts once because the bracket sits against the word.
Now the totals. A mandatory total of 1,512 words is 12 over the 1,500 limit, even if the technical total of 3,968 leaves 32 words spare. The two totals do not share words, so those 12 words must come out of the mandatory statements.
Common mistakes
- Counting the whole template, competency names and levels included, and cutting good text that was never counted.
- Trusting an online counter that splits hyphenated words, then finding Word's total lower or higher than planned.
- Moving spare words from the technical total into the mandatory statements. The limits are separate.
- Pasting the appendices into the case study body to make them count as content. Appendices support the report and are not counted; content moved into the body is.
- Forgetting to state the case study word count at the end of the document.
Count and check your own draft
The draft workspace holds your case study, your summary of experience by competency and level, your CPD and your diary days. It counts words the published way, checks the 24 month window and the 95 to 100 percent band, and shows what is still missing. Everything stays in this browser.
Frequently asked questions
Does the competency name count in the summary of experience?
No. Only your text in the summary of experience column counts. The titles, the competency names and the levels in the first two columns of the template are left out, according to the candidate guide.
Do references and citations count?
Yes. A reference or citation you write in the summary column is part of the count, as the guide says. In the case study, anything between the start of the introduction and the end of the conclusion counts.
Does a hyphenated word count as one word or two?
One. Word counts a word as a run of characters between spaces, so well-known, and/or and 2,450 are one word each. Counters that split on hyphens give a different total.
Is there a tolerance above the limit?
The guidance does not give one. It says the counts are made in Word and that an interview can be cancelled for a word count breach, so treat each limit as a hard maximum.
Sources
Last reviewed 27 September 2026 against:
- Assessment of Professional Competence, Candidate guide, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), June 2025, amended March 2026, read 2026-09-27. Used for: the three limits, what the summary and the case study counts include and exclude, the Word count, the stated count (pages 11 and 13)
- APC submissions and assessment, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), published 10 August 2026, read 2026-09-27. Used for: the limits restated, the Word count, the total entered on upload
- Assessment of Professional Competence, Candidate guide, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), August 2026, read 2026-09-27. Used for: checked that the limits are unchanged in the newer edition
This guide is our own summary of the published documents, not legal advice and not a finding about your application; the regulator's assessors decide. If it disagrees with the current documents, the documents win. APC Draft is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or any other professional body.