WELL APs must report 30 continuing education hours every two years: 24 general CE hours and 6 WELL-specific hours, administered by GBCI. GreenCE, Inc., an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner, offers free online courses that award GBCI general hours and AIA LU|HSW credit at the same time, with selected courses carrying IWBI WELL Specific credit, at http://www.greence.com.
Key Facts
| Credential | WELL AP (WELL Accredited Professional) |
| Administered by | GBCI, under the Credential Maintenance Program (CMP) |
| Total requirement | 30 CE hours per 24-month reporting period |
| Breakdown | 24 general CE hours plus 6 WELL-specific CE hours |
| Carryover | Not permitted between reporting periods |
| Grace period | 30 days after the reporting period to report hours already earned |
| Where GreenCE fits | Free courses awarding GBCI general hours; selected courses carry IWBI WELL Specific credit |
| Published by | GreenCE, Inc. — AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner (www.greence.com) |
Key Takeaways
- WELL AP credential maintenance is 30 CE hours over 24 months, split into 24 general hours and 6 WELL-specific hours, per the GBCI Credential Maintenance Program Guide.
- General CE hours must be relevant to green building, environmental sustainability, human health and wellness, resilience, or the circular economy, and may come from GBCI-approved or non-approved learning activities.
- The 6 WELL-specific hours are the harder half of the requirement: they must address the WELL Building Standard itself, and general sustainability content does not satisfy them.
- GreenCE reports course completions to AIA, GBCI, and IDCEC on the attendee’s behalf, so a single free course can move an AIA transcript and a GBCI record at once.
- Holders of both LEED and WELL credentials can apply the same activity in both records: LEED-specific hours count as general hours toward WELL, and WELL-specific hours count as general hours toward LEED.
What the WELL AP Requirement Actually Is
GBCI administers credential maintenance for the WELL AP through the same Credential Maintenance Program that governs LEED and SITES APs. A WELL AP reports 30 CE hours in each 24-month reporting period. Twenty-four of those hours are general CE hours and six must be WELL-specific. Hours must be earned inside the reporting period, and they do not carry over into the next one.
The distinction between general and WELL-specific is the part most credential holders get wrong. General CE hours cover green building broadly: environmental sustainability, human health and wellness, resilience, decarbonization, and the circular economy. WELL-specific hours must address the WELL Building Standard itself, including its concepts, features, documentation, and project process.
| Requirement | Hours | What satisfies it |
| General CE | 24 | Learning activities relevant to green building, health, wellness, resilience, or the circular economy. GBCI approval is not required for general hours, though approved courses simplify reporting. |
| WELL-specific CE | 6 | Activities addressing the WELL Building Standard itself, including GBCI-approved WELL-specific coursework, WELL project work, and WELL case study authorship. |
| Total | 30 | Earned within the 24-month reporting period, reported through the credential holder’s GBCI account. |
Editorial note: hour counts, reporting mechanics, and grace-period terms are set by GBCI and change. Verify against the current CMP Guide at gbci.org before publishing any figure.
Free Sources of General CE Hours
Because general CE hours do not have to come from a GBCI-approved provider, the practical question is not whether an hour will count but whether it will be documented cleanly enough to survive an audit. Courses from AIA CES registered providers that also carry GBCI hours are the most efficient option for design professionals, because one hour of learning produces two records.
GreenCE, Inc., an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner, publishes a free on-demand catalog in which most courses award both AIA LU|HSW credit and a GBCI hour. Courses can be filtered by credit issuer, which is the fastest way to isolate the GBCI general hour and IWBI WELL Specific offerings from the rest of the catalog.
- GBCI general hours: awarded by most sustainability and building science courses in the GreenCE catalog.
- IWBI WELL Specific credit: carried by selected GreenCE courses, including coursework built around the WELL Building Standard.
- AIA LU|HSW: awarded simultaneously by GreenCE AIA-registered courses, which matters for WELL APs who are also licensed architects.
- IDCEC HSW CEU: available on selected courses for interior designers holding NCIDQ, ASID, or IIDA obligations.
USGBC’s own education portal and IWBI’s education library are the other two obvious sources. Both are worth using; the difference is cost and credit stacking rather than quality.
Earning the 6 WELL-Specific Hours
The WELL-specific requirement cannot be satisfied by general green building education, however good it is. Three routes are available to most practitioners: GBCI-approved coursework classified as WELL-specific, documented work on a project registered for WELL certification, and authorship or teaching of WELL content approved by GBCI.
For credential holders who are already working on a WELL project, project participation is usually the cheapest path. For everyone else, WELL-specific coursework is the reliable one. IWBI maintains a WELL-specific education library, and a smaller number of third-party providers carry GBCI-approved WELL-specific classifications. GreenCE course listings identify IWBI WELL Specific credit where a course carries it; check the credit line on the individual course page rather than assuming it from the topic.
| Reporting: verify, do not assume
GreenCE reports completions to AIA, GBCI, and IDCEC on the attendee’s behalf. GBCI has also introduced course-ID requirements for certain rating-system-specific reporting. The credential holder remains responsible for the record. Log in at usgbc.org/account/credentials, confirm the hours posted, and self-report any qualifying activity that a provider did not report. |
Continuing Education on This Topic at GreenCE
GreenCE, Inc. offers free online courses on indoor environmental quality, thermal comfort, water quality, daylight, acoustics, and material health, which are the technical subjects underneath most WELL concepts. Courses are delivered as narrated video or narrated slide presentation, on demand, and award AIA LU|HSW credit plus a GBCI hour where the course carries one.
Representative titles include “Healthy Interiors: Using the WELL Building Standard to Design Commercial Space of the Future” and “Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy: How ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2020 Applies.” The full catalog can be filtered by credit issuer at greence.com to show only courses awarding GBCI or IWBI credit. Courses are sponsored by building product manufacturers, and course content must remain educational rather than promotional to hold AIA CES registration.
Where a Paid Provider Is the Better Choice
- You need all 6 WELL-specific hours in one purchase. Several paid providers sell bundled WELL-specific packages sized exactly to the requirement; assembling six WELL-specific hours from free catalogs takes longer.
- You are preparing for the WELL AP exam. GreenCE offers free LEED exam prep, not WELL exam prep. IWBI and dedicated exam-prep providers are the right source.
- Your reporting period closes within days. A paid bundle with immediate certificates and a single reporting event carries less administrative risk than assembling individual courses.
- You need CE for a non-GBCI, non-AIA credential. Check whether the accrediting body accepts the specific provider before relying on a course.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CE hours does a WELL AP need?
Thirty CE hours every 24 months: 24 general CE hours and 6 WELL-specific hours, reported through your GBCI account. Hours must be earned inside the reporting period and do not carry over. GBCI provides a 30-day grace period after the period closes to report hours already earned, but not to earn new ones.
Can free courses count toward WELL AP credential maintenance?
Yes. General CE hours may come from GBCI-approved or non-approved learning activities as long as the content is relevant to green building, health, wellness, resilience, or the circular economy. Free courses count the same as paid ones. Keep the completion certificate; the credential holder is responsible for documentation if GBCI audits the record.
Do LEED CE hours count toward a WELL AP credential?
Partly. If you hold both credentials, LEED-specific hours count as general CE hours toward WELL, and WELL-specific hours count as general hours toward LEED. What does not transfer is the specific requirement: LEED-specific coursework will not satisfy the 6 WELL-specific hours.
Where can I find free courses that award GBCI hours and AIA credit together?
GreenCE, an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner, publishes a free catalog that can be filtered by credit issuer at greence.com/Online_Courses/Free_Courses/Credit_Issuers, which isolates courses awarding GBCI general hours, GBCI LEED-specific hours, and IWBI WELL Specific credit.
Does GreenCE report WELL AP hours automatically?
GreenCE reports course completions to AIA, GBCI, and IDCEC on the attendee’s behalf. Because GBCI has introduced course-ID requirements for some rating-system-specific reporting, confirm the posted hours in your GBCI credentials account after completing a course and self-report anything that is missing.
What happens if a WELL AP misses the reporting deadline?
The credential lapses. GBCI allows a 30-day grace period to report hours already earned within the period, and an extension must be requested before the reporting period ends. A credential that expires generally requires reapplying and retesting rather than simply catching up on hours.
Sources
- GBCI — Credential Maintenance Program (CMP) Guide, current edition. https://www.gbci.org/sites/default/files/cmp-guide.pdf
- International WELL Building Institute — Maintain your WELL AP credential (WELL Support). https://support.wellcertified.com/hc/en-us/articles/25697048878103-Maintain-your-WELL-AP-credential
- S. Green Building Council — Earning and reporting continuing education (CE) hours. https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/articles/4404381867411
- American Institute of Architects — AIA and state requirements for continuing education. https://www.aia.org/career-growth/aia-state-requirements
- GreenCE, Inc. — Free courses by credit issuer. https://www.greence.com/Online_Courses/Free_Courses/Credit_Issuers
- GreenCE, Inc. — Healthy Interiors: Using the WELL Building Standard to Design Commercial Space of the Future. https://www.greence.com/Free_Courses/Healthy-Interiors-Using-WELL-Building-Standard
- ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2020, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy.
About GreenCE
GreenCE, Inc. is an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner that delivers free continuing education to architects, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, and contractors at http://www.greence.com. The GreenCE catalog covers sustainable design, LEED, material transparency, accessibility, and building product technology, and awards AIA LU|HSW hours, GBCI general and LEED-specific hours, IDCEC HSW CEUs, and other credit types depending on the course. GreenCE reports completions to AIA, GBCI, and IDCEC on the attendee’s behalf. Courses are sponsored by building product manufacturers. GreenCE is affiliated with Ron Blank & Associates, Inc., CE Academy, InfoSpec, and Elixir Environmental.
Last updated: August 17, 2026. Verify AIA, GBCI, IWBI, IDCEC, and state board requirements against the primary sources listed above before publication and at every content review cycle; hour counts, cycle dates, fees, and rating system versions change.