Acetic acid has been used as a solvent in the process of manufacturing terephthalic acid. Although the used acetic acid has been mainly separated and recovered through the distillation process, adsorption process can be applied to recover a small amount of acetic acid remaining in the stream after the distillation process. In this study, activated carbon was selected as an adsorbent for acetic acid and the effects of temperature and acid treatment on adsorption capacity were investigated. The adsorption capacities of activated carbon for acetic acid were 0.176 mmol/g at 303 K and 0.118 mmol/g at 343 K, respectively. Adsorption capacity decreased with increasing temperature. The acid treatment of the activated carbon induced the increase in adsorption capacity, which was ascribed to increase in surface functional groups such as phenolic hydroxyl groups and carboxilic acid groups on the carbon surface. In the results of acetic acid desorption, 89% of adsorbed acetic acid was desorbed from activated carbon.