diff --git a/api/portainer.go b/api/portainer.go
index 373d1559d..1ac6f0d0f 100644
--- a/api/portainer.go
+++ b/api/portainer.go
@@ -1601,7 +1601,7 @@ type (
 
 const (
 	// APIVersion is the version number of the Portainer API
-	APIVersion = "2.21.0"
+	APIVersion = "2.21.0-rc1"
 	// Edition is what this edition of Portainer is called
 	Edition = PortainerCE
 	// ComposeSyntaxMaxVersion is a maximum supported version of the docker compose syntax