Asian/Pacific American (APA) or Asian/Pacific Islander (API) or Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) or Asian American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) is a term sometimes used in the United States when including both Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs defined Asian-Pacific Islander as "A person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East (i.e. East and Southeast Asia), Indian subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. The National Park Service says AAPI 'history and heritage include experiences of people with cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions' from countries like China, India, and Japan, among others.

This area includes China, Japan, Ryukyus, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Samoa, Thailand, and Vietnam; and in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan."

"Asian or Pacific Islander" was an option to indicate race and ethnicity in the United States censuses in the 1990 and 2000 censuses as well as in several Census Bureau studies in between, including Current Population Surveys reports and updates between 1994 and 2002. A 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive separated the "Asian or Pacific Islander" racial category into two categories: "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander." Following this change, the U.S. Census Bureau defined Asian as "a person having origins in any of the original people of the Far East, for example, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam." The U.S. Census Bureau defined Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander as "a person having origins in any of the original people of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands." The map of Micronesian, Polynesian, and Melanesian groups, courtesy of L.A-based organization Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), reflects who is considered Pacific Islander per federal guidelines.

The term is used in reference to Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, the first ten days of May, established in 1978 by a joint resolution in the United States Congress. The commemorative week was expanded to a month (Asian Pacific American Heritage Month) by Congress in 1992. The month of May was chosen to celebrate the first immigration of Japanese Americans on May 7, 1843, and to honor the Chinese Americans who contributed to the transcontinental railroad which was completed on May 10, 1869.

The federal government defines the term AAPI to include "all people of Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins to the countries, states, jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of these geographic regions."

The term is also used by several state boards and commissions, including in Washington, Michigan, Maryland, and Connecticut. The term is also used in the names of several non-profit groups, such as the A|P|A History Collective, Center for Asian Pacific American Women, Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, and National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. Asian Pacific Americans are listed as a group on the United States Army website.

Previous to the 1960s, the only term used to refer to Americans with ancestry in Asia was "orientals." The pan-racial identity Asian American was created in the 1960s. Chinese American, Filipino American, and Japanese American college students in the San Francisco Bay Area were concerned with the living conditions in primarily Asian American residential areas, and took inspiration from the advances made by the Black Civil Rights Movement. Asian American college students also fought for the inclusion of their stories in college curriculum.