The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It includes Gateshead, Rowlands Gill, Whickham, Blaydon, Ryton, Felling, Birtley, Pelaw, Dunston and Low Fell. The borough forms part of the Tyneside conurbation, centred on Newcastle upon Tyne. At the 2021 census, the borough had a population of 196,154.

It is bordered by the local authority areas of Newcastle upon Tyne to the north, Northumberland to the west, County Durham to the south, Sunderland to the south-east, and South Tyneside to the east. The council is a member of the North East Combined Authority.

The town of Gateshead was an ancient borough, having been granted a charter in 1164 from Hugh Pudsey, the Bishop of Durham. The borough's functions were relatively limited until 1836, when it was made a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. When elected county councils were created in 1889, Gateshead was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a county borough, independent from the new Durham County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Durham.

The modern borough of Gateshead was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as one of five metropolitan boroughs within the new county of Tyne and Wear. The borough covered the whole area of five former districts and part of a sixth, which were all abolished at the same time:

Aside from Gateshead, the other districts had all been lower-tier district authorities subordinate to Durham County Council prior to the 1974 reforms.

From 1974 until 1986 the borough council was a lower-tier district authority, with Tyne and Wear County Council providing county-level services. The county council was abolished in 1986, since when the borough council has provided both district-level and county-level services, as the old county borough of Gateshead had done prior to 1974. Some functions are provided across Tyne and Wear by joint committees with the other districts. The county of Tyne and Wear continues to exist as a ceremonial county for the purposes of lieutenancy, but has had no administrative functions since 1986.

Since 1986, Gateshead Council has provided both district-level and county-level functions, with some services being provided through joint arrangements with the other Tyne and Wear councils. In 2024 a combined authority was established covering Gateshead, County Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland, called the North East Mayoral Combined Authority. It is chaired by the directly elected Mayor of the North East and oversees the delivery of certain strategic functions across the area.

There is one civil parish in the borough at Lamesley, which forms an additional tier of local government for its area; the rest of the borough is unparished. Birtley was also a civil parish with a town council until it was abolished in 2006.