diff --git a/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.cc b/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.cc
index 86ac22db358da0da38e76f2ded3c1eeb9891ea67..e96de11afda52b9f71b03422d08de73d5c3a7288 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.cc
+++ b/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.cc
@@ -71,4 +71,8 @@ namespace pulsar {
         keyValue->set_value(value);
         metadata.mutable_properties()->AddAllocated(keyValue);
     }
+
+    void MessageImpl::setPartitionKey(const std::string& partitionKey) {
+        metadata.set_partition_key(partitionKey);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.h b/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.h
index e4d77c71f41f5b9c0aa6c93d0490acdbb1f0c61e..a6681de4a802f789ded6cfd80f9a177a0654cedf 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.h
+++ b/pulsar-client-cpp/lib/MessageImpl.h
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ private:
     void setReplicationClusters(const std::vector<std::string>& clusters);
     void setProperty(const std::string& name, const std::string& value);
     void disableReplication(bool flag);
+    void setPartitionKey(const std::string& partitionKey);
     Message::StringMap properties_;
 };