diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
index 3d689ff37e03a936655db74abc47c4440a4b1909..a4758857f2b956b8f6bc098115f3d68c9681532f 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ def delete_action_cable_files_skipping_action_cable
           remove_file 'config/cable.yml'
           remove_file 'app/assets/javascripts/cable.coffee'
           remove_dir 'app/channels'
-          gsub_file 'app/views/layouts/application.html.erb', /action_cable_meta_tag/, ''
+          gsub_file 'app/views/layouts/application.html.erb', /action_cable_meta_tag/, '' unless options[:api]
         end
       end
 
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
index 5b62b500e572694de215f4b98a097a92e9faf1fd..136bdd1694b4d446f4d97720515f482a11ccff4b 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
@@ -405,6 +405,18 @@ def test_generator_if_skip_action_cable_is_given
     end
   end
 
+  def test_generator_if_skip_action_cable_is_given_for_an_api_app
+    run_generator [destination_root, "--skip-action-cable", "--api"]
+    assert_file "config/application.rb", /#\s+require\s+["']action_cable\/engine["']/
+    assert_no_file "config/cable.yml"
+    assert_no_file "app/assets/javascripts/cable.coffee"
+    assert_no_file "app/channels"
+    assert_file "Gemfile" do |content|
+      assert_no_match(/em-hiredis/, content)
+      assert_no_match(/redis/, content)
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_action_cable_redis_gems
     run_generator
     assert_gem 'em-hiredis'