diff --git a/charts/ingress-nginx/README.md b/charts/ingress-nginx/README.md
index 49bb38273b..5e7fa85a19 100644
--- a/charts/ingress-nginx/README.md
+++ b/charts/ingress-nginx/README.md
@@ -456,6 +456,7 @@ Kubernetes: `>=1.20.0-0`
 | controller.watchIngressWithoutClass | bool | `false` | Process Ingress objects without ingressClass annotation/ingressClassName field Overrides value for --watch-ingress-without-class flag of the controller binary Defaults to false |
 | defaultBackend.affinity | object | `{}` |  |
 | defaultBackend.autoscaling.annotations | object | `{}` |  |
+| defaultBackend.autoscaling.apiVersion | string | `"autoscaling/v2"` |  |
 | defaultBackend.autoscaling.enabled | bool | `false` |  |
 | defaultBackend.autoscaling.maxReplicas | int | `2` |  |
 | defaultBackend.autoscaling.minReplicas | int | `1` |  |
diff --git a/charts/ingress-nginx/templates/default-backend-hpa.yaml b/charts/ingress-nginx/templates/default-backend-hpa.yaml
index 594d26525b..f9ae0b2762 100644
--- a/charts/ingress-nginx/templates/default-backend-hpa.yaml
+++ b/charts/ingress-nginx/templates/default-backend-hpa.yaml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 {{- if and .Values.defaultBackend.enabled .Values.defaultBackend.autoscaling.enabled }}
-apiVersion: autoscaling/v2beta1
+apiVersion: {{ .Values.defaultBackend.autoscaling.apiVersion }}
 kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
 metadata:
   labels:
diff --git a/charts/ingress-nginx/values.yaml b/charts/ingress-nginx/values.yaml
index 202cd4a232..031078499f 100644
--- a/charts/ingress-nginx/values.yaml
+++ b/charts/ingress-nginx/values.yaml
@@ -827,6 +827,7 @@ defaultBackend:
     #    emptyDir: {}
 
     autoscaling:
+        apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
         annotations: {}
         enabled: false
         minReplicas: 1