diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/plugin/templates/app/controllers/%namespaced_name%/application_controller.rb.tt b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/plugin/templates/app/controllers/%namespaced_name%/application_controller.rb.tt
index 7157e48c42..7fe4e5034d 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/plugin/templates/app/controllers/%namespaced_name%/application_controller.rb.tt
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/plugin/templates/app/controllers/%namespaced_name%/application_controller.rb.tt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <%= wrap_in_modules <<-rb.strip_heredoc
-  class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
+  class ApplicationController < ActionController::#{api? ? "API" : "Base"}
   end
 rb
 %>
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/plugin_generator_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/plugin_generator_test.rb
index 2f6c66cade..86a776f840 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/plugin_generator_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/plugin_generator_test.rb
@@ -556,6 +556,14 @@ class PluginGeneratorTest < Rails::Generators::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  def test_application_controller_parent_for_mountable_api_plugins
+    run_generator [destination_root, '--mountable', '--api']
+
+    assert_file "app/controllers/bukkits/application_controller.rb" do |content|
+      assert_match "ApplicationController < ActionController::API", content
+    end
+  end
+
 protected
   def action(*args, &block)
     silence(:stdout){ generator.send(*args, &block) }