diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 29643c7b84..990c09b611 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bro-path-dev.csh
      "setenv PATH \"${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/src\":$PATH\n")
 
 file(STRINGS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/VERSION" VERSION LIMIT_COUNT 1)
+execute_process(COMMAND grep "^#define  *BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION"
+                INPUT_FILE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/plugin/Plugin.h
+                OUTPUT_VARIABLE API_VERSION
+                OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
+string(REGEX REPLACE "^#define.*VERSION *" "" API_VERSION "${API_VERSION}")
 
 string(REPLACE "." " " version_numbers ${VERSION})
 separate_arguments(version_numbers)
@@ -47,9 +52,9 @@ list(GET version_numbers 0 VERSION_MAJOR)
 list(GET version_numbers 1 VERSION_MINOR)
 set(VERSION_MAJ_MIN "${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}")
 
-set(VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION}")
+set(VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION}_plugin_${API_VERSION}")
 string(REGEX REPLACE "-[0-9]*$" "_git" VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION_C_IDENT}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE "[^a-zA-Z0-9_]" "_" VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION_C_IDENT}")
+string(REGEX REPLACE "[^a-zA-Z0-9_\$]" "_" VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION_C_IDENT}")
 
 if(${ENABLE_DEBUG})
     set(VERSION_C_IDENT "${VERSION_C_IDENT}_debug")
diff --git a/src/plugin/Manager.cc b/src/plugin/Manager.cc
index 104bcfbdd5..a6c564d4f2 100644
--- a/src/plugin/Manager.cc
+++ b/src/plugin/Manager.cc
@@ -243,10 +243,6 @@ bool Manager::ActivateDynamicPluginInternal(const std::string& name, bool ok_if_
 
 			plugins_by_path.insert(std::make_pair(normalize_path(dir), current_plugin));
 
-			if ( current_plugin->APIVersion() != BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION )
-				reporter->FatalError("plugin's API version does not match Bro (expected %d, got %d in %s)",
-						     BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION, current_plugin->APIVersion(), path);
-
 			// We execute the pre-script initialization here; this in
 			// fact could be *during* script initialization if we got
 			// triggered via @load-plugin.
diff --git a/src/plugin/Plugin.cc b/src/plugin/Plugin.cc
index 7af9b9dfee..f54749f837 100644
--- a/src/plugin/Plugin.cc
+++ b/src/plugin/Plugin.cc
@@ -242,11 +242,6 @@ VersionNumber Plugin::Version() const
 	return config.version;
 	}
 
-int Plugin::APIVersion() const
-	{
-	return config.api_version;
-	}
-
 bool Plugin::DynamicPlugin() const
 	{
 	return dynamic;
diff --git a/src/plugin/Plugin.h b/src/plugin/Plugin.h
index 37f2064644..c00831d1fd 100644
--- a/src/plugin/Plugin.h
+++ b/src/plugin/Plugin.h
@@ -13,10 +13,9 @@
 #include "iosource/Component.h"
 #include "logging/WriterBackend.h"
 
-// We allow to override this externally for testing purposes.
-#ifndef BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION
-#define BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION 5
-#endif
+// Increase this when making incompatible changes to the plugin API. Note
+// that the constant is never used in C code. It's picked up on by CMake.
+#define BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION 6
 
 #define BRO_PLUGIN_BRO_VERSION BRO_VERSION_FUNCTION
 
@@ -103,14 +102,12 @@ public:
 
 private:
 	friend class Plugin;
-	int api_version;	// Current BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION. Automatically set.
 };
 
 inline Configuration::Configuration()
 		{
 		name = "";
 		description = "";
-		api_version = BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION;
 		bro_version = 0;
 		}
 
@@ -451,15 +448,6 @@ public:
 	 **/
 	const std::string& PluginPath() const;
 
-	/**
-	 * Returns the internal version of the Bro API that this plugin
-	 * relies on. Only plugins that match Bro's current API version can
-	 * be used. For statically compiled plugins this is automatically the
-	 * case, but dynamically loaded plugins may cause a mismatch if they
-	 * were compiled for a different Bro version.
-	 */
-	int APIVersion() const;
-
 	/**
 	 * Returns a list of all components the plugin provides.
 	 */
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/plugins.api-version-mismatch/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/plugins.api-version-mismatch/output
deleted file mode 100644
index 04f3cdd3a2..0000000000
--- a/testing/btest/Baseline/plugins.api-version-mismatch/output
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-fatal error in /home/robin/bro/plugins/scripts/base/init-bare.bro, line 1: plugin's API version does not match Bro (expected 2, got 42 in /home/robin/bro/plugins/testing/btest/.tmp/plugins.api-version-mismatch/build//lib/XXX)
diff --git a/testing/btest/plugins/api-version-mismatch.sh b/testing/btest/plugins/api-version-mismatch.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 2483582359..0000000000
--- a/testing/btest/plugins/api-version-mismatch.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-# @TEST-EXEC: ${DIST}/aux/bro-aux/plugin-support/init-plugin -u . Demo Foo
-# @TEST-EXEC: bash %INPUT
-# @TEST-EXEC: ./configure --bro-dist=${DIST} && make
-# @TEST-EXEC-FAIL: BRO_PLUGIN_PATH=`pwd` bro -NN Demo::Foo >tmp 2>&1
-# @TEST-EXEC: cat tmp | sed 's/Demo-Foo[-a-zA-Z0-9_.]*/XXX/' >>output
-# @TEST-EXEC: TEST_DIFF_CANONIFIER=$SCRIPTS/diff-remove-abspath btest-diff output
-
-( echo '#define BRO_PLUGIN_API_VERSION 42'; cat src/Plugin.cc; ) >src/Plugin.cc.tmp && mv src/Plugin.cc.tmp src/Plugin.cc