diff --git a/src/dawn_native/vulkan/BackendVk.cpp b/src/dawn_native/vulkan/BackendVk.cpp
index 0a68231e7b..613f0a0126 100644
--- a/src/dawn_native/vulkan/BackendVk.cpp
+++ b/src/dawn_native/vulkan/BackendVk.cpp
@@ -231,7 +231,17 @@ namespace dawn_native { namespace vulkan {
         appInfo.applicationVersion = 0;
         appInfo.pEngineName = nullptr;
         appInfo.engineVersion = 0;
-        appInfo.apiVersion = mGlobalInfo.apiVersion;
+        // Vulkan 1.0 implementations were required to return VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER if
+        // apiVersion was larger than 1.0. Meanwhile, as long as the instance supports at least
+        // Vulkan 1.1, an application can use different versions of Vulkan with an instance than
+        // it does with a device or physical device. So we should set apiVersion to Vulkan 1.0
+        // if the instance only supports Vulkan 1.0. Otherwise we set apiVersion to Vulkan 1.2,
+        // treat 1.2 as the highest API version dawn targets.
+        if (mGlobalInfo.apiVersion == VK_MAKE_VERSION(1, 0, 0)) {
+            appInfo.apiVersion = mGlobalInfo.apiVersion;
+        } else {
+            appInfo.apiVersion = VK_MAKE_VERSION(1, 2, 0);
+        }
 
         VkInstanceCreateInfo createInfo;
         createInfo.sType = VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_INSTANCE_CREATE_INFO;