An overcurrent protection apparatus that protects, from overcurrent, a load drive system including a load circuit having an electric load and a semiconductor switch electrically connected to the load circuit so as to control a drive of the load circuit is provided. The overcurrent protection apparatus includes: an energization state acquisition part that is configured to acquire an energization state of load current flowing through the semiconductor switch and the load circuit when the semiconductor switch is ON; a change part that is configured to change an acquisition condition of the energization state at the energization state acquisition part in accordance with a driving state of the load circuit; and a protection operator that is configured to execute overcurrent protective operation of protecting the load drive system from the overcurrent based on the energization state acquired by the energization state acquisition part.