In a vehicle seat reclining apparatus, a plurality of pawls having outer gears which are disengageably engaged with an inner gear provided on an internal surface of an upper arm are constituted by a first pawl and second pawls. The first pawl has an inner cam portion which is engaged with a cam surface provided on an outer circumference of a cam, a pawl grooved cam portion which is engaged with an engaging protrusion provided on a side surface of the cam, and an engaging portion which is brought into engagement with a protruding portion provided on the internal surface of the upper arm when the upper arm is pivotally moved a predetermined angle relative to a lower arm. The second pawls have engaging protrusions engaged with release plate grooved cam portions provided in a release plate.