An exhaust gas purification catalyst is recovered from the sulfur poisoning more appropriately. For this purpose, an exhaust gas purification apparatus for an internal combustion engine selectively executes first control in which an air-fuel ratio of an exhaust gas allowed to flow into an exhaust gas purification catalyst is set to be not more than a theoretical air-fuel ratio to remove a sulfur component from the exhaust gas purification catalyst; and second control in which the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas allowed to flow into the exhaust gas purification catalyst is set to an air-fuel ratio that is lower than the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas set in the first control to remove the sulfur component from the exhaust gas purification catalyst; wherein the exhaust gas purification apparatus for the internal combustion engine comprises a control unit which executes any one of the first control and the second control on the basis of at least one of purification performance of the exhaust gas purification catalyst, a travel distance of a vehicle that carries the internal combustion engine, and a number of times of removal of the sulfur component from the exhaust gas purification catalyst.