A medium feeding apparatus includes a feeding roller which feeds a medium unwound from a roll body around which the medium is wound, a roll motor which applies torque for rotating the roll body to the roll body, and a roll control portion which controls the roll motor at the time of a feeding operation based on effective tension calculated by acquiring a feeding amount of the medium fed at each of a plurality of acquiring timings included in a pre-feeding operation, which is a feeding operation performed in advance, acquiring tension applied to the medium between the roll body and the feeding roller between a plurality of the acquiring timings, and weighting a plurality of the acquired tensions with the corresponding feeding amount.