An article transfer apparatus includes a holding portion, a driving portion that moves the holding portion, a control unit, and a reference detection portion that detects a reference position of a target article held by the holding portion. The control unit performs reference detection control to detect, by the reference detection portion, the reference position in a state in which the target article is lifted, determination control to determine a positional relationship between the holding portion and the reference position based on a result of detection by the reference detection control, and position calculation control to calculate, based on the positional relationship determined by the determination control, a movement destination position that is a position, of the holding portion at the movement destination, at which an outer edge of the target article held by the holding portion fits within a movement region.