A vane pump includes a rotor having slits, vanes received in the slits, a cam ring having an inner circumference cam face with which the vanes are brought into sliding contact, a side member, pump chambers formed by the rotor, the cam ring, and adjacent vanes, and back pressure chambers formed in the slits by the vanes. In the vane pump, the side member is provided with a back pressure opening portion opening at a sliding-contact surface in sliding contact with the rotor, the back pressure opening portion being configured to communicate with the back pressure chambers, and a protruding opening portion protruding along the rotating direction of the rotor from an end portion of the back pressure opening portion on the communication-finishing side. An inner-side inner circumferential surface of the protruding opening portion is connected to an inner-side inner circumferential surface of the back pressure opening portion.