In a braking force control apparatus which controls a braking force applied to a vehicle based on a relation thereof with an obstacle ahead of the vehicle, irrespective of a braking operation of a driver, a lateral force is predicted which can be generated in cases where avoidance steering is carried out by the driver, in order to avoid an obstacle which has been detected, and an actual braking force actually applied to a longitudinal direction of the vehicle is limited in accordance with a braking force which can be applied in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and which is calculated based on the lateral force thus predicted. According to this, in the braking force control apparatus which controls the braking force of the vehicle, the lateral force for avoiding a collision with the obstacle by means of steering is obtained.