Provided is a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine which can favorably achieve a good balance between the prevention of an excessive increase in the piston temperature and the prevention of deterioration of various performances of the internal combustion engine as a result of execution of abnormal combustion suppression control, even when abnormal combustion occurs continuously or substantially continuously over a plurality of cycles. An in-cylinder pressure sensor (34) is provided to obtain the in-cylinder pressure P of an internal combustion engine (10). When continuous pre-ignition is detected using the in-cylinder pressure sensor (34), the control apparatus makes it more difficult for continuous pre-ignition suppression control to be executed when the Pmax at the time of pre-ignition is low than when the Pmax at the time of pre-ignition is high.