diff --git a/esphome/core/defines.h b/esphome/core/defines.h
index 0c888933bf..a2a967985e 100644
--- a/esphome/core/defines.h
+++ b/esphome/core/defines.h
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #define ESPHOME_PROJECT_VERSION_30 "v2"
 #define ESPHOME_VARIANT "ESP32"
 #define ESPHOME_DEBUG_SCHEDULER
+#define ESPHOME_DEBUG_API
 
 // Default threading model for static analysis (ESP32 is multi-threaded with atomics)
 #define ESPHOME_THREAD_MULTI_ATOMICS
diff --git a/tests/components/api/common-base.yaml b/tests/components/api/common-base.yaml
index c766b61b13..c24045b28a 100644
--- a/tests/components/api/common-base.yaml
+++ b/tests/components/api/common-base.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 esphome:
+  platformio_options:
+    build_flags:
+      - -DESPHOME_DEBUG_API
   on_boot:
     then:
       - wait_until: