The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia that also serves as a qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The 1980 AFC Youth Championship had a qualification stage for first time.

Currently, it consists of two stages, similar to the AFC's other Asian Championship competitions.

The AFC have proposed switching the tournament from under-19 to under-20 starting from 2023.

4 Not an AFC member: participated in tournament as part of intercontinental play-off to qualify for the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship.