The Metabetchouan River (French: Métabetchouane) is a tributary of Lac Saint-Jean in the centre of the province of Quebec, Canada.

The course of this river successively crosses the regional county municipalities (MRC) of: It ends at Desbiens, where a cave called Le trou de la Fée is located.

From the mouth of the Métabetchouane river on the south shore of lac Saint-Jean, the current crosses the latter on 22.8 km (14.2 mi) towards the northeast, then follows the course of the Saguenay River via La Petite Décharge on 172.3 km (107.1 mi) until Tadoussac where it merges with the Saint Lawrence estuary.

From the roots matabi and djiwan (spelled matapetshuan in the modern Innu orthography), it can be translated as "river that empties into a lake".

Important archaeological excavations on the banks of the river led, in the 1960s, to the discovery of a site frequented by the Amerindians since approximately 5000 years.