diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/389-api-version.yml b/changelogs/fragments/389-api-version.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f75097a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/389-api-version.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "Docker SDK for Python based modules and plugins - if the API version is specified as an option, use that one to validate API version requirements of module/plugin options instead of the latest API version supported by the Docker daemon. This also avoids one unnecessary API call per module/plugin (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.docker/pull/389)."
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/common.py b/plugins/module_utils/common.py
index e9d7c378..3882a014 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/common.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/common.py
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ class AnsibleDockerClientBase(Client):
 
         try:
             super(AnsibleDockerClientBase, self).__init__(**self._connect_params)
-            self.docker_api_version_str = self.version()['ApiVersion']
+            self.docker_api_version_str = self.api_version
         except APIError as exc:
             self.fail("Docker API error: %s" % exc)
         except Exception as exc: