diff --git a/checks.d/apache.py b/checks.d/apache.py
index 4879f9919c..211a6d29c0 100644
--- a/checks.d/apache.py
+++ b/checks.d/apache.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import urllib2
+import base64
 
 from util import headers
 from checks import AgentCheck
@@ -35,6 +36,10 @@ def check(self, instance):
         tags = instance.get('tags', [])
         req = urllib2.Request(url, None,
             headers(self.agentConfig))
+        if 'apache_user' in instance and 'apache_password' in instance:
+            auth_str = '%s:%s' % (instance['apache_user'], instance['apache_password'])
+            encoded_auth_str = base64.encodestring(auth_str)
+            req.add_header("Authorization", "Basic %s" % encoded_auth_str)
         request = urllib2.urlopen(req)
         response = request.read()
 
diff --git a/conf.d/apache.yaml.example b/conf.d/apache.yaml.example
index 6966a708d5..b645d3b1c5 100644
--- a/conf.d/apache.yaml.example
+++ b/conf.d/apache.yaml.example
@@ -2,5 +2,7 @@ init_config:
 
 instances:
     -   apache_status_url: http://example.com/server-status?auto
+        apache_user: example_user
+        apache_password: example_password
         tags:
-            -   instance:foo
\ No newline at end of file
+            -   instance: foo