diff --git a/packages/vinext/src/routing/pages-router.ts b/packages/vinext/src/routing/pages-router.ts
index 2b0193a1..8ca88696 100644
--- a/packages/vinext/src/routing/pages-router.ts
+++ b/packages/vinext/src/routing/pages-router.ts
@@ -72,8 +72,13 @@ async function scanPageRoutes(
     "**/*",
     pagesDir,
     matcher.extensions,
-    (name: string) => name === "api" || name.startsWith("_"),
+    (name: string) => name.startsWith("_"),
   )) {
+    // Ignore top-level pages/api/* only (nested */api/* directories are valid page routes)
+    if (file === "api" || file.startsWith(`api${path.sep}`)) {
+      continue;
+    }
+
     const route = fileToRoute(file, pagesDir, matcher);
     if (route) routes.push(route);
   }
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/pages-basic/pages/blog/api/index.tsx b/tests/fixtures/pages-basic/pages/blog/api/index.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fdd38354
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/pages-basic/pages/blog/api/index.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+export default function BlogApiPage() {
+  return <div>Blog API page route</div>;
+}
diff --git a/tests/routing.test.ts b/tests/routing.test.ts
index 71a9ffb2..9f00d8be 100644
--- a/tests/routing.test.ts
+++ b/tests/routing.test.ts
@@ -57,6 +57,15 @@ describe("pagesRouter - route discovery", () => {
     expect(patterns).not.toContain("/_document");
     expect(patterns).not.toContain("/_error");
   });
+
+  it("keeps nested api directories as page routes", async () => {
+    const routes = await pagesRouter(FIXTURE_DIR);
+
+    const nestedApiRoute = routes.find((r) => r.pattern === "/blog/api");
+    expect(nestedApiRoute).toBeDefined();
+    expect(nestedApiRoute!.filePath).toContain(path.join("blog", "api", "index.tsx"));
+  });
+
 });
 
 describe("matchRoute - URL matching", () => {