Best Alternative Artist () is an Aotearoa Music Award that honours New Zealand artists for outstanding alternative recordings.
The inaugural award was presented as Best Alternative Album in 2011 to The Naked and Famous for their album Passive Me, Aggressive You. In 2017, the award was changed to Best Alternative Artist. The change was made to all the genre-specific awards, and was to reflect the changing release climate in which full albums had become less common. Under the new rules, an artist who has released "an album OR a minimum of five tracks" can be nominated.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra have the most awards with three wins, followed by The Beths who have won it twice.