diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index 86ca441263e..34d1f5a9f46 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/, https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/
 BugReports: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues
 Encoding: UTF-8
 Language: en-US
-SystemRequirements: C++17; for AWS S3 support on Linux, libcurl and openssl (optional);
+SystemRequirements: C++20; for AWS S3 support on Linux, libcurl and openssl (optional);
     cmake >= 3.26 (build-time only, and only for full source build)
 Biarch: true
 Imports:
diff --git a/r/README.md b/r/README.md
index 1ab9206f119..c5cc647ec6b 100644
--- a/r/README.md
+++ b/r/README.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ There are some special cases to note:
 
 - On Linux the installation process can sometimes be more involved because CRAN does not host binaries for Linux. For more information please see the [installation guide](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/articles/install.html).
 
-- If you are compiling arrow from source, please note that as of version 10.0.0, arrow requires C++17 to build. This has implications on Windows and CentOS 7. For Windows users it means you need to be running an R version of 4.0 or later. On CentOS 7, it means you need to install a newer compiler than the default system compiler gcc. See the [installation details article](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/articles/developers/install_details.html) for guidance.
+- If you are compiling arrow from source, please note that as of version 22.0.0, arrow requires C++20 to build. This has implications on Windows and CentOS 7. For Windows users it means you need to be running an R version of 4.1 or later. See the [installation details article](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/articles/developers/install_details.html) for guidance.
 
 - Development versions of arrow are released nightly. For information on how to install nightly builds please see the [installing nightly builds](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/articles/install_nightly.html) article.
 
diff --git a/r/configure b/r/configure
index f64a3673f97..74f3f359d83 100755
--- a/r/configure
+++ b/r/configure
@@ -86,10 +86,10 @@ if [ "$ARROW_R_DEV" = "true" ] && [ -f "data-raw/codegen.R" ]; then
   ${R_HOME}/bin/Rscript data-raw/codegen.R
 fi
 
-# Arrow requires C++17, so check for it
-if [ ! "`${R_HOME}/bin/R CMD config CXX17`" ]; then
+# Arrow requires C++20, so check for it
+if [ ! "`${R_HOME}/bin/R CMD config CXX20`" ]; then
   echo "------------------------- NOTE ---------------------------"
-  echo "Cannot install arrow: a C++17 compiler is required."
+  echo "Cannot install arrow: a C++20 compiler is required."
   echo "See https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/articles/install.html"
   echo "---------------------------------------------------------"
   exit 1
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ set_pkg_vars () {
   # match the substring. However, expr always outputs the number of matched characters
   # to stdout, to avoid noise in the log we redirect the output to /dev/null
   if [ "$UNAME" = "Darwin" ] && expr $(sw_vers -productVersion) : '10\.13' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    # avoid C++17 availability warnings on macOS < 11
+    # avoid C++20 availability warnings on macOS < 11
     PKG_CFLAGS="$PKG_CFLAGS -D_LIBCPP_DISABLE_AVAILABILITY"
   fi
 }
@@ -408,11 +408,11 @@ else
 fi
 
 # Test that we can compile something with those flags
-CXX17="`${R_HOME}/bin/R CMD config CXX17` -E"
-CXX17FLAGS=`"${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX17FLAGS`
-CXX17STD=`"${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX17STD`
+CXX20="`${R_HOME}/bin/R CMD config CXX20` -E"
+CXX20FLAGS=`"${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX20FLAGS`
+CXX20STD=`"${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX20STD`
 CPPFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CPPFLAGS`
-TEST_CMD="${CXX17} ${CPPFLAGS} ${PKG_CFLAGS} ${CXX17FLAGS} ${CXX17STD} -xc++ -"
+TEST_CMD="${CXX20} ${CPPFLAGS} ${PKG_CFLAGS} ${CXX20FLAGS} ${CXX20STD} -xc++ -"
 TEST_ERROR=$(echo "#include $PKG_TEST_HEADER" | ${TEST_CMD} -o /dev/null 2>&1)
 
 if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
diff --git a/r/configure.win b/r/configure.win
index 433ef28439a..50d3e70081d 100755
--- a/r/configure.win
+++ b/r/configure.win
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ set_pkg_vars () {
   # match the substring. However, expr always outputs the number of matched characters
   # to stdout, to avoid noise in the log we redirect the output to /dev/null
   if [ "$UNAME" = "Darwin" ] && expr $(sw_vers -productVersion) : '10\.13' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    # avoid C++17 availability warnings on macOS < 11
+    # avoid C++20 availability warnings on macOS < 11
     PKG_CFLAGS="$PKG_CFLAGS -D_LIBCPP_DISABLE_AVAILABILITY"
   fi
 }
diff --git a/r/src/Makevars.in b/r/src/Makevars.in
index af0826faacb..1b7ad08e1cb 100644
--- a/r/src/Makevars.in
+++ b/r/src/Makevars.in
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ PKG_CPPFLAGS=@cflags@
 # https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39191
 # https://www.mail-archive.com/gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org/msg534862.html
 # PKG_CXXFLAGS=$(CXX_VISIBILITY)
-CXX_STD=CXX17
+CXX_STD=CXX20
 PKG_LIBS=@libs@
 
 all: $(SHLIB) purify
diff --git a/r/src/Makevars.ucrt b/r/src/Makevars.ucrt
index a91dedc2d55..b72ed64d98e 100644
--- a/r/src/Makevars.ucrt
+++ b/r/src/Makevars.ucrt
@@ -19,4 +19,4 @@ CRT=-ucrt
 include Makevars.win
 
 # XXX for some reason, this variable doesn't seem propagated from Makevars.win
-CXX_STD=CXX17
+CXX_STD=CXX20
diff --git a/r/tools/nixlibs.R b/r/tools/nixlibs.R
index 9d0a2604682..f4ccb4956a8 100644
--- a/r/tools/nixlibs.R
+++ b/r/tools/nixlibs.R
@@ -310,11 +310,11 @@ compile_test_program <- function(code) {
     openssl_dir <- paste0("-I", openssl_root_dir, "/include")
   }
   runner <- paste(
-    R_CMD_config("CXX17"),
+    R_CMD_config("CXX20"),
     openssl_dir,
     R_CMD_config("CPPFLAGS"),
-    R_CMD_config("CXX17FLAGS"),
-    R_CMD_config("CXX17STD"),
+    R_CMD_config("CXX20FLAGS"),
+    R_CMD_config("CXX20STD"),
     "-E",
     "-xc++"
   )
@@ -565,8 +565,11 @@ build_libarrow <- function(src_dir, dst_dir) {
     # is found, it will be used by the libarrow build, and this does
     # not affect how R compiles the arrow bindings.
     CC = sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CC")),
-    CXX = paste(sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CXX17")), R_CMD_config("CXX17STD")),
-    # CXXFLAGS = R_CMD_config("CXX17FLAGS"), # We don't want the same debug symbols
+    CXX = paste(
+      sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CXX20")),
+      R_CMD_config("CXX20STD")
+    ),
+    # CXXFLAGS = R_CMD_config("CXX20FLAGS"), # We don't want the same debug symbols
     LDFLAGS = R_CMD_config("LDFLAGS"),
     N_JOBS = ncores
   )
diff --git a/r/vignettes/install.Rmd b/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
index 69780bd64df..d9cdcc3885c 100644
--- a/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
+++ b/r/vignettes/install.Rmd
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ but there are a few things to note.
 
 ### Compilers
 
-As of version 10.0.0, arrow requires a C++17 compiler to build.
-For `gcc`, this generally means version 7 or newer. Most contemporary Linux
+As of version 22.0.0, arrow requires a C++20 compiler to build.
+For `gcc`, this generally means version 10 or newer. Most contemporary Linux
 distributions have a new enough compiler; however, CentOS 7 is a notable
 exception, as it ships with gcc 4.8.