diff --git a/include/spdk/io_channel.h b/include/spdk/io_channel.h
index aea084a75..996037dec 100644
--- a/include/spdk/io_channel.h
+++ b/include/spdk/io_channel.h
@@ -78,6 +78,8 @@ void spdk_free_thread(void);
 /**
  * \brief Get a handle to the current thread. This handle may be passed
  * to other threads and used as the target of spdk_thread_send_msg().
+ *
+ * \sa spdk_io_channel_get_thread()
  */
 struct spdk_thread *spdk_get_thread(void);
 
@@ -140,6 +142,11 @@ void spdk_put_io_channel(struct spdk_io_channel *ch);
  */
 void *spdk_io_channel_get_ctx(struct spdk_io_channel *ch);
 
+/**
+ * \brief Returns the spdk_thread associated with an I/O channel.
+ */
+struct spdk_thread *spdk_io_channel_get_thread(struct spdk_io_channel *ch);
+
 /**
  * \brief Call 'fn' on each channel associated with io_device. This happens
  * asynchronously, so fn may be called after spdk_for_each_channel returns.
diff --git a/lib/util/io_channel.c b/lib/util/io_channel.c
index 8d1f30f62..5a3609cc4 100644
--- a/lib/util/io_channel.c
+++ b/lib/util/io_channel.c
@@ -296,6 +296,12 @@ spdk_io_channel_get_ctx(struct spdk_io_channel *ch)
 	return (uint8_t *)ch + sizeof(*ch);
 }
 
+struct spdk_thread *
+spdk_io_channel_get_thread(struct spdk_io_channel *ch)
+{
+	return ch->thread;
+}
+
 struct call_channel {
 	void *io_device;
 	spdk_channel_msg fn;