diff --git a/tests/Makefile.include b/tests/Makefile.include
index a9746c2ecb..9e72cfefbe 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.include
+++ b/tests/Makefile.include
@@ -34,23 +34,6 @@ endif
 ifneq ($(wildcard config-host.mak),)
 export SRC_PATH
 
-# TODO don't duplicate $(SRC_PATH)/Makefile's qapi-py here
-qapi-py = $(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/__init__.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/commands.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/common.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/doc.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/error.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/events.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/expr.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/gen.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/introspect.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/parser.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/schema.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/source.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/types.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi/visit.py \
-$(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi-gen.py
-
 # Get the list of all supported sysemu targets
 SYSEMU_TARGET_LIST := $(subst -softmmu.mak,,$(notdir \
    $(wildcard $(SRC_PATH)/default-configs/*-softmmu.mak)))
@@ -164,36 +147,13 @@ ifeq ($(CONFIG_BLOCK)$(CONFIG_REPLICATION)$(CONFIG_POSIX),yyy)
 check-unit-y += tests/test-replication$(EXESUF)
 endif
 
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-types.h
-generated-files-y += tests/include/test-qapi-types-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-visit.h
-generated-files-y += tests/include/test-qapi-visit-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-commands.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-init-commands.h
-generated-files-y += tests/include/test-qapi-commands-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-commands-sub-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-emit-events.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-events.h
-generated-files-y += tests/include/test-qapi-events-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-events-sub-sub-module.h
-generated-files-y += tests/test-qapi-introspect.h
-
 QEMU_CFLAGS += -I$(SRC_PATH)/tests -I$(SRC_PATH)/tests/qtest
 
 
 # Deps that are common to various different sets of tests below
 test-util-obj-y = libqemuutil.a
 test-qom-obj-y = $(qom-obj-y) $(test-util-obj-y)
-test-qapi-obj-y = tests/test-qapi-types.o \
-	tests/include/test-qapi-types-sub-module.o \
-	tests/test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.o \
-	tests/test-qapi-visit.o \
-	tests/include/test-qapi-visit-sub-module.o \
-	tests/test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.o \
-	tests/test-qapi-introspect.o \
-	$(test-qom-obj-y)
+test-qapi-obj-y = $(test-qom-obj-y) tests/libtestqapi.a
 benchmark-crypto-obj-$(CONFIG_BLOCK) = $(authz-obj-y) $(crypto-obj-y) $(test-qom-obj-y)
 test-crypto-obj-$(CONFIG_BLOCK) = $(authz-obj-y) $(crypto-obj-y) $(test-qom-obj-y)
 test-io-obj-$(CONFIG_BLOCK) = $(io-obj-y) $(test-crypto-obj-y)
@@ -264,42 +224,6 @@ tests/test-logging$(EXESUF): tests/test-logging.o $(test-util-obj-y)
 tests/test-replication$(EXESUF): tests/test-replication.o $(test-util-obj-y) \
 	$(test-block-obj-y)
 
-tests/test-qapi-types.c tests/test-qapi-types.h \
-tests/include/test-qapi-types-sub-module.c \
-tests/include/test-qapi-types-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.c \
-tests/test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-visit.c tests/test-qapi-visit.h \
-tests/include/test-qapi-visit-sub-module.c \
-tests/include/test-qapi-visit-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.c \
-tests/test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-commands.h tests/test-qapi-commands.c \
-tests/include/test-qapi-commands-sub-module.h \
-tests/include/test-qapi-commands-sub-module.c \
-tests/test-qapi-commands-sub-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-commands-sub-sub-module.c \
-tests/test-qapi-emit-events.c tests/test-qapi-emit-events.h \
-tests/test-qapi-events.c tests/test-qapi-events.h \
-tests/test-qapi-init-commands.c \
-tests/test-qapi-init-commands.h \
-tests/include/test-qapi-events-sub-module.c \
-tests/include/test-qapi-events-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-events-sub-sub-module.c \
-tests/test-qapi-events-sub-sub-module.h \
-tests/test-qapi-introspect.c tests/test-qapi-introspect.h: \
-tests/test-qapi-gen-timestamp ;
-tests/test-qapi-gen-timestamp: \
-		$(SRC_PATH)/tests/qapi-schema/qapi-schema-test.json \
-		$(SRC_PATH)/tests/qapi-schema/include/sub-module.json \
-		$(SRC_PATH)/tests/qapi-schema/sub-sub-module.json \
-		$(qapi-py)
-	$(call quiet-command,$(PYTHON) $(SRC_PATH)/scripts/qapi-gen.py \
-		-o tests -p "test-" $<, \
-		"GEN","$(@:%-timestamp=%)")
-	@rm -f tests/test-qapi-doc.texi
-	@>$@
-
 tests/test-string-output-visitor$(EXESUF): tests/test-string-output-visitor.o $(test-qapi-obj-y)
 tests/test-string-input-visitor$(EXESUF): tests/test-string-input-visitor.o $(test-qapi-obj-y)
 tests/test-qmp-event$(EXESUF): tests/test-qmp-event.o $(test-qapi-obj-y) tests/test-qapi-emit-events.o tests/test-qapi-events.o
@@ -532,7 +456,6 @@ check-build: build-unit
 
 check-clean:
 	rm -rf $(check-unit-y) tests/*.o tests/*/*.o $(QEMU_IOTESTS_HELPERS-y)
-	rm -f tests/test-qapi-gen-timestamp
 	rm -rf $(TESTS_VENV_DIR) $(TESTS_RESULTS_DIR)
 
 check: check-unit
diff --git a/tests/include/meson.build b/tests/include/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..835872643e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/include/meson.build
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# an extra target to workaround meson limitation on output files location
+test_qapi_outputs_extra = [
+  'test-qapi-commands-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-commands-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-events-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-events-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-types-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-types-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-visit-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-visit-sub-module.h',
+]
+
+test_qapi_outputs_extra = custom_target('QAPI test include', output: test_qapi_outputs_extra, command: 'true')
diff --git a/tests/meson.build b/tests/meson.build
index fe2c6d8e6b..3c1586f110 100644
--- a/tests/meson.build
+++ b/tests/meson.build
@@ -1,3 +1,47 @@
+test_qapi_outputs = [
+  'qapi-builtin-types.c',
+  'qapi-builtin-types.h',
+  'qapi-builtin-visit.c',
+  'qapi-builtin-visit.h',
+  'test-qapi-commands-sub-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-commands-sub-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-commands.c',
+  'test-qapi-commands.h',
+  'test-qapi-emit-events.c',
+  'test-qapi-emit-events.h',
+  'test-qapi-events-sub-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-events-sub-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-events.c',
+  'test-qapi-events.h',
+  'test-qapi-init-commands.c',
+  'test-qapi-init-commands.h',
+  'test-qapi-introspect.c',
+  'test-qapi-introspect.h',
+  'test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-types-sub-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-types.c',
+  'test-qapi-types.h',
+  'test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.c',
+  'test-qapi-visit-sub-sub-module.h',
+  'test-qapi-visit.c',
+  'test-qapi-visit.h',
+]
+
+# meson doesn't like generated output in other directories:
+subdir('include')
+
+test_qapi_files = custom_target('Test QAPI files',
+                                output: test_qapi_outputs,
+                                input: files('qapi-schema/qapi-schema-test.json',
+                                             'qapi-schema/include/sub-module.json',
+                                             'qapi-schema/sub-sub-module.json'),
+                                command: [ qapi_gen, '-o', meson.current_build_dir(),
+                                           '-b', '-p', 'test-', '@INPUT0@' ],
+                                depend_files: qapi_gen_depends)
+
+libtestqapi = static_library('testqapi', sources: [test_qapi_files, test_qapi_outputs_extra])
+testqapi = declare_dependency(link_with: libtestqapi)
+
 if have_system and 'CONFIG_POSIX' in config_host
   subdir('qemu-iotests')
 endif
