The 2012 MLS Cup Playoffs was the seventeenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. The tournament began on October 31, and culminated on December 1, 2012 with MLS Cup 2012, the seventeenth league championship for MLS, won by the Los Angeles Galaxy 3–1 over Houston Dynamo. It was the second year that the playoffs included ten teams, and the first playoff series since 2006 in which teams cannot cross-conference brackets. The top five teams in both the Eastern and Western conferences of the league earned berths, with the top three clubs in each conference earning direct byes to the conference semifinals. The fourth and fifth-place finishers of both conferences played in a single-elimination play-in match.

MLS Cup 2012, the 17th edition of Major League Soccer's championship match, was a rematch between the Houston Dynamo and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 2012 season. The soccer match was played at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on December 1, 2012. Los Angeles defeated Houston 3–1 giving the Galaxy their second-straight league title and their fourth overall.