diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/6839-promoxer-tokens.yml b/changelogs/fragments/6839-promoxer-tokens.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a6013a792b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/6839-promoxer-tokens.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - proxmox module utils - add logic to detect whether an old Promoxer complains about the ``token_name`` and ``token_value`` parameters and provide a better error message when that happens (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/6839, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/5371).
diff --git a/plugins/doc_fragments/proxmox.py b/plugins/doc_fragments/proxmox.py
index 148b266222..4972da4985 100644
--- a/plugins/doc_fragments/proxmox.py
+++ b/plugins/doc_fragments/proxmox.py
@@ -29,11 +29,13 @@ options:
   api_token_id:
     description:
       - Specify the token ID.
+      - Requires C(proxmoxer>=1.1.0) to work.
     type: str
     version_added: 1.3.0
   api_token_secret:
     description:
       - Specify the token secret.
+      - Requires C(proxmoxer>=1.1.0) to work.
     type: str
     version_added: 1.3.0
   validate_certs:
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/proxmox.py b/plugins/module_utils/proxmox.py
index 09e3341780..bb3912d1bb 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/proxmox.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/proxmox.py
@@ -100,6 +100,8 @@ class ProxmoxAnsible(object):
         if api_password:
             auth_args['password'] = api_password
         else:
+            if self.version() < LooseVersion('1.1.0'):
+                self.module.fail_json('Using "token_name" and "token_value" require proxmoxer>=1.1.0')
             auth_args['token_name'] = api_token_id
             auth_args['token_value'] = api_token_secret