Optimal channel switching is proposed for average capacity maximization in the presence of average and peak power constraints. A necessary and sufficient condition is derived in order to determine when the proposed optimal channel switching approach can or cannot outperform the optimal single channel approach, which performs no channel switching. Also, it is stated that the optimal channel switching solution can be realized by channel switching between at most two different channels. In addition, a low-complexity optimization problem is derived in order to obtain the optimal channel switching solution. Numerical examples are provided to exemplify the derived theoretical results. © 2014 IEEE.