diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7a79acb9..8959ec21 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
         'alchemlyb>=2.0.0',
         'pyyaml',
         'seaborn',
-        'matplotlib',
+        'matplotlib<=3.8.4',
         'pyemma',
         'mpi4py'
     ],