diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 48f086b3..2a33af61 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -29,15 +29,17 @@ jobs:
         python-version: [3.7, 3.8, 3.9]
         # Only test the latest major release of Sphinx because otherwise we need to
         # keep multiple versions of regression tests on file and this creates lots of
-        # noise in the tests.
-        sphinx: [">=6,<7"]
+        # noise in the tests. Pinning it to <6 atm as docutils 0.18, 0.19 needs a
+        # patch fix for HTML https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/patches/195/,
+        # increase to >=6,<7 when 0.20 is released
+        sphinx: [">=5,<6"]
         include:
         - os: windows-latest
           python-version: 3.9
-          sphinx: ">=6,<7"
+          sphinx: ">=5,<6"
         - os: macos-latest
           python-version: 3.9
-          sphinx: ">=6,<7"
+          sphinx: ">=5,<6"
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
 
     steps:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 78b68068..b1e4a904 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.7"
 dependencies = [
   "sphinx>=4,<7",
-  "docutils==0.17.1", # docutils 0.18, 0.19 need a patch fix https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/patches/195/, un-pin when 0.20 is released.
   "pydata-sphinx-theme@git+https://github.com/pydata/pydata-sphinx-theme#egg=main",
 ]
 
@@ -61,12 +60,12 @@ doc = [
     "sphinx-examples",
     "sphinx-copybutton",
     "sphinx-tabs<=3.4.0", # sphinx-tabs 3.4.1 needs docutils >.17, which would conflict with our pin above
+    "docutils==0.17.1", # docutils 0.18, 0.19 need a patch fix https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/patches/195/, un-pin when 0.20 is released
     "sphinx-togglebutton",
     "sphinx-thebe",
     "sphinxcontrib-bibtex",
     "sphinxcontrib-youtube",
     "sphinxext-opengraph",
-    "docutils==0.17.1"
 ]
 test = [
     "beautifulsoup4>=4.6.1,<5",