diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 540b72040d..54939b7ce9 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
-include requirements.txt
\ No newline at end of file
+include requirements.txt
+include requirements/core.txt
+include requirements/plotly.txt
+include requirements/dev.txt
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index d599d4b382..37d7b312ec 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,19 +1 @@
-# required for running tidy3d (note xarray)
-xarray
-scipy
-h5py>=3.0.0
-rich
-nlopt
-matplotlib
-shapely==1.7.1
-descartes
-pydantic>=1.9.0
-PyYAML
-boto3
-requests
-plotly==5.5.0
-dash
-jupyter_dash
-
-# required to get xarray to not complain
-dask
+-r requirements/core.txt
diff --git a/requirements/core.txt b/requirements/core.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..30faf177ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/core.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# just core (no plotly, no tests)
+
+xarray
+scipy
+h5py>=3.0.0
+rich
+nlopt
+matplotlib
+shapely==1.7.1
+descartes
+pydantic>=1.9.0
+PyYAML
+boto3
+requests
+dask
diff --git a/tests/requirements.txt b/requirements/dev.txt
similarity index 57%
rename from tests/requirements.txt
rename to requirements/dev.txt
index 4ce7a5cd99..60f2a25b9c 100644
--- a/tests/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements/dev.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# core, plotly and tests
+
+-r core.txt
+-r plotly.txt
+
 # required for development
 click==8.0.3
 black==22.1.0
diff --git a/requirements/plotly.txt b/requirements/plotly.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3ee7dbf795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/plotly.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# core + plotly plotting, no tests
+-r core.txt
+
+plotly==5.5.0
+dash
+jupyter_dash
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 14df7cac15..e77b5ee992 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -16,8 +16,12 @@
 with open("README.md", "r", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
     long_description = fh.read()
 
-with open("requirements.txt") as f:
-    required = f.read().splitlines()
+with open("requirements/core.txt") as f:
+    core_required = f.read().splitlines()
+
+with open("requirements/plotly.txt") as f:
+    plotly_required = f.read().splitlines()
+    plotly_required = [req for req in plotly_required if "-r" not in req]
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name=PIP_NAME,
@@ -36,9 +40,8 @@
         "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
         "Operating System :: OS Independent",
     ],
-    # package_dir={"": ""},
-    # packages=[PACKAGE_NAME],
     packages=setuptools.find_packages(),
     python_requires=">=3.6",
-    install_requires=required,
+    install_requires=core_required,
+    extras_require={"plotly": plotly_required},
 )
diff --git a/tidy3d/log.py b/tidy3d/log.py
index bcf836c455..d302c442c5 100644
--- a/tidy3d/log.py
+++ b/tidy3d/log.py
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ class DataError(Tidy3dError):
     """Error accessing data."""
 
 
+class Tidy3dImportError(Tidy3dError):
+    """Error importing a package needed for tidy3d."""
+
+
 """ Logging functions """
 
 
diff --git a/tidy3d/plugins/__init__.py b/tidy3d/plugins/__init__.py
index 1c643a8819..764cef1ed7 100644
--- a/tidy3d/plugins/__init__.py
+++ b/tidy3d/plugins/__init__.py
@@ -5,5 +5,3 @@
 from .mode.mode_solver import ModeSolver, ModeSolverData
 from .near2far.near2far import Near2Far, Near2FarSurface
 from .smatrix.smatrix import ComponentModeler, Port
-from .webplots.app import SimulationDataApp
-from .webplots.simulation import SimulationPlotly
diff --git a/tidy3d/plugins/webplots/__init__.py b/tidy3d/plugins/webplots/__init__.py
index e69de29bb2..bb36d55f38 100644
--- a/tidy3d/plugins/webplots/__init__.py
+++ b/tidy3d/plugins/webplots/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+"""Import post run visualization app and Simulation plotting through plotly."""
+
+from ...log import Tidy3dImportError
+
+# try to get the plotly packages, otherwise print a helpful error message.
+try:
+    from jupyter_dash import JupyterDash
+    from dash import Dash
+    import plotly.graph_objects as go
+except ImportError as e:
+    raise Tidy3dImportError(
+        "Could not import plotly requirements. "
+        "Ensure that tidy3d is installed with [plotly] requirements specified. "
+        '``pip install "tidy3d-beta[plotly]" or `pip install -e ".[plotly]". '
+        "Or, install the dependencies directly with `pip install -r requirements/plotly.txt`"
+    ) from e
+
+from .app import SimulationDataApp
+from .simulation import SimulationPlotly
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 797f17e850..f06c9a7be3 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -14,8 +14,9 @@ python =
 
 [testenv]
 deps =
-    -rrequirements.txt
-    -rtests/requirements.txt
+    -rrequirements/core.txt
+    -rrequirements/plotly.txt
+    -rrequirements/dev.txt
 commands = 
     pip install requests
     black --check --diff . --line-length 100