diff --git a/deltachat-rpc-client/pyproject.toml b/deltachat-rpc-client/pyproject.toml
index 95be922be6..74f27a263a 100644
--- a/deltachat-rpc-client/pyproject.toml
+++ b/deltachat-rpc-client/pyproject.toml
@@ -70,3 +70,11 @@ line-length = 120
 
 [tool.isort]
 profile = "black"
+
+[dependency-groups]
+dev = [
+    "imap-tools",
+    "pytest",
+    "pytest-timeout",
+    "pytest-xdist",
+]
diff --git a/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini b/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
index 2c3b0cb4ef..3fc998d805 100644
--- a/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
+++ b/deltachat-rpc-client/tox.ini
@@ -12,11 +12,8 @@ setenv =
     RUST_MIN_STACK=8388608
 passenv =
     CHATMAIL_DOMAIN
-deps =
-    pytest
-    pytest-timeout
-    pytest-xdist
-    imap-tools
+dependency_groups =
+    dev
 
 [testenv:lint]
 skipsdist = True