diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/spacy/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/spacy/default.nix
index 990d8996d1b6..cbd02ae018a7 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/spacy/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/spacy/default.nix
@@ -49,7 +49,9 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   };
 
   postPatch = ''
-    sed -i "/numpy/d" pyproject.toml
+    # unpin numpy, cannot use pythonRelaxDeps because it's in build-system
+    substituteInPlace pyproject.toml setup.cfg \
+      --replace-fail ",<2.1.0" ""
   '';
 
   build-system = [