diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit/default.nix
index de6f92129838..d1523b571f4b 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, boost169, flatbuffers, fmt, rapidjson, spdlog, zlib }:
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, boost, flatbuffers, fmt, rapidjson, spdlog, zlib }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "vowpal-wabbit";
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake ];
 
   buildInputs = [
-    boost169
+    boost
     flatbuffers
     fmt
     rapidjson
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 115e06af3652..f0021cabb426 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -4369,7 +4369,9 @@ in
 
   vorta = libsForQt5.callPackage ../applications/backup/vorta { };
 
-  vowpal-wabbit = callPackage ../applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit { };
+  vowpal-wabbit = callPackage ../applications/science/machine-learning/vowpal-wabbit {
+    boost = boost17x;
+  };
 
   utahfs = callPackage ../applications/networking/utahfs { };