diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6eb96143..a1046ae9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ license = {text = "MIT"}
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 dependencies = [
     "plotly<6.0.0,>=5.13.1",
-    "pandas>=2.2.3",
     "polarstate==0.1.8",
     "smoothstate>=0.1.1",
     "polars>=1.31.0",
diff --git a/tests/test_runtime_dependencies.py b/tests/test_runtime_dependencies.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b8b67359
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_runtime_dependencies.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+def test_pandas_is_not_a_direct_runtime_dependency():
+    pyproject = Path("pyproject.toml").read_text()
+    project_dependencies = pyproject.split("dependencies = [", 1)[1].split("]", 1)[0]
+    assert '"pandas' not in project_dependencies