diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index e970c93a..ac702cfa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -273,6 +273,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           source venv/bin/activate
           pip install dist/c2pa_python-*.whl
+          pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
 
       - name: Run unittest tests on installed wheel
         run: |
@@ -373,7 +374,7 @@ jobs:
           $wheel = Get-ChildItem -Path dist -Filter "c2pa_python-*.whl" | Select-Object -First 1
           if (-not $wheel) { Write-Error "No wheel file found in dist directory"; exit 1 }
           pip install $wheel.FullName
-          pip install -r requirements.txt
+          pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
           pip install pytest
 
       - name: Run tests with pytest (venv)
@@ -454,6 +455,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           source venv/bin/activate
           pip install dist/c2pa_python-*.whl
+          pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
 
       - name: Run unittest tests on installed wheel
         run: |
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index faf1919f..3e6ad224 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ maintainers = [
 urls = {homepage = "https://contentauthenticity.org", repository = "https://github.com/contentauth/c2pa-python"}
 dependencies = [
     "toml>=0.10.2",
-    "cryptography>=41.0.0",
     "requests>=2.0.0"
 ]
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 481efa9f..e4082826 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-# only used in the training example
-cryptography>=47.0.0
+# cryptography moved to requirements-dev.txt (used by tests/examples only).