diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index adad2f3cbae..da08517d6b6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## [5.23.0] - TBD
+
+### Updated
+- Specify Python version 3.8-3.11 for development virtual environments and pin `pytest` at version 8.1.1 to match.
+
 ## [5.22.0] - 2024-05-01
 
 ### Updated
diff --git a/contributing.md b/contributing.md
index c7b271cfa75..15c8560bc52 100644
--- a/contributing.md
+++ b/contributing.md
@@ -125,13 +125,16 @@ learn and become confident about git, like http://try.github.io/.
 
 ### Create a virtual environment for plotly development
 
-You can use either [conda][conda-env] or [virtualenv][virtualenv] to create a virtual environment for plotly development, e.g.
+You can use either [conda][conda-env] or [virtualenv][virtualenv] to create a virtual environment for plotly development, e.g.:
 
 ```bash
-conda create -n plotly-dev python
+conda create -n plotly-dev python=3.11
 conda activate plotly-dev
 ```
 
+As of May 2024 our dependencies have been tested against Python versions 3.8 to 3.11.
+We will support Python 3.12 and higher versions soon.
+
 [conda-env]: https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/tasks/manage-environments.html#creating-an-environment-with-commands
 [virtualenv]: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/
 
diff --git a/packages/python/plotly/optional-requirements.txt b/packages/python/plotly/optional-requirements.txt
index 3a02a440624..ba3c0549121 100644
--- a/packages/python/plotly/optional-requirements.txt
+++ b/packages/python/plotly/optional-requirements.txt
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ numpy
 ## testing dependencies ##
 coverage==4.3.1
 mock==2.0.0
-pytest==3.5.1
+pytest==8.1.1
 backports.tempfile==1.0
 xarray
 pytz