diff --git a/Artifacts.toml b/Artifacts.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bd3da5966
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Artifacts.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[plotly-dist]
+git-tree-sha1 = "3039420613779f4cd3620456d5c7f0849e419e3d"
+
+    [[plotly-dist.download]]
+    sha256 = "20c27644d7791d01058cc3a61c1cac351e313931994d464dc1f7796703d32312"
+    url = "https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/archive/refs/tags/v2.6.3.tar.gz"
diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index d682b7d18..51e118193 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ author = ["Tom Breloff (@tbreloff)"]
 version = "1.39.0-dev"
 
 [deps]
+Artifacts = "56f22d72-fd6d-98f1-02f0-08ddc0907c33"
 Base64 = "2a0f44e3-6c83-55bd-87e4-b1978d98bd5f"
 Contour = "d38c429a-6771-53c6-b99e-75d170b6e991"
 Dates = "ade2ca70-3891-5945-98fb-dc099432e06a"
@@ -30,7 +31,6 @@ RecipesPipeline = "01d81517-befc-4cb6-b9ec-a95719d0359c"
 Reexport = "189a3867-3050-52da-a836-e630ba90ab69"
 RelocatableFolders = "05181044-ff0b-4ac5-8273-598c1e38db00"
 Requires = "ae029012-a4dd-5104-9daa-d747884805df"
-Scratch = "6c6a2e73-6563-6170-7368-637461726353"
 Showoff = "992d4aef-0814-514b-bc4d-f2e9a6c4116f"
 SparseArrays = "2f01184e-e22b-5df5-ae63-d93ebab69eaf"
 Statistics = "10745b16-79ce-11e8-11f9-7d13ad32a3b2"
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ PGFPlotsX = "1"
 PlotThemes = "2, 3"
 PlotUtils = "1"
 PlotlyBase = "0.7 - 0.8"
-PlotlyJS = "0.18"
+PlotlyJS = "0.18.12"
 PlotlyKaleido = "1"
 PrecompileTools = "1"
 PyPlot = "2"
@@ -85,7 +85,6 @@ RecipesPipeline = "0.6.10"
 Reexport = "0.2, 1"
 RelocatableFolders = "0.3, 1"
 Requires = "1"
-Scratch = "1"
 Showoff = "0.3.1, 1"
 Statistics = "1"
 StatsBase = "0.33, 0.34"
diff --git a/ext/IJuliaExt.jl b/ext/IJuliaExt.jl
index 5322c155b..0317de7f5 100644
--- a/ext/IJuliaExt.jl
+++ b/ext/IJuliaExt.jl
@@ -8,9 +8,7 @@ const IJulia =
 
 function _init_ijulia_plotting()
     # IJulia is more stable with local file
-    Plots._use_local_plotlyjs[] =
-        Plots._plotly_local_file_path[] === nothing ? false :
-        isfile(Plots._plotly_local_file_path[])
+    Plots._use_local_plotlyjs[] = true
 
     ENV["MPLBACKEND"] = "Agg"
 end
diff --git a/src/backends/plotly.jl b/src/backends/plotly.jl
index 1c251c639..12f81ad60 100644
--- a/src/backends/plotly.jl
+++ b/src/backends/plotly.jl
@@ -1055,7 +1055,7 @@ html_body(plt::Plot{PlotlyBackend}) = plotly_html_body(plt)
 
 plotly_url() =
     if _use_local_dependencies[]
-        "file:///" * _plotly_local_file_path[]
+        _plotly_data_url()
     else
         "https://cdn.plot.ly/$_plotly_min_js_filename"
     end
diff --git a/src/backends/web.jl b/src/backends/web.jl
index cfa7e454c..7e912dc64 100644
--- a/src/backends/web.jl
+++ b/src/backends/web.jl
@@ -45,8 +45,7 @@ function standalone_html_window(plt::AbstractPlot)
     old = _use_local_dependencies[] # save state to restore afterwards
     # if we open a browser ourself, we can host local files, so
     # when we have a local plotly downloaded this is the way to go!
-    _use_local_dependencies[] =
-        _plotly_local_file_path[] === nothing ? false : isfile(_plotly_local_file_path[])
+    _use_local_dependencies[] = true
     filename = write_temp_html(plt)
     open_browser_window(filename)
     # restore for other backends
diff --git a/src/init.jl b/src/init.jl
index b962a843f..80b5ad1b4 100644
--- a/src/init.jl
+++ b/src/init.jl
@@ -1,13 +1,26 @@
-using Scratch
 using REPL
+import Base64
+using Artifacts
 
-const _plotly_local_file_path = Ref{Union{Nothing,String}}(nothing)
+# Local uses artifacts now. To update this, also update Artifacts.toml.
+# using ArtifactUtils
+# add_artifact!("Artifacts.toml", "plotly-dist", "https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/archive/refs/tags/v2.6.3.tar.gz")
+# # update with your desired version
+const _plotly_version = "2.6.3"
+const _plotly_local_file_path = joinpath(artifact("plotly-dist"), "plotly.js-2.6.3", "dist", "plotly.min.js")
 # use fixed version of Plotly instead of the latest one for stable dependency
 # see github.com/JuliaPlots/Plots.jl/pull/2779
 const _plotly_min_js_filename = "plotly-2.6.3.min.js"
 
 const _use_local_dependencies = Ref(false)
 const _use_local_plotlyjs = Ref(false)
+const _plotly_data_url_cached = Ref{Union{Nothing,String}}(nothing)
+
+_plotly_data_url() = if isnothing(_plotly_data_url_cached[])
+    _plotly_data_url_cached[] = "data:text/javascript;base64,$(Base64.base64encode(read(_plotly_local_file_path)))"
+else
+    _plotly_data_url_cached[]
+end
 
 _plots_defaults() =
     if isdefined(Main, :PLOTS_DEFAULTS)
@@ -23,10 +36,6 @@ end
 
 function _plots_plotly_defaults()
     if bool_env("PLOTS_HOST_DEPENDENCY_LOCAL", "false")
-        _plotly_local_file_path[] =
-            fn = joinpath(@get_scratch!("plotly"), _plotly_min_js_filename)
-        isfile(fn) ||
-            Downloads.download("https://cdn.plot.ly/$(_plotly_min_js_filename)", fn)
         _use_local_plotlyjs[] = true
     end
     _use_local_dependencies[] = _use_local_plotlyjs[]
diff --git a/test/test_misc.jl b/test/test_misc.jl
index 172aee38c..9a7a9edd7 100644
--- a/test/test_misc.jl
+++ b/test/test_misc.jl
@@ -7,15 +7,12 @@
 end
 
 @testset "Plotly standalone" begin
-    @test Plots._plotly_local_file_path[] ≡ nothing
     temp = Plots._use_local_dependencies[]
     withenv("PLOTS_HOST_DEPENDENCY_LOCAL" => true) do
         Plots._plots_plotly_defaults()
-        @test Plots._plotly_local_file_path[] isa String
-        @test isfile(Plots._plotly_local_file_path[])
+        @test isfile(Plots._plotly_local_file_path)
         @test Plots._use_local_dependencies[] = true
     end
-    Plots._plotly_local_file_path[] = nothing
     Plots._use_local_dependencies[] = temp
 end