diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 2a4ee697779..c9290e74eec 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -110,12 +110,10 @@ jobs:
             sudo apt install -y graphviz
       - run:
           name: Install Python dependencies
-          # NOTE: we pin matplotlib below due to a bug that affects plotting of
-          # quantities: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/14274
           command: |
             python3 -m venv venv
             . venv/bin/activate
-            pip install "numpydoc<0.9" "matplotlib<3.1" "sphinx<2.2"
+            pip install numpydoc matplotlib sphinx
             pip install .[docs,all]
       - run:
           name: Make sure flake8 passes
diff --git a/.readthedocs.yml b/.readthedocs.yml
index b6e2331bc4d..07d9c1b7bec 100644
--- a/.readthedocs.yml
+++ b/.readthedocs.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ python:
       extra_requirements:
         - docs
         - all
-    - requirements: docs/rtd_requirements.txt
 
 submodules:
   include: all
diff --git a/docs/rtd_requirements.txt b/docs/rtd_requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 464af5f2056..00000000000
--- a/docs/rtd_requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-matplotlib<3.1