diff --git a/tests/unit/vertexai/test_reasoning_engines.py b/tests/unit/vertexai/test_reasoning_engines.py
index 7158838771..21a39aa03f 100644
--- a/tests/unit/vertexai/test_reasoning_engines.py
+++ b/tests/unit/vertexai/test_reasoning_engines.py
@@ -294,6 +294,36 @@ def test_create_reasoning_engine(
             retry=_TEST_RETRY,
         )
 
+    def test_create_reasoning_engine_requirements_from_file(
+        self,
+        create_reasoning_engine_mock,
+        cloud_storage_create_bucket_mock,
+        tarfile_open_mock,
+        cloudpickle_dump_mock,
+        get_reasoning_engine_mock,
+    ):
+        with mock.patch(
+            "builtins.open",
+            mock.mock_open(read_data="google-cloud-aiplatform==1.29.0"),
+        ) as mock_file:
+            test_reasoning_engine = reasoning_engines.ReasoningEngine.create(
+                self.test_app,
+                reasoning_engine_name=_TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_RESOURCE_NAME,
+                display_name=_TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_DISPLAY_NAME,
+                requirements="requirements.txt",
+            )
+        mock_file.assert_called_with("requirements.txt")
+        # Manually set _gca_resource here to prevent the mocks from propagating.
+        test_reasoning_engine._gca_resource = _TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_OBJ
+        create_reasoning_engine_mock.assert_called_with(
+            parent=_TEST_PARENT,
+            reasoning_engine=test_reasoning_engine.gca_resource,
+        )
+        get_reasoning_engine_mock.assert_called_with(
+            name=_TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_RESOURCE_NAME,
+            retry=_TEST_RETRY,
+        )
+
     def test_delete_after_create_reasoning_engine(
         self,
         create_reasoning_engine_mock,
@@ -407,6 +437,22 @@ def test_create_reasoning_engine_unsupported_sys_version(
                 sys_version="2.6",
             )
 
+    def test_create_reasoning_engine_requirements_ioerror(
+        self,
+        create_reasoning_engine_mock,
+        cloud_storage_create_bucket_mock,
+        tarfile_open_mock,
+        cloudpickle_dump_mock,
+        get_reasoning_engine_mock,
+    ):
+        with pytest.raises(IOError, match="Failed to read requirements"):
+            reasoning_engines.ReasoningEngine.create(
+                self.test_app,
+                reasoning_engine_name=_TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_RESOURCE_NAME,
+                display_name=_TEST_REASONING_ENGINE_DISPLAY_NAME,
+                requirements="nonexistent_requirements.txt",
+            )
+
     def test_create_reasoning_engine_nonexistent_extra_packages(
         self,
         create_reasoning_engine_mock,
diff --git a/vertexai/reasoning_engines/_reasoning_engines.py b/vertexai/reasoning_engines/_reasoning_engines.py
index 16e1e99174..77b38f7eae 100644
--- a/vertexai/reasoning_engines/_reasoning_engines.py
+++ b/vertexai/reasoning_engines/_reasoning_engines.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 import sys
 import tarfile
 import typing
-from typing import Optional, Protocol, Sequence
+from typing import Optional, Protocol, Sequence, Union
 
 from google.cloud.aiplatform import base
 from google.cloud.aiplatform import initializer
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def create(
             cls,
             reasoning_engine: Queryable,
             *,
-            requirements: Optional[Sequence[str]] = None,
+            requirements: Optional[Union[str, Sequence[str]]] = None,
             reasoning_engine_name: Optional[str] = None,
             display_name: Optional[str] = None,
             description: Optional[str] = None,
@@ -131,8 +131,10 @@ def create(
         Args:
             reasoning_engine (ReasoningEngineInterface):
                 Required. The Reasoning Engine to be created.
-            requirements (Sequence[str]):
-                Optional. The set of PyPI dependencies needed.
+            requirements (Union[str, Sequence[str]]):
+                Optional. The set of PyPI dependencies needed. It can either be
+                the path to a single file (requirements.txt), or an ordered list
+                of strings corresponding to each line of the requirements file.
             reasoning_engine_name (str):
                 Optional. A fully-qualified resource name or ID such as
                 "projects/123/locations/us-central1/reasoningEngines/456" or
@@ -202,6 +204,16 @@ def create(
                 "Invalid query signature. This might be due to a missing "
                 "`self` argument in the reasoning_engine.query method."
             ) from err
+        if isinstance(requirements, str):
+            try:
+                _LOGGER.info(f"Reading requirements from {requirements=}")
+                with open(requirements) as f:
+                    requirements = f.read().splitlines()
+                    _LOGGER.info(f"Read the following lines: {requirements}")
+            except IOError as err:
+                raise IOError(
+                    f"Failed to read requirements from {requirements=}"
+                ) from err
         requirements = requirements or []
         extra_packages = extra_packages or []
         for extra_package in extra_packages: