diff --git a/api/db.py b/api/db.py
index d04cc070..df11469d 100644
--- a/api/db.py
+++ b/api/db.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 from beanie import init_beanie
 from bson import ObjectId
-from fastapi_pagination.ext.motor import paginate
+from fastapi_pagination.ext.pymongo import apaginate as paginate
 from kernelci.api.models import (
     EventHistory,
     Hierarchy,
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
     TelemetryEvent,
     parse_node_obj,
 )
-from motor import motor_asyncio
+from pymongo import AsyncMongoClient
 from redis import asyncio as aioredis
 
 from .models import User, UserGroup
@@ -52,10 +52,10 @@ class Database:
     BOOL_VALUE_MAP = {"true": True, "false": False}
 
     def __init__(self, service="mongodb://db:27017", db_name="kernelci"):
-        self._motor = motor_asyncio.AsyncIOMotorClient(service)
+        self._mongo = AsyncMongoClient(service)
         # TBD: Make redis host configurable
         self._redis = aioredis.from_url("redis://redis:6379")
-        self._db = self._motor[db_name]
+        self._db = self._mongo[db_name]
 
     async def initialize_beanie(self):
         """Initialize Beanie ODM to use `fastapi-users` tools for MongoDB"""
diff --git a/api/pubsub_mongo.py b/api/pubsub_mongo.py
index dafc0954..c1a53fc5 100644
--- a/api/pubsub_mongo.py
+++ b/api/pubsub_mongo.py
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional
 
 from cloudevents.http import CloudEvent, to_json
-from motor import motor_asyncio
-from pymongo import ASCENDING, WriteConcern
+from pymongo import ASCENDING, AsyncMongoClient, WriteConcern
 from redis import asyncio as aioredis
 
 from .config import PubSubSettings
@@ -87,7 +86,7 @@ def __init__(
         # MongoDB setup
         if mongo_client is None:
             mongo_service = os.getenv("MONGO_SERVICE") or "mongodb://db:27017"
-            self._mongo_client = motor_asyncio.AsyncIOMotorClient(mongo_service)
+            self._mongo_client = AsyncMongoClient(mongo_service)
         else:
             self._mongo_client = mongo_client
         self._mongo_db = self._mongo_client[mongo_db_name]
diff --git a/docker/api/requirements-tests.txt b/docker/api/requirements-tests.txt
index f95a1022..538684e3 100644
--- a/docker/api/requirements-tests.txt
+++ b/docker/api/requirements-tests.txt
@@ -6,4 +6,3 @@ pytest-dependency==0.5.1
 pytest-mock==3.6.1
 pytest-order==1.0.1
 httpx>=0.27.0,<1.0.0
-mongomock_motor==0.0.21
diff --git a/docker/api/requirements.txt b/docker/api/requirements.txt
index cca8d520..d2a81106 100644
--- a/docker/api/requirements.txt
+++ b/docker/api/requirements.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 cloudevents==2.0.0
-beanie==1.29.0
+beanie==2.1.0
 fastapi[all]==0.135.3
-fastapi-pagination==0.12.30
+fastapi-pagination==0.14.3
 fastapi-users[beanie, oauth]==15.0.5
+fastapi-users-db-beanie==5.0.0
 MarkupSafe==2.0.1
-motor==3.6.0
-pymongo==4.9.0
+pymongo==4.16.0
 passlib==1.7.4
 pydantic==2.9.2
 pymongo-migrate==0.11.0
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4c09724d..9ac468ec 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@ dependencies = [
   "cloudevents == 2.0.0",
   "beanie == 2.1.0",
   "fastapi[all] == 0.135.3",
-  "fastapi-pagination == 0.12.30",
+  "fastapi-pagination == 0.14.3",
   "fastapi-users[beanie, oauth] == 15.0.5",
+  "fastapi-users-db-beanie == 5.0.0",
   "MarkupSafe == 2.0.1",
-  "motor == 3.6.0",
   "pymongo == 4.16.0",
   "passlib == 1.7.4",
   "pydantic == 2.9.2",
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ tests = [
   "pytest-mock == 3.6.1",
   "pytest-order == 1.0.1",
   "httpx >= 0.27.0, < 1.0.0",
-  "mongomock_motor == 0.0.36",
 ]
 dev = [
   "kernelci-api[tests]",
diff --git a/tests/e2e_tests/conftest.py b/tests/e2e_tests/conftest.py
index b5c1a666..9e4e8172 100644
--- a/tests/e2e_tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/e2e_tests/conftest.py
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@
 
 """pytest fixtures for KernelCI API end-to-end tests"""
 
+import asyncio
+
 import pytest
 from httpx import ASGITransport, AsyncClient
 from kernelci.api.models import Node, Regression
-from motor.motor_asyncio import AsyncIOMotorClient
+from pymongo import AsyncMongoClient
 
 from api.main import versioned_app
 
@@ -17,7 +19,7 @@
 DB_URL = "mongodb://db:27017"
 DB_NAME = "kernelci"
 
-db_client = AsyncIOMotorClient(DB_URL)
+db_client = AsyncMongoClient(DB_URL)
 db = db_client[DB_NAME]
 node_model_fields = set(Node.model_fields.keys())
 regression_model_fields = set(Regression.model_fields.keys())
@@ -51,9 +53,7 @@ async def db_create(collection, obj):
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def event_loop():
-    """Get an instance of the default event loop using database client.
-    The event loop will be used for all async tests.
-    """
-    loop = db_client.get_io_loop()
+    """Session-scoped event loop shared by all async tests."""
+    loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
     yield loop
     loop.close()
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/conftest.py b/tests/unit_tests/conftest.py
index 9b168128..e73e6d90 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/conftest.py
@@ -12,11 +12,9 @@
 
 import fakeredis.aioredis
 import pytest
-from beanie import init_beanie
 from fastapi import HTTPException, Request, status
 from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
 from httpx import ASGITransport, AsyncClient
-from mongomock_motor import AsyncMongoMockClient
 
 from api.main import (
     app,
@@ -245,16 +243,17 @@ def mock_unsubscribe(mocker):
 
 @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
 async def mock_init_beanie(mocker):
-    """Mocks async call to Database method to initialize Beanie"""
+    """Mocks async call to Database method to initialize Beanie.
+
+    All tests mock api.db.Database.* directly, so beanie never issues real
+    queries. Patching initialize_beanie to a no-op avoids pulling in an async
+    mongo mock, which beanie 2.x (pymongo AsyncMongoClient) has no replacement
+    for.
+    """
     async_mock = AsyncMock()
-    client = AsyncMongoMockClient()
-    init = await init_beanie(
-        document_models=[User], database=client.get_database(name="db")
-    )
     mocker.patch(
         "api.db.Database.initialize_beanie",
         side_effect=async_mock,
-        return_value=init,
     )
     return async_mock