diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f0e0285..bcba820 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ keywords = ["json", "hdf5", "multidimensional array", "data", "datacube"]
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
 dependencies = [
     "h5py >=3.10",
-    "numpy >= 2.0",
+    "numpy >= 2.0; python_version>='3.9'",
     "jsonschema >=4.4.0",
     "tomli; python_version<'3.11'",
     "numpy >=1.20,<2.0.0; python_version=='3.8'",