diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/lineCharts/LineChart.tsx b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/lineCharts/LineChart.tsx
index dd54175a66..3a238690e6 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/lineCharts/LineChart.tsx
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/lineCharts/LineChart.tsx
@@ -1413,6 +1413,7 @@ export class LineChart
         // TODO: enable nice axis ticks for linear scales
         return new AxisConfig(
             {
+                nice: this.manager.yAxisConfig?.scaleType !== ScaleType.log,
                 // if we only have a single y value (probably 0), we want the
                 // horizontal axis to be at the bottom of the chart.
                 // see https://github.com/owid/owid-grapher/pull/975#issuecomment-890798547