diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2fb24b979c..e695d2cf2d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 
 ### Removed
 - [#3646](https://github.com/plotly/dash/pull/3646) Remove React 16 support (`16.14.0` is no longer an accepted value for `REACT_VERSION` / `_set_react_version`).
+- [#4035](https://github.com/plotly/dash/pull/4035) Remove `setuptools` and `importlib-metadata` from Dash's install dependencies.
 
 ### Changed
 - [#3987](https://github.com/plotly/dash/pull/3987) Forward FastAPI reload scope options (`reload_dirs`, `reload_excludes`, and `reload_includes`) to Uvicorn when reloading.
diff --git a/dash/backends/_flask.py b/dash/backends/_flask.py
index 8054a25ac7..8415745ac8 100644
--- a/dash/backends/_flask.py
+++ b/dash/backends/_flask.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from contextvars import copy_context
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Callable, Dict
 
-from importlib_metadata import version as _get_distribution_version
+from importlib.metadata import version as _get_distribution_version
 
 from flask import (
     Flask,
diff --git a/dash/backends/_quart.py b/dash/backends/_quart.py
index 242e9f8e5f..efdbc62742 100644
--- a/dash/backends/_quart.py
+++ b/dash/backends/_quart.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 from contextvars import copy_context
 from typing import Any, Dict, TYPE_CHECKING
 
-from importlib_metadata import version as _get_distribution_version
+from importlib.metadata import version as _get_distribution_version
 
 # Attempt top-level Quart imports; allow absence if user not using quart backend
 try:
diff --git a/requirements/install.txt b/requirements/install.txt
index 71e0dafb32..b56e444d21 100644
--- a/requirements/install.txt
+++ b/requirements/install.txt
@@ -2,12 +2,10 @@ Flask>=1.0.4,<3.2
 Werkzeug<3.2
 plotly>=5.0.0
 plotly-cloud
-importlib-metadata
 typing_extensions>=4.1.1
 requests
 retrying
 nest-asyncio
-setuptools
 janus>=1.0.0
 pydantic>=2.10
 comm
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ac7163e384..809c92ca8e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ def read_req_file(req_type):
     version=main_ns["__version__"],
     author="Chris Parmer",
     author_email="chris@plotly.com",
-    packages=find_packages(exclude=["tests*"]),
+    packages=find_packages(include=["dash*"]),
     include_package_data=True,
     license="MIT",
     description=(