diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 18a88cd0a1f38..238abd85dcdb1 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ requires = [
     "meson-python==0.13.1",
     "meson==1.2.1",
     "wheel",
-    "Cython==3.0.5",  # Note: sync with setup.py, environment.yml and asv.conf.json
+    "Cython~=3.0.5",  # Note: sync with setup.py, environment.yml and asv.conf.json
     # Force numpy higher than 2.0, so that built wheels are compatible
     # with both numpy 1 and 2
     "numpy>=2.0",