diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 0574c11737ce..9710c6dec4c4 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ dependencies:
   # testing
   - black<24
   - coverage
-  - flake8>=3.8
+  - flake8>=3.8,<7.2
   - flake8-docstrings>=1.4.0
   - gtk4
   - ipykernel
diff --git a/requirements/testing/flake8.txt b/requirements/testing/flake8.txt
index a4d006b8551e..cb34fee3f385 100644
--- a/requirements/testing/flake8.txt
+++ b/requirements/testing/flake8.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Extra pip requirements for the GitHub Actions flake8 build
 
-flake8>=3.8
+flake8>=3.8,<7.2
 # versions less than 5.1.0 raise on some interp'd docstrings
 pydocstyle>=5.1.0
 # 1.4.0 adds docstring-convention=all