diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 500f166e2ee79228d526714460e00218fcce14f7..4ef1f888012e6071dae3aa25d34674ba8a3667fd 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -200,6 +200,10 @@ def main():
             # build info
             packages=["pyopencl", "pyopencl.characterize", "pyopencl.compyte"],
 
+            setup_requires=[
+                "numpy",
+                ],
+
             install_requires=[
                 "pytools>=2014.2",
                 "pytest>=2",