diff --git a/.readthedocs.yml b/.readthedocs.yml
index dea27e20b3a..75499aa5ddb 100644
--- a/.readthedocs.yml
+++ b/.readthedocs.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,6 @@ formats:
    - pdf
 
 python:
-  version: 3.7
+  version: "3.8"
   install:
       - requirements: sdk/python/docs/requirements.txt
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sdk/python/docs/requirements.txt b/sdk/python/docs/requirements.txt
index 388cd430a8d..55035216355 100644
--- a/sdk/python/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/sdk/python/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
--e ".[ci]"
\ No newline at end of file
+-e ".[docs]"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f92db4acecb..c261507c4a7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -178,6 +178,13 @@
     + HBASE_REQUIRED
 )
 
+
+# rtd builds fail because of mysql not being installed in their environment.
+# We can add mysql there, but it's not strictly needed. This will be faster for builds.
+DOCS_REQUIRED = CI_REQUIRED
+for _r in MYSQL_REQUIRED:
+    DOCS_REQUIRED.remove(_r)
+
 DEV_REQUIRED = ["mypy-protobuf==3.1", "grpcio-testing==1.*"] + CI_REQUIRED
 
 # Get git repo root directory
@@ -480,6 +487,7 @@ def copy_extensions_to_source(self):
         "ge": GE_REQUIRED,
         "hbase": HBASE_REQUIRED,
         "go": GO_REQUIRED,
+        "docs": DOCS_REQUIRED,
     },
     include_package_data=True,
     license="Apache",