diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 6e714fe..4705ddb 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -24,9 +24,10 @@ Imports:
     htmltools (>= 0.5.7),
     jsonlite (>= 0.9.16),
     knitr (>= 1.8),
-    rmarkdown,
+    rlang (>= 1.0.0),
     yaml
 Suggests:
+    rmarkdown,
     testthat
 Enhances: 
     shiny (>= 1.1)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c7da2b7..8176f72 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # htmlwidgets (development version)
 
+* Moved `{rmarkdown}` from `Imports` to `Suggests`. It's now only required when calling `saveWidget(selfcontained = TRUE)`. (#455)
+
 * htmlwidgets hex sticker added
 
 * Static widget resize detection now uses `ResizeObserver` instead of `window.resize`, Bootstrap tab/collapse, and ioslides event listeners. This enables widgets to detect container-level size changes (e.g., CSS-driven resizing, sidebar toggles, flexbox/grid layout changes) that were previously missed. (#496)
diff --git a/R/pandoc.R b/R/pandoc.R
index 16b236d..2422580 100644
--- a/R/pandoc.R
+++ b/R/pandoc.R
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-write_md_for_pandoc <- function(html, file, background = "white", title, libdir = "lib", use_raw_attr = rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.0")) {
+write_md_for_pandoc <- function(html, file, background = "white", title, libdir = "lib", use_raw_attr = NULL) {
+  rlang::check_installed("rmarkdown")
+  if (is.null(use_raw_attr)) {
+    use_raw_attr <- rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.0")
+  }
   # Forked from htmltools::save_html to work better with pandoc_self_contained_html
 
   # ensure that the paths to dependencies are relative to the base
@@ -60,6 +64,7 @@ write_md_for_pandoc <- function(html, file, background = "white", title, libdir
 # The input should be the path to a file that was created using pandoc_save_markdown
 pandoc_self_contained_html <- function(input, output) {
 
+  rlang::check_installed("rmarkdown")
   if (!rmarkdown::pandoc_available()) {
     stop(
       "Saving a widget with selfcontained = TRUE requires pandoc. ",
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-pandoc.R b/tests/testthat/test-pandoc.R
index 3b00b92..cbad8a9 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-pandoc.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-pandoc.R
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 test_that("Fix for issue #358 works", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("rmarkdown")
   skip_if_not(
     rmarkdown::pandoc_available(),
     "Test requires pandoc to be installed"