diff --git a/src/requests/__init__.py b/src/requests/__init__.py
index ad842400b9..95a9b183d2 100644
--- a/src/requests/__init__.py
+++ b/src/requests/__init__.py
@@ -51,10 +51,11 @@
 except ImportError:
     charset_normalizer_version = None
 
-try:
-    from chardet import __version__ as chardet_version  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
-except ImportError:
-    chardet_version = None
+# chardet is an optional dependency that should only be used if the
+# use-chardet-on-py3 extra is installed. We no longer attempt to import it
+# opportunistically, to avoid version warnings when chardet is installed
+# by other packages without respecting requests' version constraints.
+chardet_version = None
 
 
 def check_compatibility(
diff --git a/src/requests/help.py b/src/requests/help.py
index 9269cc7126..fdeba5f722 100644
--- a/src/requests/help.py
+++ b/src/requests/help.py
@@ -18,10 +18,10 @@
 except ImportError:
     charset_normalizer = None
 
-try:
-    import chardet  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
-except ImportError:
-    chardet = None
+# chardet is an optional dependency that should only be used if the
+# use-chardet-on-py3 extra is installed. We no longer attempt to import it
+# opportunistically.
+chardet = None
 
 try:
     from urllib3.contrib import pyopenssl