diff --git a/.changeset/twelve-ladybugs-beg.md b/.changeset/twelve-ladybugs-beg.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d098899d0d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/twelve-ladybugs-beg.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@graphql-codegen/minor": patch
+---
+
+fix(deps): remove unnecessary `dotenv` main dependency
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ce2e05ec32a..ae23a6873ce 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
     "@babel/preset-env": "7.16.11",
     "@babel/preset-typescript": "7.16.7",
     "@changesets/cli": "2.17.0",
+    "dotenv": "16.0.0",
     "@graphql-typed-document-node/core": "3.1.1",
     "@reduxjs/toolkit": "1.7.2",
     "@types/common-tags": "1.8.1",
@@ -118,7 +119,6 @@
     "**/@types/graphql-upload/graphql": "^16.0.0"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "dotenv": "10.0.0",
     "patch-package": "6.4.7"
   }
 }
diff --git a/packages/graphql-codegen-cli/package.json b/packages/graphql-codegen-cli/package.json
index 8cbb8058132..b993e688bc7 100644
--- a/packages/graphql-codegen-cli/package.json
+++ b/packages/graphql-codegen-cli/package.json
@@ -93,7 +93,6 @@
     "@types/valid-url": "1.0.3",
     "@graphql-tools/merge": "8.2.1",
     "bdd-stdin": "0.2.0",
-    "dotenv": "10.0.0",
     "js-yaml": "4.1.0",
     "make-dir": "3.1.0",
     "prettier": "2.5.1"
diff --git a/website/docs/config-reference/codegen-config.md b/website/docs/config-reference/codegen-config.md
index 766fdb4dcde..67efece58d9 100644
--- a/website/docs/config-reference/codegen-config.md
+++ b/website/docs/config-reference/codegen-config.md
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ generates:
       - typescript-operations
 ```
 
-You can load a `.env` file by adding the `-r dotenv/config` option to your CLI command.
+You can load a `.env` file by adding the `-r dotenv/config` option to your CLI command and adding `dotenv` as a dependency on your project.
 
 You can specify a default value in case an environment variable is missing:
 
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 17677822875..b514d912f42 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -5888,7 +5888,12 @@ dot-case@^3.0.4:
     no-case "^3.0.4"
     tslib "^2.0.3"
 
-dotenv@10.0.0, dotenv@^10.0.0:
+dotenv@16.0.0:
+  version "16.0.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/dotenv/-/dotenv-16.0.0.tgz#c619001253be89ebb638d027b609c75c26e47411"
+  integrity sha512-qD9WU0MPM4SWLPJy/r2Be+2WgQj8plChsyrCNQzW/0WjvcJQiKQJ9mH3ZgB3fxbUUxgc/11ZJ0Fi5KiimWGz2Q==
+
+dotenv@^10.0.0:
   version "10.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/dotenv/-/dotenv-10.0.0.tgz#3d4227b8fb95f81096cdd2b66653fb2c7085ba81"
   integrity sha512-rlBi9d8jpv9Sf1klPjNfFAuWDjKLwTIJJ/VxtoTwIR6hnZxcEOQCZg2oIL3MWBYw5GpUDKOEnND7LXTbIpQ03Q==