diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a976b295..7e13cfb9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 * Import ufuncs explicitly in `__init__.py` and add `__all__` to module [gh-177](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_umath/pull/177)
+* Made conda recipe dependency on numpy configurable through `USE_NUMPY_BASE` environment variable [gh-181](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_umath/pull/181)
 
 ### Fixed
 * Build with ICX compiler from 2026.0 release [gh-155](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_umath/pull/155)
diff --git a/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
index 7ef4f351..0cd79d5f 100644
--- a/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe-cf/meta.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{% set version = "0.4.0dev2" %}
+{% set version = "0.4.0dev3" %}
 {% set buildnumber = 0 %}
 
 package:
diff --git a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
index d7bb04f6..d26020b8 100644
--- a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# Intel numpy-base is still needed for internal wheels CI, so we control its use with this optional toggle
+{% set use_numpy_base = environ.get('USE_NUMPY_BASE', 'true').lower() == 'true' %}
+
 package:
     name: mkl_umath
     version: {{ GIT_DESCRIBE_TAG }}
@@ -28,14 +31,22 @@ requirements:
       - python
       - python-gil     # [py>=314]
       - mkl-devel
+      {% if use_numpy_base %}
       - numpy-base
+      {% else %}
+      - numpy
+      {% endif %}
       - wheel  >=0.41.3
     run:
       - python
       - python-gil     # [py>=314]
       - mkl-service
       - {{ pin_compatible('intel-cmplr-lib-rt') }}
-      - {{ pin_compatible('numpy-base') }}
+      {% if use_numpy_base %}
+      - numpy-base
+      {% else %}
+      - numpy >=1.26.4
+      {% endif %}
 
 test:
     requires:
diff --git a/mkl_umath/_version.py b/mkl_umath/_version.py
index a7ea6179..2d0b9b4d 100644
--- a/mkl_umath/_version.py
+++ b/mkl_umath/_version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.4.0dev2"
+__version__ = "0.4.0dev3"