diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 0e1339032695072232e7f76fea077fec68ff6b6f..e335d625120b497a2e39923e2bc8f92c5052f8d6 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ pages:  # "pages" is a job specifically for GitLab pages [1]
     deploy
   script:  # use sphinx to build docs, move to public page
   - apt-get update
+  - pip install --upgrade pip
   - pip install sphinx --upgrade
   - pip install nbsphinx==0.3.5
   - pip install git+https://github.com/vidartf/nbsphinx-link.git