diff --git a/docs/my-website/docs/proxy_server.md b/docs/my-website/docs/proxy_server.md
index 438e68cf7..ec8ca15c5 100644
--- a/docs/my-website/docs/proxy_server.md
+++ b/docs/my-website/docs/proxy_server.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Docs outdated. New docs 👉 [here](./simple_proxy.md)
 
 ## Usage 
 ```shell
-pip install litellm
+pip install litellm[proxy]
 ```
 ```shell 
 $ litellm --model ollama/codellama 
diff --git a/docs/my-website/docs/simple_proxy.md b/docs/my-website/docs/simple_proxy.md
index fd709eab8..6df34bad2 100644
--- a/docs/my-website/docs/simple_proxy.md
+++ b/docs/my-website/docs/simple_proxy.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ LiteLLM Server manages:
 View all the supported args for the Proxy CLI [here](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/simple_proxy#proxy-cli-arguments)
 
 ```shell
-$ pip install litellm
+$ pip install litellm[proxy]
 ```
 
 ```shell
diff --git a/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py b/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
index 20d39d817..4cd573c9b 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import shutil, random, traceback, requests
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 from typing import Optional, List
 import secrets, subprocess
+import warnings
 messages: list = []
 sys.path.insert(
     0, os.path.abspath("../..")
@@ -39,6 +40,10 @@ except ImportError:
     import backoff
     import yaml
 
+    warnings.warn(
+        "Installed runtime dependencies for proxy server. Specify these dependencies explicitly with `pip install litellm[proxy]`"
+    )
+
 import random
 
 list_of_messages = [
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 239d3c5b3..c405e1c49 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,6 +19,19 @@ certifi = "^2023.7.22"
 appdirs = "^1.4.4"
 aiohttp = "*"
 
+uvicorn = {version = "^0.24.0.post1", optional = true}
+fastapi = {version = "^0.104.1", optional = true}
+backoff = {version = "*", optional = true}
+rq = {version = "*", optional = true}
+
+[tool.poetry.extras]
+proxy = [
+    "uvicorn",
+    "fastapi",
+    "backoff",
+    "rq"
+]
+
 [tool.poetry.scripts]
 litellm = 'litellm:run_server'