diff --git a/oslo_cache/backends/etcd3gw.py b/oslo_cache/backends/etcd3gw.py
index 8168ec9d..05b1f8e9 100644
--- a/oslo_cache/backends/etcd3gw.py
+++ b/oslo_cache/backends/etcd3gw.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 
 """dogpile.cache backend that uses etcd 3.x for storage"""
 from dogpile.cache import api
-import etcd3gw
 
 from oslo_cache import core
 from oslo_serialization import jsonutils
@@ -40,6 +39,8 @@ class Etcd3gwCacheBackend(api.CacheBackend):
         self.host = arguments.get('host', self.DEFAULT_HOST)
         self.port = arguments.get('port', self.DEFAULT_PORT)
         self.timeout = int(arguments.get('timeout', self.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT))
+        # module etcd3gw is only required when etcd3gw backend is used
+        import etcd3gw
         self._client = etcd3gw.client(host=self.host,
                                       port=self.port,
                                       timeout=self.timeout)