diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index aa51dd53f4..50b154762f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ prod = [
   "pyuca",
 
   # Handle connection retries with exponential backoff
-  "backoff",
+  "tenacity",
 
   # Needed for reading bson files in rocketchat import tool
   "pymongo",
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 16cd4c9f47..22717a8d42 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -370,15 +370,6 @@ wheels = [
     { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/77/f5/21d2de20e8b8b0408f0681956ca2c69f1320a3848ac50e6e7f39c6159675/babel-2.18.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:e2b422b277c2b9a9630c1d7903c2a00d0830c409c59ac8cae9081c92f1aeba35", size = 10196845, upload-time = "2026-02-01T12:30:53.445Z" },
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "backoff"
-version = "2.2.1"
-source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
-sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/47/d7/5bbeb12c44d7c4f2fb5b56abce497eb5ed9f34d85701de869acedd602619/backoff-2.2.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:03f829f5bb1923180821643f8753b0502c3b682293992485b0eef2807afa5cba", size = 17001, upload-time = "2022-10-05T19:19:32.061Z" }
-wheels = [
-    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/df/73/b6e24bd22e6720ca8ee9a85a0c4a2971af8497d8f3193fa05390cbd46e09/backoff-2.2.1-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:63579f9a0628e06278f7e47b7d7d5b6ce20dc65c5e96a6f3ca99a6adca0396e8", size = 15148, upload-time = "2022-10-05T19:19:30.546Z" },
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "backports-datetime-fromisoformat"
 version = "2.0.3"
@@ -5350,6 +5341,15 @@ wheels = [
     { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/02/be/5d2d47b1fb58943194fb59dcf222f7c4e35122ec0ffe8c36e18b5d728f0b/tblib-3.2.2-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:26bdccf339bcce6a88b2b5432c988b266ebbe63a4e593f6b578b1d2e723d2b76", size = 12893, upload-time = "2025-11-12T12:21:14.407Z" },
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tenacity"
+version = "9.1.4"
+source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
+sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/47/c6/ee486fd809e357697ee8a44d3d69222b344920433d3b6666ccd9b374630c/tenacity-9.1.4.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:adb31d4c263f2bd041081ab33b498309a57c77f9acf2db65aadf0898179cf93a", size = 49413, upload-time = "2026-02-07T10:45:33.841Z" }
+wheels = [
+    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d7/c1/eb8f9debc45d3b7918a32ab756658a0904732f75e555402972246b0b8e71/tenacity-9.1.4-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:6095a360c919085f28c6527de529e76a06ad89b23659fa881ae0649b867a9d55", size = 28926, upload-time = "2026-02-07T10:45:32.24Z" },
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "tiktoken"
 version = "0.12.0"
@@ -6523,7 +6523,6 @@ dev = [
     { name = "altcha" },
     { name = "annotated-types" },
     { name = "asgiref" },
-    { name = "backoff" },
     { name = "backports-datetime-fromisoformat", marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "beautifulsoup4" },
     { name = "black" },
@@ -6621,6 +6620,7 @@ dev = [
     { name = "stripe" },
     { name = "talon-core" },
     { name = "tblib" },
+    { name = "tenacity" },
     { name = "time-machine" },
     { name = "tlds" },
     { name = "tornado" },
@@ -6671,7 +6671,6 @@ prod = [
     { name = "altcha" },
     { name = "annotated-types" },
     { name = "asgiref" },
-    { name = "backoff" },
     { name = "backports-datetime-fromisoformat", marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "beautifulsoup4" },
     { name = "boto3" },
@@ -6739,6 +6738,7 @@ prod = [
     { name = "sqlalchemy" },
     { name = "stripe" },
     { name = "talon-core" },
+    { name = "tenacity" },
     { name = "tlds" },
     { name = "tornado" },
     { name = "typing-extensions" },
@@ -6767,7 +6767,6 @@ dev = [
     { name = "altcha" },
     { name = "annotated-types" },
     { name = "asgiref" },
-    { name = "backoff" },
     { name = "backports-datetime-fromisoformat", marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "beautifulsoup4" },
     { name = "black" },
@@ -6867,6 +6866,7 @@ dev = [
     { name = "stripe" },
     { name = "talon-core", git = "https://github.com/zulip/talon.git?subdirectory=talon-core&rev=e87a64dccc3c5ee1b8ea157d4b6e15ecd46f2bed" },
     { name = "tblib" },
+    { name = "tenacity" },
     { name = "time-machine" },
     { name = "tlds" },
     { name = "tornado" },
@@ -6917,7 +6917,6 @@ prod = [
     { name = "altcha" },
     { name = "annotated-types" },
     { name = "asgiref" },
-    { name = "backoff" },
     { name = "backports-datetime-fromisoformat", marker = "python_full_version < '3.11'" },
     { name = "beautifulsoup4" },
     { name = "boto3" },
@@ -6985,6 +6984,7 @@ prod = [
     { name = "sqlalchemy", specifier = "==1.4.*" },
     { name = "stripe" },
     { name = "talon-core", git = "https://github.com/zulip/talon.git?subdirectory=talon-core&rev=e87a64dccc3c5ee1b8ea157d4b6e15ecd46f2bed" },
+    { name = "tenacity" },
     { name = "tlds" },
     { name = "tornado" },
     { name = "typing-extensions" },
diff --git a/version.py b/version.py
index 84d4dcf82f..7e1018d934 100644
--- a/version.py
+++ b/version.py
@@ -48,4 +48,4 @@ API_FEATURE_LEVEL = 493
 #   historical commits sharing the same major version, in which case a
 #   minor version bump suffices.
 
-PROVISION_VERSION = (376, 2)  # bumped 2026-04-22 to add @types/postcss-import
+PROVISION_VERSION = (377, 0)  # bumped 2026-04-22 to remove backoff
diff --git a/zproject/email_backends.py b/zproject/email_backends.py
index 66393b2a5d..1bcc440cf2 100644
--- a/zproject/email_backends.py
+++ b/zproject/email_backends.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from collections.abc import Sequence
 from email.message import Message
 from typing import Any
 
-import backoff
+import tenacity
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.mail import EmailMultiAlternatives
 from django.core.mail.backends.smtp import EmailBackend
@@ -21,14 +21,19 @@ MAX_CONNECTION_TRIES = 3
 # errors (ConnectionError, TimeoutError) and SMTPServerDisconnected
 # (dropped connection), but not on SMTP protocol errors like
 # SMTPAuthenticationError, SMTPRecipientsRefused, or SMTPDataError.
-smtp_connection_backoff = backoff.on_exception(
-    backoff.expo,
-    OSError,
-    max_tries=MAX_CONNECTION_TRIES,
-    logger=None,
-    giveup=lambda e: (
-        isinstance(e, smtplib.SMTPException) and not isinstance(e, smtplib.SMTPServerDisconnected)
+smtp_connection_backoff = tenacity.retry(
+    wait=tenacity.wait_exponential_jitter(),
+    retry=tenacity.retry_if_exception(
+        lambda exc: (
+            isinstance(exc, OSError)
+            and (
+                not isinstance(exc, smtplib.SMTPException)
+                or isinstance(exc, smtplib.SMTPServerDisconnected)
+            )
+        )
     ),
+    stop=tenacity.stop_after_attempt(MAX_CONNECTION_TRIES),
+    reraise=True,
 )