diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index c6a4d3f7..4e055fbb 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ before_install:
   - conda update --yes conda
   - conda install --yes numpy scipy
   - pip install --quiet pytest pytest-cov pytest-xdist chardet
+  - pip install ".[mysql]"
 
 install:
   - python setup.py install --quiet
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 98a117d5..0efec9a2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,6 +57,12 @@ If you have pip, you can automatically download and install from the [PyPI repos
 pip install pattern
 ```
 
+If you wish to use MySQL support, install specifying the optional extra
+requirement:
+```
+pip install pattern[mysql]
+```
+
 If none of the above works, you can make Python aware of the module in three ways:
 - Put the pattern folder in the same folder as your script.
 - Put the pattern folder in the standard location for modules so it is available to all scripts:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6b1a8866..92bf5ca5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -137,7 +137,6 @@
     install_requires = [
         "future",
         "backports.csv",
-        "mysqlclient",
         "beautifulsoup4",
         "lxml",
         "feedparser",
@@ -149,5 +148,8 @@
         "cherrypy",
         "requests"
     ],
+    extras_require = {
+        'mysql': ["mysqlclient"],
+    },
     zip_safe = False
 )