diff --git a/cmake/dependencies/glad.cmake b/cmake/dependencies/glad.cmake
--- a/cmake/dependencies/glad.cmake
+++ b/cmake/dependencies/glad.cmake
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ include_guard(GLOBAL)
 #
 # GLAD_SKIP_PIP_INSTALL is a hard override for environments where pip cannot run
 # at all (e.g. Flatpak, Homebrew). When OFF (the default) the code below checks
-# whether jinja2+setuptools are importable and pip-installs them if they are not.
-# When ON the caller is responsible for supplying a Python that already has jinja2,
+# whether jinja2 is importable and pip-installs it if it is not. When ON the caller
+# is responsible for supplying a Python that already has jinja2,
 # typically via -DPython_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/venv/python.
 option(GLAD_SKIP_PIP_INSTALL
         "Hard-skip pip install of jinja2 even if it is not importable. \
@@ -105,11 +105,11 @@ add_subdirectory("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/third-party/glad/cmake" glad2-cmake)
 unset(CMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM)
 
 if(NOT GLAD_SKIP_PIP_INSTALL)
-    # Check whether jinja2 and pkg_resources (setuptools) are already importable.
-    # pkg_resources is provided by setuptools, which is no longer bundled with Python 3.12+
-    # on several distros (Debian Trixie, Arch Linux, COPR, FreeBSD, etc.).
+    # Check whether jinja2 is already importable. Supported Python versions use
+    # importlib.metadata and importlib.resources in glad, so setuptools' legacy
+    # pkg_resources module is not required by the generator.
     execute_process(
-            COMMAND "${Python_EXECUTABLE}" -c "import jinja2; import pkg_resources"
+            COMMAND "${Python_EXECUTABLE}" -c "import jinja2"
             RESULT_VARIABLE _glad_deps_import_result
             OUTPUT_QUIET
             ERROR_QUIET
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ if(NOT GLAD_SKIP_PIP_INSTALL)
     )
 
     if(NOT _glad_deps_import_result EQUAL 0)
-        message(STATUS "glad: jinja2 or setuptools not found in ${Python_EXECUTABLE}, installing via pip...")
+        message(STATUS "glad: jinja2 not found in ${Python_EXECUTABLE}, installing via pip...")
 
         # Some system Python installations (e.g. FreeBSD ports) ship without pip.
         # Try to bootstrap it via ensurepip before falling back to the pip install.
@@ -149,12 +149,11 @@ if(NOT GLAD_SKIP_PIP_INSTALL)
                 COMMAND "${Python_EXECUTABLE}" -m pip install
                     --upgrade
                     --requirement "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/third-party/glad/requirements.txt"
-                    "setuptools<81"
                     --quiet
                 COMMAND_ERROR_IS_FATAL ANY
         )
     else()
-        message(STATUS "glad: jinja2 and setuptools already available in ${Python_EXECUTABLE}, skipping pip install")
+        message(STATUS "glad: jinja2 already available in ${Python_EXECUTABLE}, skipping pip install")
     endif()
 endif()