diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 77af6608f3a..8c666f94890 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ install_requires =
     pyyaml>=4.2b1
     setuptools>=19.6
     sympy!=1.9,>=1.2  # see https://github.com/sympy/sympy/issues/22241
-    toml>=0.10.2
+    tomli>=1.2.3
+    tomli-w>=0.4.0
     tqdm>=3.4.0
     unyt>=2.8.0
 python_requires = >=3.7,<3.12
@@ -103,6 +104,8 @@ minimal =
     matplotlib==2.2.3
     more-itertools==8.4
     numpy==1.14.5
+    tomli==1.2.3
+    tomli-w==0.4.0
     unyt==2.8.0
 test =
     codecov~=2.0.15
diff --git a/yt/config.py b/yt/config.py
index d2e3868b9c3..08bf0db65d3 100644
--- a/yt/config.py
+++ b/yt/config.py
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 import os
 import warnings
 
-import toml
+# TODO: import tomllib from the standard library instead in Python >= 3.11
+import tomli as tomllib
+import tomli_w
 from more_itertools import always_iterable
 
 from yt.utilities.configuration_tree import ConfigLeaf, ConfigNode
@@ -144,14 +146,16 @@ def read(self, file_names):
             if not os.path.exists(fname):
                 continue
             metadata = {"source": f"file: {fname}"}
-            self.update(toml.load(fname), metadata=metadata)
+            with open(fname, "rb") as fh:
+                data = tomllib.load(fh)
+            self.update(data, metadata=metadata)
             file_names_read.append(fname)
 
         return file_names_read
 
     def write(self, file_handler):
         value = self.config_root.as_dict()
-        config_as_str = toml.dumps(value)
+        config_as_str = tomli_w.dumps(value)
 
         try:
             # Assuming file_handler has a write attribute
@@ -192,8 +196,8 @@ def _repr_json_(self):
 if not os.path.exists(_global_config_file):
     cfg = {"yt": {}}  # type: ignore
     try:
-        with open(_global_config_file, mode="w") as fd:
-            toml.dump(cfg, fd)
+        with open(_global_config_file, mode="wb") as fd:
+            tomli_w.dump(cfg, fd)
     except OSError:
         warnings.warn("unable to write new config file")