diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 0c5fda16e..1b77249e8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ jobs:
           "ubuntu-py39",
           "ubuntu-py310",
           "ubuntu-py311",
+          "ubuntu-py311-exceptiongroup",
           "ubuntu-pypy3",
 
           "macos-py37",
@@ -114,6 +115,10 @@ jobs:
             python: "3.11-dev"
             os: ubuntu-latest
             tox_env: "py311"
+          - name: "ubuntu-py311-exceptiongroup"
+            python: "3.11-dev"
+            os: ubuntu-latest
+            tox_env: "py311-exceptiongroup"
           - name: "ubuntu-pypy3"
             python: "pypy-3.7"
             os: ubuntu-latest
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index cb26b74f5..68d1e3cc0 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ repos:
           - packaging
           - tomli
           - types-pkg_resources
+            # for python>=3.11
           - exceptiongroup>=1.0.0rc8
 -   repo: local
     hooks:
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 3545a9503..38f50556c 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ install_requires =
     pluggy>=0.12,<2.0
     py>=1.8.2
     colorama;sys_platform=="win32"
+    exceptiongroup>=1.0.0rc8;python_version<"3.11"
     importlib-metadata>=0.12;python_version<"3.8"
     tomli>=1.0.0;python_version<"3.11"
 python_requires = >=3.7
diff --git a/src/_pytest/_code/code.py b/src/_pytest/_code/code.py
index 34bf7bce8..bd7fac634 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/_code/code.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/_code/code.py
@@ -56,14 +56,11 @@ if TYPE_CHECKING:
 
     _TracebackStyle = Literal["long", "short", "line", "no", "native", "value", "auto"]
 
-BaseExceptionGroup: Optional[Type[BaseException]]
+BaseExceptionGroup: Type[BaseException]
 try:
     BaseExceptionGroup = BaseExceptionGroup  # type: ignore
 except NameError:
-    try:
-        from exceptiongroup import BaseExceptionGroup
-    except ModuleNotFoundError:
-        BaseExceptionGroup = None
+    from exceptiongroup import BaseExceptionGroup
 
 
 class Code:
@@ -936,7 +933,7 @@ class FormattedExcinfo:
                 # Fall back to native traceback as a temporary workaround until
                 # full support for exception groups added to ExceptionInfo.
                 # See https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/9159
-                if BaseExceptionGroup is not None and isinstance(e, BaseExceptionGroup):
+                if isinstance(e, BaseExceptionGroup):
                     reprtraceback: Union[
                         ReprTracebackNative, ReprTraceback
                     ] = ReprTracebackNative(
diff --git a/testing/code/test_excinfo.py b/testing/code/test_excinfo.py
index 2e5cc03e5..e428b9c5c 100644
--- a/testing/code/test_excinfo.py
+++ b/testing/code/test_excinfo.py
@@ -1478,8 +1478,8 @@ def _exceptiongroup_common(
     inner_chain: str,
     native: bool,
 ) -> None:
-    pre = "exceptiongroup." if not native else ""
-    pre2 = pre if sys.version_info < (3, 11) else ""
+    pre_raise = "exceptiongroup." if not native else ""
+    pre_catch = pre_raise if sys.version_info < (3, 11) else ""
     filestr = f"""
     {"import exceptiongroup" if not native else ""}
     import pytest
@@ -1496,19 +1496,19 @@ def _exceptiongroup_common(
                 excs.append(err)
         if excs:
             if inner_chain == "none":
-                raise {pre}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs)
+                raise {pre_raise}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs)
             try:
                 raise SyntaxError()
             except SyntaxError as e:
                 if inner_chain == "from":
-                    raise {pre}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs) from e
+                    raise {pre_raise}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs) from e
                 else:
-                    raise {pre}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs)
+                    raise {pre_raise}BaseExceptionGroup("Oops", excs)
 
     def outer(outer_chain, inner_chain):
         try:
             inner(inner_chain)
-        except {pre2}BaseExceptionGroup as e:
+        except {pre_catch}BaseExceptionGroup as e:
             if outer_chain == "none":
                 raise
             if outer_chain == "from":
@@ -1528,7 +1528,7 @@ def _exceptiongroup_common(
 
     match_lines += [
         r"  + Exception Group Traceback (most recent call last):",
-        rf"  \| {pre2}BaseExceptionGroup: Oops \(2 sub-exceptions\)",
+        rf"  \| {pre_catch}BaseExceptionGroup: Oops \(2 sub-exceptions\)",
         r"    \| ValueError: From f\(\)",
         r"    \| BaseException: From g\(\)",
         r"=* short test summary info =*",
@@ -1537,7 +1537,7 @@ def _exceptiongroup_common(
         match_lines.append(r"FAILED test_excgroup.py::test - IndexError")
     else:
         match_lines.append(
-            rf"FAILED test_excgroup.py::test - {pre2}BaseExceptionGroup: Oops \(2 su.*"
+            rf"FAILED test_excgroup.py::test - {pre_catch}BaseExceptionGroup: Oops \(2.*"
         )
     result.stdout.re_match_lines(match_lines)
 
@@ -1554,5 +1554,6 @@ def test_native_exceptiongroup(pytester: Pytester, outer_chain, inner_chain) ->
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("outer_chain", ["none", "from", "another"])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("inner_chain", ["none", "from", "another"])
 def test_exceptiongroup(pytester: Pytester, outer_chain, inner_chain) -> None:
+    # with py>=3.11 does not depend on exceptiongroup, though there is a toxenv for it
     pytest.importorskip("exceptiongroup")
     _exceptiongroup_common(pytester, outer_chain, inner_chain, native=False)