diff --git a/changelog/5806.bugfix.rst b/changelog/5806.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ec887768d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/5806.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix "lexer" being used when uploading to bpaste.net from ``--pastebin`` to "text".
diff --git a/src/_pytest/pastebin.py b/src/_pytest/pastebin.py
index 41576a615..7a3e80231 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/pastebin.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/pastebin.py
@@ -77,11 +77,7 @@ def create_new_paste(contents):
         from urllib.request import urlopen
         from urllib.parse import urlencode
 
-    params = {
-        "code": contents,
-        "lexer": "python3" if sys.version_info[0] >= 3 else "python",
-        "expiry": "1week",
-    }
+    params = {"code": contents, "lexer": "text", "expiry": "1week"}
     url = "https://bpaste.net"
     response = urlopen(url, data=urlencode(params).encode("ascii")).read()
     m = re.search(r'href="/raw/(\w+)"', response.decode("utf-8"))
diff --git a/testing/test_pastebin.py b/testing/test_pastebin.py
index bac8f9802..02efdb554 100644
--- a/testing/test_pastebin.py
+++ b/testing/test_pastebin.py
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ class TestPaste(object):
         assert len(mocked_urlopen) == 1
         url, data = mocked_urlopen[0]
         assert type(data) is bytes
-        lexer = "python3" if sys.version_info[0] >= 3 else "python"
+        lexer = "text"
         assert url == "https://bpaste.net"
         assert "lexer=%s" % lexer in data.decode()
         assert "code=full-paste-contents" in data.decode()