diff --git a/duckduckgo_search/utils.py b/duckduckgo_search/utils.py
index daa957a..2ad107e 100644
--- a/duckduckgo_search/utils.py
+++ b/duckduckgo_search/utils.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import json
 import re
 from decimal import Decimal
 from html import unescape
@@ -5,8 +6,6 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Union
 from urllib.parse import unquote
 
-import orjson
-
 from .exceptions import DuckDuckGoSearchException
 
 REGEX_STRIP_TAGS = re.compile("<.*?>")
@@ -14,14 +13,14 @@
 
 def json_dumps(obj: Any) -> str:
     try:
-        return orjson.dumps(obj).decode("utf-8")
+        return json.dumps(obj)
     except Exception as ex:
         raise DuckDuckGoSearchException(f"{type(ex).__name__}: {ex}") from ex
 
 
 def json_loads(obj: Union[str, bytes]) -> Any:
     try:
-        return orjson.loads(obj)
+        return json.loads(obj)
     except Exception as ex:
         raise DuckDuckGoSearchException(f"{type(ex).__name__}: {ex}") from ex
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b065a5d..aafcc6e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ classifiers = [
 dependencies = [
     "click>=8.1.7",
     "pyreqwest_impersonate>=0.4.9",
-    "orjson>=3.10.6",
 ]
 dynamic = ["version"]