diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
index 1e02e6b1df..857c7cd845 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-sphinx>=2.0
+sphinx>=2.0, <3.0
 recommonmark  # fails with badges
 m2r  # fails with multi-line text
 nbsphinx
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ sphinxcontrib-mockautodoc
 git+https://github.com/PytorchLightning/lightning_sphinx_theme.git
 # pip_shims
 sphinx-autodoc-typehints
-sphinx-paramlinks
\ No newline at end of file
+sphinx-paramlinks
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 66b09c6b63..4d181c67fb 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ release = pytorch_lightning.__version__
 
 # If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
 
-needs_sphinx = '1.4'
+needs_sphinx = '2.0'
 
 # Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
 # extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom