diff --git a/ReferenceUpdater/src/ReferenceUpdater.jl b/ReferenceUpdater/src/ReferenceUpdater.jl
index 7ef6479dc2a..cdb9d003cf8 100644
--- a/ReferenceUpdater/src/ReferenceUpdater.jl
+++ b/ReferenceUpdater/src/ReferenceUpdater.jl
@@ -9,6 +9,16 @@ import ZipFile
 import REPL
 import TOML
 
+function github_token()
+    get(ENV, "GITHUB_TOKEN") do
+        try
+            readchomp(`gh auth token`)
+        catch
+            error("""Could not find github authorization token, ENV["GITHUB_TOKEN"] is not defined and `gh auth token` failed as a fallback.""")
+        end
+    end
+end
+
 include("local_server.jl")
 include("image_download.jl")
 
diff --git a/ReferenceUpdater/src/image_download.jl b/ReferenceUpdater/src/image_download.jl
index 3dbe20d9365..063edf9860b 100644
--- a/ReferenceUpdater/src/image_download.jl
+++ b/ReferenceUpdater/src/image_download.jl
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ function upload_reference_images(path=basedir("recorded"), tag=last_major_versio
     mktempdir() do dir
         tarfile = joinpath(dir, "reference_images.tar")
         Tar.create(path, tarfile)
-        upload_release("MakieOrg", "Makie.jl", ENV["GITHUB_TOKEN"], tag, tarfile)
+        upload_release("MakieOrg", "Makie.jl", github_token(), tag, tarfile)
     end
 end
diff --git a/ReferenceUpdater/src/local_server.jl b/ReferenceUpdater/src/local_server.jl
index b76ba90eb2f..854ba474fad 100644
--- a/ReferenceUpdater/src/local_server.jl
+++ b/ReferenceUpdater/src/local_server.jl
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ function serve_update_page_from_dir(folder)
 end
 
 function serve_update_page(; commit = nothing, pr = nothing)
-    authget(url) = HTTP.get(url, Dict("Authorization" => "token $(ENV["GITHUB_TOKEN"])"))
+    authget(url) = HTTP.get(url, Dict("Authorization" => "token $(github_token())"))
 
     commit !== nothing && pr !== nothing && error("Keyword arguments `commit` and `pr` can't be set at once.")
     if pr !== nothing
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ function serve_update_page(; commit = nothing, pr = nothing)
             download_url = a["archive_download_url"]
             if !haskey(URL_CACHE, download_url)
                 @info "Downloading artifact from $download_url"
-                filepath = Downloads.download(download_url, headers = Dict("Authorization" => "token $(ENV["GITHUB_TOKEN"])"))
+                filepath = Downloads.download(download_url, headers = Dict("Authorization" => "token $(github_token())"))
                 @info "Download successful"
                 tmpdir = mktempdir()
                 unzip(filepath, tmpdir)