diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1414c99a9f..1231d320dc 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ check_pins: $(COMMON_CONSTRAINTS_TXT) ## check that our local copy of edx-platfo
 
 upgrade: export CUSTOM_COMPILE_COMMAND=make upgrade
 upgrade: check_pins  ## update the requirements/*.txt files with the latest packages satisfying requirements/*.in
+	$(PIP_COMPILE) --no-emit-trusted-host --no-emit-index-url -o requirements/pip.txt requirements/pip.in
 	$(PIP_COMPILE) --no-emit-trusted-host --no-emit-index-url -o requirements/test-master.txt requirements/test-master.in
 	$(PIP_COMPILE) --no-emit-trusted-host --no-emit-index-url -o requirements/doc.txt requirements/doc.in
 	$(PIP_COMPILE) --no-emit-trusted-host --no-emit-index-url -o requirements/test.txt requirements/test.in
diff --git a/requirements/pip.in b/requirements/pip.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..715478cdc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/pip.in
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+-c constraints.txt
+# Core dependencies for installing other packages
+
+pip
+setuptools
+wheel
+
diff --git a/requirements/pip.txt b/requirements/pip.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cbfd6c73e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/pip.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#
+# This file is autogenerated by pip-compile with python 3.9
+# To update, run:
+#
+#    make upgrade
+#
+wheel==0.40.0
+    # via -r requirements/pip.in
+
+# The following packages are considered to be unsafe in a requirements file:
+# pip
+# setuptools