diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index 146b103b..297bdc87 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 * test installation in virtualenv from pypi
 ```
-mkvirtualenv test --python=python3.9
+mkvirtualenv test --python=python3.12
 (test) pip install sbmlutils
 ```