diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
index cc935c2c879..6d725623b56 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -3365,7 +3365,7 @@ def summarize(self, patches):
     def check_requests(self, expected, patches):
         summary = self.summarize(patches)
         for k in summary:
-            assert summary[k] == expected[k], (k, summary)
+            assert summary[k] <= expected[k], (k, summary)
 
     def test_append(self) -> None:
         original = Dataset({"foo": ("x", [1])}, coords={"x": [0]})