diff --git a/recipes/vsearch/meta.yaml b/recipes/vsearch/meta.yaml
index 567ff829032021..7cee8874d5bbbf 100644
--- a/recipes/vsearch/meta.yaml
+++ b/recipes/vsearch/meta.yaml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ requirements:
     - '{{ compiler("cxx") }}'
     - automake
     - autoconf
+    - m4
   host:
     - zlib
     - bzip2