diff --git a/src/scanpy/plotting/_rcmod.py b/src/scanpy/plotting/_rcmod.py
index 525f3e97d..f55dd4f21 100644
--- a/src/scanpy/plotting/_rcmod.py
+++ b/src/scanpy/plotting/_rcmod.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ def set_rcParams_scanpy(fontsize=14, color_map=None):
     rcParams["ytick.labelsize"] = fontsize
 
     # axes grid
-    rcParams["axes.grid"] = True
+    rcParams["axes.grid"] = False
     rcParams["grid.color"] = ".8"
 
     # color map