diff --git a/src/connectrpc/_protocol_grpc.py b/src/connectrpc/_protocol_grpc.py
index 9b77f11..242d4aa 100644
--- a/src/connectrpc/_protocol_grpc.py
+++ b/src/connectrpc/_protocol_grpc.py
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@
 from http import HTTPStatus
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, TypeVar
 
-from pyqwest import Headers as HTTPHeaders
-
 from ._compression import IdentityCompression, negotiate_compression
 from ._envelope import EnvelopeReader, EnvelopeWriter
 from ._gen.google.rpc.status_pb import Status
@@ -27,7 +25,7 @@
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Mapping
 
-    from pyqwest import Response, SyncResponse
+    from pyqwest import Headers as HTTPHeaders, Response, SyncResponse
 
     from ._codec import Codec
     from ._compression import Compression
@@ -412,6 +410,10 @@ def __init__(
         read_max_bytes: int | None,
     ) -> None:
         super().__init__(message_class, codec, compression, read_max_bytes)
+
+        # We lazy import to avoid eagerly importing the client for server-only code.
+        from pyqwest import Headers as HTTPHeaders  # noqa: PLC0415
+
         self._trailers = HTTPHeaders()
 
     def handle_end_message(