diff --git a/axum-core/Cargo.toml b/axum-core/Cargo.toml
index 6ead90a7..4c4904c7 100644
--- a/axum-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/axum-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ readme = "README.md"
 repository = "https://github.com/tokio-rs/axum"
 version = "0.3.3" # remember to also bump the version that axum depends on
 
+[features]
+__private_docs = ["dep:tower-http"]
+
 [dependencies]
 async-trait = "0.1"
 bytes = "1.0"
@@ -21,6 +24,9 @@ mime = "0.3.16"
 tower-layer = "0.3"
 tower-service = "0.3"
 
+# optional dependencies
+tower-http = { version = "0.4", optional = true, features = ["limit"] }
+
 [build-dependencies]
 rustversion = "1.0.9"
 
diff --git a/axum-core/src/extract/default_body_limit.rs b/axum-core/src/extract/default_body_limit.rs
index 26891548..7b37f1ed 100644
--- a/axum-core/src/extract/default_body_limit.rs
+++ b/axum-core/src/extract/default_body_limit.rs
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ use tower_layer::Layer;
 /// [`Json`]: https://docs.rs/axum/0.6.0/axum/struct.Json.html
 /// [`Form`]: https://docs.rs/axum/0.6.0/axum/struct.Form.html
 /// [`FromRequest`]: crate::extract::FromRequest
-/// [`RequestBodyLimit`]: https://docs.rs/tower-http/latest/tower_http/limit/struct.RequestBodyLimit.html
+/// [`RequestBodyLimit`]: tower_http::limit::RequestBodyLimit
 /// [`RequestExt::with_limited_body`]: crate::RequestExt::with_limited_body
 /// [`RequestExt::into_limited_body`]: crate::RequestExt::into_limited_body
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
@@ -113,7 +113,6 @@ impl DefaultBodyLimit {
     ///     .layer(RequestBodyLimitLayer::new(10 * 1000 * 1000));
     /// ```
     ///
-    /// [`tower_http::limit`]: https://docs.rs/tower-http/0.3.4/tower_http/limit/index.html
     /// [`Bytes`]: bytes::Bytes
     /// [`Json`]: https://docs.rs/axum/0.6.0/axum/struct.Json.html
     /// [`Form`]: https://docs.rs/axum/0.6.0/axum/struct.Form.html
diff --git a/axum-core/src/extract/rejection.rs b/axum-core/src/extract/rejection.rs
index 8afe112a..09d70191 100644
--- a/axum-core/src/extract/rejection.rs
+++ b/axum-core/src/extract/rejection.rs
@@ -30,8 +30,6 @@ define_rejection! {
     ///
     /// This can  _only_ happen when you're using [`tower_http::limit::RequestBodyLimitLayer`] or
     /// otherwise wrapping request bodies in [`http_body::Limited`].
-    ///
-    /// [`tower_http::limit::RequestBodyLimitLayer`]: https://docs.rs/tower-http/0.3/tower_http/limit/struct.RequestBodyLimitLayer.html
     pub struct LengthLimitError(Error);
 }
 
diff --git a/axum/Cargo.toml b/axum/Cargo.toml
index fef5a5ec..bf05310e 100644
--- a/axum/Cargo.toml
+++ b/axum/Cargo.toml
@@ -27,38 +27,7 @@ tower-log = ["tower/log"]
 ws = ["tokio", "dep:tokio-tungstenite", "dep:sha1", "dep:base64"]
 
 # Required for intra-doc links to resolve correctly
-__private_docs = [
-    "tower/full",
-    # all tower-http features except (de)?compression-zstd which doesn't
-    # build on `--target armv5te-unknown-linux-musleabi`
-    "tower-http/add-extension",
-    "tower-http/auth",
-    "tower-http/catch-panic",
-    "tower-http/compression-br",
-    "tower-http/compression-deflate",
-    "tower-http/compression-gzip",
-    "tower-http/cors",
-    "tower-http/decompression-br",
-    "tower-http/decompression-deflate",
-    "tower-http/decompression-gzip",
-    "tower-http/follow-redirect",
-    "tower-http/fs",
-    "tower-http/limit",
-    "tower-http/map-request-body",
-    "tower-http/map-response-body",
-    "tower-http/metrics",
-    "tower-http/normalize-path",
-    "tower-http/propagate-header",
-    "tower-http/redirect",
-    "tower-http/request-id",
-    "tower-http/sensitive-headers",
-    "tower-http/set-header",
-    "tower-http/set-status",
-    "tower-http/timeout",
-    "tower-http/trace",
-    "tower-http/util",
-    "tower-http/validate-request",
-]
+__private_docs = ["tower/full", "dep:tower-http"]
 
 [dependencies]
 async-trait = "0.1.43"
@@ -92,7 +61,41 @@ serde_urlencoded = { version = "0.7", optional = true }
 sha1 = { version = "0.10", optional = true }
 tokio = { package = "tokio", version = "1.25.0", features = ["time"], optional = true }
 tokio-tungstenite = { version = "0.18.0", optional = true }
-tower-http = { version = "0.4", features = ["util", "map-response-body"], optional = true }
+
+[dependencies.tower-http]
+version = "0.4"
+optional = true
+features = [
+    # all tower-http features except (de)?compression-zstd which doesn't
+    # build on `--target armv5te-unknown-linux-musleabi`
+    "add-extension",
+    "auth",
+    "catch-panic",
+    "compression-br",
+    "compression-deflate",
+    "compression-gzip",
+    "cors",
+    "decompression-br",
+    "decompression-deflate",
+    "decompression-gzip",
+    "follow-redirect",
+    "fs",
+    "limit",
+    "map-request-body",
+    "map-response-body",
+    "metrics",
+    "normalize-path",
+    "propagate-header",
+    "redirect",
+    "request-id",
+    "sensitive-headers",
+    "set-header",
+    "set-status",
+    "timeout",
+    "trace",
+    "util",
+    "validate-request",
+]
 
 [build-dependencies]
 rustversion = "1.0.9"