diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 06c8a715757..64718e30cdc 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ criterion = { version = "0.5.1", default-features = false }
 dify = { version = "0.7", default-features = false }
 document-features = "0.2.10"
 glow = "0.14"
-glutin = "0.32.0"
-glutin-winit = "0.5.0"
+glutin = { version = "0.32.0", default-features = false }
+glutin-winit = { version = "0.5.0", default-features = false }
 home = "0.5.9"
 image = { version = "0.25", default-features = false }
 kittest = { git = "https://github.com/rerun-io/kittest", version = "0.1", branch = "main" }
diff --git a/crates/eframe/Cargo.toml b/crates/eframe/Cargo.toml
index 8e6b8cf7bb0..87ab1d3b2c9 100644
--- a/crates/eframe/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/eframe/Cargo.toml
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ puffin = [
 ]
 
 ## Enables wayland support and fixes clipboard issue.
-wayland = ["egui-winit/wayland", "egui-wgpu?/wayland", "egui_glow?/wayland"]
+wayland = ["egui-winit/wayland", "egui-wgpu?/wayland", "egui_glow?/wayland", "glutin?/wayland", "glutin-winit?/wayland"]
 
 ## Enable screen reader support (requires `ctx.options_mut(|o| o.screen_reader = true);`) on web.
 ##
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ web_screen_reader = [
 wgpu = ["dep:wgpu", "dep:egui-wgpu", "dep:pollster"]
 
 ## Enables compiling for x11.
-x11 = ["egui-winit/x11", "egui-wgpu?/x11", "egui_glow?/x11"]
+x11 = ["egui-winit/x11", "egui-wgpu?/x11", "egui_glow?/x11", "glutin?/x11", "glutin?/glx", "glutin-winit?/x11", "glutin-winit?/glx"]
 
 ## If set, eframe will look for the env-var `EFRAME_SCREENSHOT_TO` and write a screenshot to that location, and then quit.
 ## This is used to generate images for examples.
@@ -154,10 +154,8 @@ egui-wgpu = { workspace = true, optional = true, features = [
 ] } # if wgpu is used, use it with winit
 pollster = { workspace = true, optional = true } # needed for wgpu
 
-# we can expose these to user so that they can select which backends they want to enable to avoid compiling useless deps.
-# this can be done at the same time we expose x11/wayland features of winit crate.
-glutin = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-glutin-winit = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+glutin = { workspace = true, optional = true, default-features = false, features = ["egl", "wgl"] }
+glutin-winit = { workspace = true, optional = true, default-features = false, features = ["egl", "wgl"] }
 home = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 puffin = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 wgpu = { workspace = true, optional = true, features = [
diff --git a/crates/egui_glow/Cargo.toml b/crates/egui_glow/Cargo.toml
index 094d537dafc..2bb184c833b 100644
--- a/crates/egui_glow/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/egui_glow/Cargo.toml
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ wasm-bindgen.workspace = true
 
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-glutin.workspace = true       # examples/pure_glow
-glutin-winit.workspace = true
+glutin = { workspace = true, default-features = true }       # examples/pure_glow
+glutin-winit = { workspace = true, default-features = true }
 
 [[example]]
 name = "pure_glow"