diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 09a10276c..aa724825b 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Imports:
     callr,
     cli,
     digest,
+    DT,
     ellipsis,
     git2r (>= 0.23.0),
     httr (>= 0.4),
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index a201e9c0e..45e2a79f3 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ export(update_packages)
 export(uses_testthat)
 export(wd)
 export(with_debug)
+importFrom(DT,datatable)
 importFrom(cli,cat_bullet)
 importFrom(cli,cat_line)
 importFrom(cli,cat_rule)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 00bf68b0d..3a5f83e3d 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # devtools (development version)
 
+* Add the DT package as a dependency, so that `test_coverage()` and
+  `test_coverage_file()` work without having to install additional packages
+  (#2085).
+
 * All functions taking `...` now use the ellipsis package. This catches errors
   when arguments are misspelled or incorrectly specified (#2016)
 
diff --git a/R/test.R b/R/test.R
index ef493defc..fb469f4e6 100644
--- a/R/test.R
+++ b/R/test.R
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ test <- function(pkg = ".", filter = NULL, ...) {
 #' @param show_report Show the test coverage report.
 #' @export
 #' @rdname test
+#' @importFrom DT datatable
+# we now depend on DT in devtools so DT is installed when users call test_coverage
 test_coverage <- function(pkg = ".", show_report = interactive(), ...) {
   pkg <- as.package(pkg)