diff --git a/.github/workflows/_checks.yml b/.github/workflows/_checks.yml
index 60021cc..2a98dda 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_checks.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_checks.yml
@@ -136,10 +136,6 @@ jobs:
 
   freethreaded:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    env:
-      # SQLAlchemy's cyext ships cp314t wheels but doesn't declare free-thread
-      # safety, so importing it re-enables the GIL; use its pure-Python fallback.
-      DISABLE_SQLALCHEMY_CEXT_RUNTIME: 1
     services:
       postgres:
         image: postgres:17
diff --git a/docs/adr/0002-free-threading-is-compat-only.md b/docs/adr/0002-free-threading-is-compat-only.md
index 868851f..99e3dbc 100644
--- a/docs/adr/0002-free-threading-is-compat-only.md
+++ b/docs/adr/0002-free-threading-is-compat-only.md
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@ free-threading changes none of its runtime semantics and the guarantee costs a C
 `Free Threading :: 2 - Beta` classifier, and a docs note rather than a source change. Exploiting the
 parallelism was rejected because the two-loop subscriber, the lease-token invariant, and
 drain-on-stop all assume one loop, throughput is dominated by Postgres I/O, and scaling today means
-running more subscriber processes. The guarantee is bounded by SQLAlchemy: its Cython extensions do
-not declare `Py_MOD_GIL_NOT_USED` and re-enable the GIL process-wide on import, so
-`DISABLE_SQLALCHEMY_CEXT_RUNTIME=1` is load-bearing until upstream fixes that
-([#160](https://github.com/modern-python/faststream-outbox/issues/160)). 3.13t is not a target
+running more subscriber processes. The guarantee was bounded by SQLAlchemy until 2.0.54, whose
+cyextensions declare `Py_MOD_GIL_NOT_USED`; below it, importing SQLAlchemy re-enabled the GIL
+process-wide, which is why 2.0.54 is the floor on 3.14. 3.13t is not a target
 because the compiled dependencies ship `cp314t` wheels only.
diff --git a/docs/introduction/installation.md b/docs/introduction/installation.md
index f053e6f..60aa19e 100644
--- a/docs/introduction/installation.md
+++ b/docs/introduction/installation.md
@@ -39,17 +39,15 @@ asyncio, so nothing in it depends on the GIL; installing on a `python3.14t`
 interpreter resolves the free-threaded wheels of the compiled dependencies
 (`asyncpg`, `sqlalchemy`, `pydantic-core`) automatically.
 
-!!! note "Keep the GIL disabled: `DISABLE_SQLALCHEMY_CEXT_RUNTIME=1`"
+!!! note "A dependency that has not declared free-thread safety re-enables the GIL"
 
-    SQLAlchemy's Cython extensions ship free-threaded wheels but do not yet
-    declare themselves free-thread-safe, so importing SQLAlchemy re-enables the
-    GIL process-wide. Your outbox code still runs correctly either way, but if
-    you want the GIL to stay disabled — for example because other parts of your
-    process use threads for parallelism — set `DISABLE_SQLALCHEMY_CEXT_RUNTIME=1`
-    (SQLAlchemy's own switch; it falls back to pure-Python implementations). This
-    is what CI runs, and it is what lets the GIL stay off.
+    CPython re-enables the GIL process-wide when it imports an extension module
+    that has not declared itself free-thread-safe. The outbox's own runtime
+    dependencies are clear of this: SQLAlchemy declares safety as of 2.0.54,
+    which is the floor on 3.14 for that reason, and `asyncpg` and
+    `pydantic-core` never had the problem.
 
-    The same caveat applies to any foreign-broker client you install for the
+    It still applies to any foreign-broker client you install for the
     [relay feature](../usage/relay.md): if it hasn't declared free-thread safety
     (for example `aiokafka`), importing it re-enables the GIL. That is the
     client library's limitation, not the outbox's — your outbox code still runs
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e76a658..4201234 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -27,7 +27,12 @@ dependencies = [
     # because 2.0 is fine on 3.11/3.12 and there is no reason to raise the floor for older
     # interpreters.
     "sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0; python_version < '3.13'",
-    "sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0.31; python_version >= '3.13'",
+    "sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0.31; python_version == '3.13'",
+    # 2.0.54 is the first release whose cyextensions declare Py_MOD_GIL_NOT_USED. Below it,
+    # importing SQLAlchemy re-enables the GIL process-wide on a free-threaded interpreter. There is
+    # no marker for a free-threaded build, so ordinary 3.14 carries the same floor for a reason that
+    # only affects 3.14t.
+    "sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0.54; python_version >= '3.14'",
     # Not imported here: faststream pulls pydantic through fast-depends[pydantic], which allows it
     # back to 1.x. FastStream's serializer calls model_dump, so publishing a model raises
     # AttributeError on pydantic 1 — v2 is a real requirement of ours, not a preference. The two