diff --git a/docs/release-notes/1.8.0.rst b/docs/release-notes/1.8.0.rst
index ebeff58b4b..4c136115e2 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes/1.8.0.rst
+++ b/docs/release-notes/1.8.0.rst
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 .. rubric:: Bug fixes
 
 - Fix :func:`scanpy.pl.paga_path` `TypeError` with recent versions of anndata :pr:`1047` :smaller:`P Angerer`
+- Fix detection of whether IPython is running :pr:`1844` :smaller:`I Virshup`
 
 .. rubric:: Deprecations
 
diff --git a/scanpy/_settings.py b/scanpy/_settings.py
index e217b36083..f694693b13 100644
--- a/scanpy/_settings.py
+++ b/scanpy/_settings.py
@@ -470,8 +470,9 @@ def set_figure_params(
     @staticmethod
     def _is_run_from_ipython():
         """Determines whether we're currently in IPython."""
-        # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40638507/testing-for-presence-of-ipython
-        return hasattr(__builtins__, "__IPYTHON__")
+        import builtins
+
+        return getattr(builtins, "__IPYTHON__", False)
 
     def __str__(self) -> str:
         return '\n'.join(