diff --git a/.changeset/shaggy-suns-warn.md b/.changeset/shaggy-suns-warn.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..561c3bab2bf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/shaggy-suns-warn.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"wrangler": patch
+---
+
+fix: remove `--prefer-offline` when running `npm install`
+
+We were using `--prefer-offline` when running `npm install` during `wrangler init`. The behaviour is odd, it doesn't seem to fetch from the remote when the cache isn't hit, which is not what I'm expecting. So we remove `--prefer-offline`.
diff --git a/packages/wrangler/src/index.tsx b/packages/wrangler/src/index.tsx
index 39b574a3830a..c70ec9a40eda 100644
--- a/packages/wrangler/src/index.tsx
+++ b/packages/wrangler/src/index.tsx
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ export async function main(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
               "  "
             ) + "\n"
           );
-          await execa("npm", ["install", "--prefer-offline"], {
+          await execa("npm", ["install"], {
             stdio: "inherit",
           });
           console.log(`✨ Created package.json`);
@@ -264,12 +264,7 @@ export async function main(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
           if (shouldInstall) {
             await execa(
               "npm",
-              [
-                "install",
-                `wrangler@${wranglerVersion}`,
-                "--save-dev",
-                "--prefer-offline",
-              ],
+              ["install", `wrangler@${wranglerVersion}`, "--save-dev"],
               {
                 stdio: "inherit",
               }
@@ -309,12 +304,7 @@ export async function main(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
           );
           await execa(
             "npm",
-            [
-              "install",
-              "@cloudflare/workers-types",
-              "--save-dev",
-              "--prefer-offline",
-            ],
+            ["install", "@cloudflare/workers-types", "--save-dev"],
             { stdio: "inherit" }
           );
           console.log(
@@ -340,12 +330,7 @@ export async function main(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
           if (shouldInstall) {
             await execa(
               "npm",
-              [
-                "install",
-                "@cloudflare/workers-types",
-                "--save-dev",
-                "--prefer-offline",
-              ],
+              ["install", "@cloudflare/workers-types", "--save-dev"],
               {
                 stdio: "inherit",
               }