diff --git a/src/crewai/knowledge/source/pdf_knowledge_source.py b/src/crewai/knowledge/source/pdf_knowledge_source.py
index a08f16e5d..672c86355 100644
--- a/src/crewai/knowledge/source/pdf_knowledge_source.py
+++ b/src/crewai/knowledge/source/pdf_knowledge_source.py
@@ -14,6 +14,15 @@ from crewai.knowledge.source.base_file_knowledge_source import BaseFileKnowledge
 class PDFKnowledgeSource(BaseFileKnowledgeSource):
     """A knowledge source that stores and queries PDF file content using embeddings."""
 
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        """Initialize PDFKnowledgeSource and check for pdfplumber availability."""
+        if not PDFPLUMBER_AVAILABLE:
+            raise ImportError(
+                "pdfplumber is required for PDF knowledge sources. "
+                "Please install it with: pip install 'crewai[knowledge]'"
+            )
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
     def load_content(self) -> Dict[Path, str]:
         """Load and preprocess PDF file content."""
         if not PDFPLUMBER_AVAILABLE:
diff --git a/tests/test_optional_dependencies.py b/tests/test_optional_dependencies.py
index ef913e1d3..aafc1fc64 100644
--- a/tests/test_optional_dependencies.py
+++ b/tests/test_optional_dependencies.py
@@ -44,10 +44,8 @@ class TestOptionalDependencies:
                 test_file.touch()
                 
                 try:
-                    pdf_source = PDFKnowledgeSource(file_paths=["test.pdf"])
-                    
                     with pytest.raises(ImportError) as exc_info:
-                        pdf_source._import_pdfplumber()
+                        PDFKnowledgeSource(file_paths=["test.pdf"])
                     
                     assert "pdfplumber is required" in str(exc_info.value)
                     assert "crewai[knowledge]" in str(exc_info.value)