diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 473484d..14ae46c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Changed
+- `PocketICServer` now looks for the PocketIC binary in the `POCKET_IC_BIN` environment variable, or in the working directory, or on the PATH, in that order of precedence.
+
+
 ## 3.1.0 - 2025-04-28
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/pocket_ic/pocket_ic_server.py b/pocket_ic/pocket_ic_server.py
index 85b37f9..f3b97eb 100644
--- a/pocket_ic/pocket_ic_server.py
+++ b/pocket_ic/pocket_ic_server.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 """
 
 import os
+import shutil
 import time
 import requests
 from typing import List, Optional
@@ -13,8 +14,8 @@ class PocketICServer:
     """
     An object of this class represents a running PocketIC server. During instantiation,
     a running server is discovered, or a new one is launched from the PocketIC binary,
-    which is assumed to be in your working directory or specified via the POCKET_IC_BIN
-    environment variable.
+    which is assumed to be specified via the POCKET_IC_BIN environment variable, be on your
+    PATH, or in your working directory, in that order of precedence.
 
     All tests within a testsuite should use the same server, so the service
     discovery mechanism uses the current process id. This means that only the first
@@ -29,6 +30,8 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         pid = os.getpid()
         if "POCKET_IC_BIN" in os.environ:
             bin_path = os.environ["POCKET_IC_BIN"]
+        elif shutil.which("pocket-ic") is not None:
+            bin_path = "pocket-ic"
         else:
             bin_path = "./pocket-ic"