diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 8d31170560c..1b8d48e9ff7 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -257,6 +257,7 @@ Mandeep Bhutani
 Manuel Krebber
 Marc Mueller
 Marc Schlaich
+Marcel Telka
 Marcelo Duarte Trevisani
 Marcin Bachry
 Marc Bresson
diff --git a/changelog/12615.bugfix.rst b/changelog/12615.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7ef0ea5e7ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/12615.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Plugins specified in the :globalvar:`pytest_plugins` config setting and
+:envvar:`PYTEST_PLUGINS` environment variable now allow using
+:ref:`entry points <pip-installable plugins>` names additionally to the
+importable definitions. Prior to this release, these identifiers used to only
+work with the `-p` CLI option.
diff --git a/doc/en/reference/reference.rst b/doc/en/reference/reference.rst
index d1222728e13..4911f16aa92 100644
--- a/doc/en/reference/reference.rst
+++ b/doc/en/reference/reference.rst
@@ -1153,7 +1153,7 @@ specified plugins will be loaded.
 
 .. envvar:: PYTEST_PLUGINS
 
-Contains comma-separated list of modules that should be loaded as plugins:
+Contains comma-separated list of modules or entry points that should be loaded as plugins:
 
 .. code-block:: bash
 
diff --git a/src/_pytest/config/__init__.py b/src/_pytest/config/__init__.py
index 0c1850df503..bb8cf4b0ad9 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/config/__init__.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/config/__init__.py
@@ -828,7 +828,7 @@ def _import_plugin_specs(
     ) -> None:
         plugins = _get_plugin_specs_as_list(spec)
         for import_spec in plugins:
-            self.import_plugin(import_spec)
+            self.import_plugin(import_spec, consider_entry_points=True)
 
     def import_plugin(self, modname: str, consider_entry_points: bool = False) -> None:
         """Import a plugin with ``modname``.