diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 99d2fce..7adb74f 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ To install using conda::
     conda install octave_kernel
     conda install texinfo # For the inline documentation (shift-tab) to appear.
 
-We require the ``octave`` executable to run the kernel.
+We require the ``octave-cli`` or ``octave`` executable to run the kernel.
 Add that executable's directory to the ``PATH`` environment variable or create the
 environment variable ``OCTAVE_EXECUTABLE`` to point to the executable itself.
-Note that on Octave 5 on Windows, the executable is in ``"Octave-5.x.x.x\mingw64\bin"``.
+Note that on Octave 5+ on Windows, the executable is in ``"Octave-x.x.x.x\mingw64\bin"``.
 
 We automatically install a Jupyter kernelspec when installing the
 python package.  This location can be found using ``jupyter kernelspec list``.
diff --git a/octave_kernel/kernel.py b/octave_kernel/kernel.py
index fb80b31..0adbbe0 100644
--- a/octave_kernel/kernel.py
+++ b/octave_kernel/kernel.py
@@ -481,9 +481,11 @@ def _get_executable(self):
                 if 'octave' not in executable:
                     raise OSError('OCTAVE_EXECUTABLE does not point to an octave file, please see README')
         else:
-            executable = which('octave')
+            executable = which('octave-cli')
             if not executable:
-                raise OSError('octave not found, please see README')
+                executable = which('octave')
+                if not executable:
+                    raise OSError('octave not found, please see README')
         return executable.replace(os.path.sep, '/')
 
     def _cleanup(self):