diff --git a/cogsworth/utils.py b/cogsworth/utils.py
index 813994d..ec40201 100644
--- a/cogsworth/utils.py
+++ b/cogsworth/utils.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
-import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
-import matplotlib as mpl
 import numpy as np
-from copy import copy
+from importlib.resources import files
+import json
 
 
 __all__ = ["kstar_translator", "evol_type_translator", "default_BSE_settings",
@@ -67,30 +66,34 @@
 ]
 
 
-default_BSE_settings = {'xi': 1.0, 'bhflag': 1, 'neta': 0.5, 'windflag': 3, 'wdflag': 1, 'alpha1': 1.0,
-                        'pts1': 0.001, 'pts3': 0.02, 'pts2': 0.01, 'epsnov': 0.001, 'hewind': 0.5,
-                        'ck': 1000, 'bwind': 0.0, 'lambdaf': 0.0, 'mxns': 3.0, 'beta': -1.0, 'tflag': 1,
-                        'acc2': 1.5, 'grflag': 1, 'remnantflag': 4, 'ceflag': 0, 'eddfac': 1.0,
-                        'ifflag': 0, 'bconst': 3000, 'sigma': 265.0, 'gamma': -2.0, 'pisn': 45.0,
-                        'natal_kick_array': [[-100.0, -100.0, -100.0, -100.0, 0.0],
-                                             [-100.0, -100.0, -100.0, -100.0, 0.0]], 'bhsigmafrac': 1.0,
-                        'polar_kick_angle': 90, 'qcrit_array': [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0,
-                                                                0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0],
-                        'cekickflag': 2, 'cehestarflag': 0, 'cemergeflag': 0, 'ecsn': 2.25,
-                        'ecsn_mlow': 1.6, 'aic': 1, 'ussn': 0, 'sigmadiv': -20.0, 'qcflag': 5,
-                        'eddlimflag': 0, 'fprimc_array': [2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0,
-                                                          2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0,
-                                                          2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0,
-                                                          2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0, 2.0/21.0],
-                        'bhspinflag': 0, 'bhspinmag': 0.0, 'rejuv_fac': 1.0, 'rejuvflag': 0, 'htpmb': 1,
-                        'ST_cr': 1, 'ST_tide': 1, 'bdecayfac': 1, 'rembar_massloss': 0.5, 'kickflag': 5,
-                        'zsun': 0.014, 'bhms_coll_flag': 0, 'don_lim': -1, 'acc_lim': -1, 'binfrac': 1.0,
-                        'rtmsflag': 0, 'wd_mass_lim': 1, "maltsev_mode": 0, "maltsev_fallback": 0.5,
-                        "maltsev_pf_prob": 0.1, "mm_mu_ns": 400.0, "mm_mu_bh": 200.0}
-
-
 def get_default_BSE_settings():
-    return copy(default_BSE_settings)
+    """Get a copy of the default BSE settings from the COSMIC settings JSON file"""
+    cosmic_settings = json.loads((files("cosmic") / "data" / "cosmic-settings.json").read_text())
+    defaults = {}
+    # loop through settings to find bse
+    for cat in cosmic_settings:
+        if cat["category"] != "bse":
+            continue
+        
+        # go through each setting, finding the default option
+        for setting in cat["settings"]:
+            for option in setting["options"]:
+                if option.get("default", False):
+                    defaults[setting["name"]] = option["name"]
+
+    # ensure array settings are converted from strings to lists
+    for setting in ["qcrit_array", "natal_kick_array", "fprimc_array"]:
+        # this one requires special handling because of the fractions
+        if setting == "fprimc_array":
+            parts = defaults[setting].strip("[]").split(",")
+            defaults[setting] = [float(p.split("/")[0]) / float(p.split("/")[1]) for p in parts]
+        else:
+            defaults[setting] = json.loads(defaults[setting])
+
+    # set binfrac default if not present
+    if "binfrac" not in defaults:
+        defaults["binfrac"] = 0.5
+    return defaults
 
 
 def translate_COSMIC_tables(tab, kstars=True, evol_type=True, label_type="short", replace_columns=True):
@@ -151,5 +154,6 @@ def translate_COSMIC_tables(tab, kstars=True, evol_type=True, label_type="short"
 
 def list_BSE_defaults():            # pragma: no cover
     """Print the default BSE settings cogsworth assumes for running COSMIC."""
+    default_BSE_settings = get_default_BSE_settings()
     for k, v in default_BSE_settings.items():
         print(f"{k}: {v}")
diff --git a/docs/modules/changelog.rst b/docs/modules/changelog.rst
index 92d5df0..c10500f 100644
--- a/docs/modules/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/modules/changelog.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ This page tracks all of the changes that have been made to ``cogsworth``. We fol
 3.6.1
 =====
 - Enhancement: Allow users to specify a directory for saving bad orbits when integrating populations by adding an `error_file_path` argument to the Population class. If set, bad orbits will be saved to this directory instead of the current working directory. If set to None, bad orbits will not be saved. This provides more flexibility in managing output files.
+- Enhancement: Default BSE settings are drawn directly from the COSMIC cosmic-settings.json data file
 
 3.6.0
 =====
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 65376cb..8fcb7fa 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -25,8 +25,7 @@ install_requires =
     scipy >= 1.8
     pandas >= 2.1
     gala >= 1.11.0
-    cosmic-popsynth >= 3.6.1
-    requests
+    cosmic-popsynth >= 3.6.2
 
 [options.package_data]
 * = *.npy, *.npz