diff --git a/.github/actions/setup/action.yml b/.github/actions/setup/action.yml
index ac07ffb6..9fa0783b 100644
--- a/.github/actions/setup/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/setup/action.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ runs:
   using: 'composite'
   steps:
     - name: Setup Node
-      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
+      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
       with:
         node-version: ${{ inputs.node_version }}
         registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
diff --git a/.github/workflows/testing.yml b/.github/workflows/testing.yml
index c41cec46..cbb38f1f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/testing.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/testing.yml
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Setup Node
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
         with:
           node-version: 18.x
           registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Setup Node
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
         with:
           node-version: 18.x
           registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 589e8613..0baf0b6e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ when configuring an index has changed to include `deletionProtection`. The `podT
 
 ## Prerequisites
 
-The Pinecone TypeScript SDK is compatible with TypeScript 4.1 and greater.
+The Pinecone TypeScript SDK is compatible with TypeScript >=4.1 and Node >=18.x.
 
 ## Installation
 
@@ -897,8 +897,6 @@ you access to embedding models hosted on Pinecone's infrastructure. Read more at
 
 **Notes:**
 
-- The Inference API only works with Node `>=18`. If you are using older versions of Node, you must pass in a custom `fetch` implementation into the Pinecone client.
-
 Models currently supported:
 
 - [multilingual-e5-large](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.05672)
diff --git a/src/utils/__tests__/fetch.test.ts b/src/utils/__tests__/fetch.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d3996e1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/__tests__/fetch.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+import { getFetch } from '../fetch';
+import { PineconeConfigurationError } from '../../errors';
+import type { PineconeConfiguration } from '../../data';
+
+describe('getFetch', () => {
+  afterEach(() => {
+    console.log('resetting global.fetch');
+    // Reset global.fetch after each test to avoid affecting other tests
+    delete (global as any).fetch;
+  });
+
+  test('should return the user-provided fetch implementation if provided', () => {
+    const customFetch = jest.fn();
+    const config = {
+      apiKey: 'some-api-key',
+      fetchApi: customFetch,
+    } as PineconeConfiguration;
+
+    const fetchFn = getFetch(config);
+
+    expect(fetchFn).toBe(customFetch);
+  });
+
+  test('should return the global fetch implementation if user-provided fetch is not present', () => {
+    const globalFetch = jest.fn();
+    (global as any).fetch = globalFetch;
+
+    const config = {
+      apiKey: 'some-api-key',
+      fetchApi: undefined,
+    } as PineconeConfiguration;
+
+    const fetchFn = getFetch(config);
+
+    expect(fetchFn).toBe(globalFetch);
+  });
+
+  test('should throw a PineconeConfigurationError if no fetch implementation is found', () => {
+    const config = {
+      apiKey: 'some-api-key',
+      fetchApi: undefined,
+    } as PineconeConfiguration;
+
+    expect(() => getFetch(config)).toThrow(PineconeConfigurationError);
+    expect(() => getFetch(config)).toThrow(
+      'No global or user-provided fetch implementations found. Please supply a fetch implementation.'
+    );
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/utils/fetch.ts b/src/utils/fetch.ts
index 880342e5..33e06a83 100644
--- a/src/utils/fetch.ts
+++ b/src/utils/fetch.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-import crossFetch from 'cross-fetch';
 import type { PineconeConfiguration } from '../data';
+import { PineconeConfigurationError } from '../errors';
 
 export const getFetch = (config: PineconeConfiguration) => {
   if (config.fetchApi) {
@@ -10,9 +10,13 @@ export const getFetch = (config: PineconeConfiguration) => {
     // scope, use that. This should prevent confusing failures in
     // nextjs projects where @vercel/fetch is mandated and
     // other implementations are stubbed out.
+    console.log(
+      'Failed to find any user-provided fetch implementation. Using global fetch implementation.'
+    );
     return global.fetch;
   } else {
-    // Use ponyfill as last resort
-    return crossFetch;
+    throw new PineconeConfigurationError(
+      'No global or user-provided fetch implementations found. Please supply a fetch implementation.'
+    );
   }
 };