diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 9ef3f9e2857a0..bab5491088089 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ jobs:
           name: Build aarch64 wheels
           no_output_timeout: 30m # Sometimes the tests won't generate any output, make sure the job doesn't get killed by that
           command: |
-            pip3 install cibuildwheel==2.15.0
+            pip3 install cibuildwheel==2.20.0
             cibuildwheel --prerelease-pythons --output-dir wheelhouse
 
           environment:
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 19c6fd2fd1d47..2655d0d018d4f 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ ci export-ignore
 doc export-ignore
 gitpod export-ignore
 MANIFEST.in export-ignore
-scripts export-ignore
+scripts/** export-ignore
 typings export-ignore
 web export-ignore
 CITATION.cff export-ignore
@@ -82,3 +82,6 @@ setup.py export-ignore
 # csv_dir_path fixture checks the existence of the directory
 # exclude the whole directory to avoid running related tests in sdist
 pandas/tests/io/parser/data export-ignore
+
+# Include cibw script in sdist since it's needed for building wheels
+scripts/cibw_before_build.sh -export-ignore
diff --git a/.github/workflows/wheels.yml b/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
index 3d4fbfb995fb3..41417622c3ef2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
@@ -99,7 +99,17 @@ jobs:
         - [macos-14, macosx_arm64]
         - [windows-2022, win_amd64]
         # TODO: support PyPy?
-        python: [["cp39", "3.9"], ["cp310", "3.10"], ["cp311", "3.11"], ["cp312", "3.12"]]
+        python: [["cp39", "3.9"], ["cp310", "3.10"], ["cp311", "3.11"], ["cp312", "3.12"], ["cp313", "3.13"], ["cp313t", "3.13"]]
+        include:
+        # TODO: Remove this plus installing build deps in cibw_before_build.sh
+        # after pandas can be built with a released NumPy/Cython
+        - python: ["cp313t", "3.13"]
+          cibw_build_frontend: 'pip; args: --no-build-isolation'
+        # TODO: Build free-threaded wheels for Windows
+        exclude:
+        - buildplat: [windows-2022, win_amd64]
+          python: ["cp313t", "3.13"]
+
     env:
       IS_PUSH: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v') }}
       IS_SCHEDULE_DISPATCH: ${{ github.event_name == 'schedule' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' }}
@@ -140,12 +150,13 @@ jobs:
         run: echo "sdist_name=$(cd ./dist && ls -d */)" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
       - name: Build wheels
-        uses: pypa/cibuildwheel@v2.17.0
+        uses: pypa/cibuildwheel@v2.20.0
         with:
          package-dir: ./dist/${{ startsWith(matrix.buildplat[1], 'macosx') && env.sdist_name || needs.build_sdist.outputs.sdist_file }}
         env:
           CIBW_PRERELEASE_PYTHONS: True
           CIBW_BUILD: ${{ matrix.python[0] }}-${{ matrix.buildplat[1] }}
+          CIBW_BUILD_FRONTEND: ${{ matrix.cibw_build_frontend || 'pip' }}
 
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: mamba-org/setup-micromamba@v1
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 9894381ed6252..a7d7d7eb4e062 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -62,3 +62,6 @@ prune pandas/tests/io/parser/data
 # Selectively re-add *.cxx files that were excluded above
 graft pandas/_libs/src
 graft pandas/_libs/include
+
+# Include cibw script in sdist since it's needed for building wheels
+include scripts/cibw_before_build.sh
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 571c086d2220b..2a8e63caaf37a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -160,9 +160,11 @@ test-command = """
   pd.test(extra_args=["-m not clipboard and not single_cpu and not slow and not network and not db", "-n 2", "--no-strict-data-files"]); \
   pd.test(extra_args=["-m not clipboard and single_cpu and not slow and not network and not db", "--no-strict-data-files"]);' \
   """
+free-threaded-support = true
+before-build = "bash {package}/scripts/cibw_before_build.sh"
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel.windows]
-before-build = "pip install delvewheel"
+before-build = "pip install delvewheel && bash {package}/scripts/cibw_before_build.sh"
 repair-wheel-command = "delvewheel repair -w {dest_dir} {wheel}"
 
 [[tool.cibuildwheel.overrides]]
diff --git a/scripts/cibw_before_build.sh b/scripts/cibw_before_build.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6186340807f8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/cibw_before_build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# TODO: Delete when there's a PyPI Cython release that supports free-threaded Python 3.13.
+FREE_THREADED_BUILD="$(python -c"import sysconfig; print(bool(sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_GIL_DISABLED')))")"
+if [[ $FREE_THREADED_BUILD == "True"  ]]; then
+    python -m pip install -U pip
+    python -m pip install -i https://pypi.anaconda.org/scientific-python-nightly-wheels/simple numpy cython
+    python -m pip install ninja meson-python versioneer[toml]
+fi