diff --git a/ci/requirements/doc.yml b/ci/requirements/doc.yml
index 658a7d4e47b..e6c99dbacba 100644
--- a/ci/requirements/doc.yml
+++ b/ci/requirements/doc.yml
@@ -26,3 +26,5 @@ dependencies:
   - sphinx=3.1
   - sphinx_rtd_theme>=0.4
   - zarr>=2.4
+  - pip:
+      - sphinx-autosummary-accessors
diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index d3d126cb33f..2f97c884ff5 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -20,11 +20,7 @@
 import sys
 from contextlib import suppress
 
-# --------- autosummary templates ------------------
-# TODO: eventually replace this with a sphinx.ext.auto_accessor module
-import sphinx
-from sphinx.ext.autodoc import AttributeDocumenter, Documenter, MethodDocumenter
-from sphinx.util import rpartition
+import sphinx_autosummary_accessors
 
 # make sure the source version is preferred (#3567)
 root = pathlib.Path(__file__).absolute().parent.parent
@@ -53,14 +49,14 @@
     matplotlib.use("Agg")
 
 try:
-    import rasterio
+    import rasterio  # noqa: F401
 except ImportError:
     allowed_failures.update(
         ["gallery/plot_rasterio_rgb.py", "gallery/plot_rasterio.py"]
     )
 
 try:
-    import cartopy
+    import cartopy  # noqa: F401
 except ImportError:
     allowed_failures.update(
         [
@@ -88,6 +84,7 @@
     "IPython.sphinxext.ipython_directive",
     "IPython.sphinxext.ipython_console_highlighting",
     "nbsphinx",
+    "sphinx_autosummary_accessors",
 ]
 
 extlinks = {
@@ -116,7 +113,7 @@
 numpydoc_show_class_members = False
 
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
-templates_path = ["_templates"]
+templates_path = ["_templates", sphinx_autosummary_accessors.templates_path]
 
 # The suffix of source filenames.
 source_suffix = ".rst"
@@ -275,14 +272,14 @@
 
 # -- Options for LaTeX output ---------------------------------------------
 
-latex_elements = {
-    # The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
-    # 'papersize': 'letterpaper',
-    # The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
-    # 'pointsize': '10pt',
-    # Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
-    # 'preamble': '',
-}
+# latex_elements = {
+#     # The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
+#     # 'papersize': 'letterpaper',
+#     # The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
+#     # 'pointsize': '10pt',
+#     # Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
+#     # 'preamble': '',
+# }
 
 # Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
 # (source start file, target name, title,
@@ -364,113 +361,3 @@
     "dask": ("https://docs.dask.org/en/latest", None),
     "cftime": ("https://unidata.github.io/cftime", None),
 }
-
-
-# --------- autosummary templates ------------------
-# TODO: eventually replace this with a sphinx.ext.auto_accessor module
-class AccessorDocumenter(MethodDocumenter):
-    """
-    Specialized Documenter subclass for accessors.
-    """
-
-    objtype = "accessor"
-    directivetype = "method"
-
-    # lower than MethodDocumenter so this is not chosen for normal methods
-    priority = 0.6
-
-    def format_signature(self):
-        # this method gives an error/warning for the accessors, therefore
-        # overriding it (accessor has no arguments)
-        return ""
-
-
-class AccessorLevelDocumenter(Documenter):
-    """
-    Specialized Documenter subclass for objects on accessor level (methods,
-    attributes).
-    """
-
-    # This is the simple straightforward version
-    # modname is None, base the last elements (eg 'hour')
-    # and path the part before (eg 'Series.dt')
-    # def resolve_name(self, modname, parents, path, base):
-    #     modname = 'pandas'
-    #     mod_cls = path.rstrip('.')
-    #     mod_cls = mod_cls.split('.')
-    #
-    #     return modname, mod_cls + [base]
-
-    def resolve_name(self, modname, parents, path, base):
-        if modname is None:
-            if path:
-                mod_cls = path.rstrip(".")
-            else:
-                mod_cls = None
-                # if documenting a class-level object without path,
-                # there must be a current class, either from a parent
-                # auto directive ...
-                mod_cls = self.env.temp_data.get("autodoc:class")
-                # ... or from a class directive
-                if mod_cls is None:
-                    mod_cls = self.env.temp_data.get("py:class")
-                # ... if still None, there's no way to know
-                if mod_cls is None:
-                    return None, []
-            # HACK: this is added in comparison to ClassLevelDocumenter
-            # mod_cls still exists of class.accessor, so an extra
-            # rpartition is needed
-            modname, accessor = rpartition(mod_cls, ".")
-            modname, cls = rpartition(modname, ".")
-            parents = [cls, accessor]
-            # if the module name is still missing, get it like above
-            if not modname:
-                modname = self.env.temp_data.get("autodoc:module")
-            if not modname:
-                if sphinx.__version__ > "1.3":
-                    modname = self.env.ref_context.get("py:module")
-                else:
-                    modname = self.env.temp_data.get("py:module")
-            # ... else, it stays None, which means invalid
-        return modname, parents + [base]
-
-
-class AccessorAttributeDocumenter(AccessorLevelDocumenter, AttributeDocumenter):
-
-    objtype = "accessorattribute"
-    directivetype = "attribute"
-
-    # lower than AttributeDocumenter so this is not chosen for normal attributes
-    priority = 0.6
-
-
-class AccessorMethodDocumenter(AccessorLevelDocumenter, MethodDocumenter):
-
-    objtype = "accessormethod"
-    directivetype = "method"
-
-    # lower than MethodDocumenter so this is not chosen for normal methods
-    priority = 0.6
-
-
-class AccessorCallableDocumenter(AccessorLevelDocumenter, MethodDocumenter):
-    """
-    This documenter lets us removes .__call__ from the method signature for
-    callable accessors like Series.plot
-    """
-
-    objtype = "accessorcallable"
-    directivetype = "method"
-
-    # lower than MethodDocumenter; otherwise the doc build prints warnings
-    priority = 0.5
-
-    def format_name(self):
-        return MethodDocumenter.format_name(self).rstrip(".__call__")
-
-
-def setup(app):
-    app.add_autodocumenter(AccessorDocumenter)
-    app.add_autodocumenter(AccessorAttributeDocumenter)
-    app.add_autodocumenter(AccessorMethodDocumenter)
-    app.add_autodocumenter(AccessorCallableDocumenter)
diff --git a/doc/internals.rst b/doc/internals.rst
index b158f12ac6d..aa9e1dedc68 100644
--- a/doc/internals.rst
+++ b/doc/internals.rst
@@ -171,6 +171,11 @@ To help users keep things straight, please `let us know
 for an open source library. In the future, we will maintain a list of accessors
 and the libraries that implement them on this page.
 
+To make documenting accessors with ``sphinx`` and ``sphinx.ext.autosummary``
+easier, you can use `sphinx-ext-autosummary`_.
+
+.. _sphinx-ext-autosummary: https://sphinx-autosummary-accessors.readthedocs.io/
+
 .. _zarr_encoding:
 
 Zarr Encoding Specification