diff --git a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/default.nix b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/default.nix
index 14be330b79bc..470c1960c7ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/default.nix
@@ -890,6 +890,8 @@ rec {
 
     buildPhase = ''
       patchShebangs .
+      substituteInPlace plugin/youcompleteme.vim \
+        --replace "'ycm_path_to_python_interpreter', '''" "'ycm_path_to_python_interpreter', '${python}/bin/python'"
 
       mkdir build
       pushd build
diff --git a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim2nix/additional-nix-code/youcompleteme b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim2nix/additional-nix-code/youcompleteme
index 625dfcb4f3ee..e498eef8c0b5 100644
--- a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim2nix/additional-nix-code/youcompleteme
+++ b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim2nix/additional-nix-code/youcompleteme
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
     buildPhase = ''
       patchShebangs .
+      substituteInPlace plugin/youcompleteme.vim \
+        --replace "'ycm_path_to_python_interpreter', '''" "'ycm_path_to_python_interpreter', '${python}/bin/python'"
 
       mkdir build
       pushd build