diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8001038b0..a5a3ee9e8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     include_package_data=True,
     install_requires=[
         "grpcio>=1.49.1,<=1.53.0",
+        "protobuf>=3.20.0",
         "mmh3>=2.0",
         "ujson>=2.0.0",
         "pandas>=1.2.4",