diff --git a/opentelemetry-prometheus/Cargo.toml b/opentelemetry-prometheus/Cargo.toml
index 46d7be9fba..db36603294 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-prometheus/Cargo.toml
+++ b/opentelemetry-prometheus/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ once_cell = { workspace = true }
 opentelemetry = { version = "0.21", path = "../opentelemetry", default-features = false, features = ["metrics"] }
 opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.21", path = "../opentelemetry-sdk", default-features = false, features = ["metrics"] }
 prometheus = "0.13"
-protobuf = "2.14"
+protobuf = "3.3"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 opentelemetry-semantic-conventions = { path = "../opentelemetry-semantic-conventions" }