diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 24b6b8cb..fe0b5f2e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 _deps = [
     "numpy>=1.0.0",
     "onnx>=1.0.0,<=1.10.1",
+    "protobuf>=3.12.2,<4",
     "pyyaml>=5.1.0",
     "requests>=2.0.0",
     "tqdm>=4.0.0",