diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index eaf20e460ad..eae90fdf6fa 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ def _parse_requirements_file(file_path):
     "pydantic>=1.8.2,<2.0.0",
     "requests>=2.0.0",
     "tqdm>=4.0.0",
-    "protobuf>=3.12.2,<=3.20.1",
+    "protobuf>=3.12.2",
     "click>=7.1.2,!=8.0.0",  # latest version < 8.0 + blocked version with reported bug
 ]
 _nm_deps = [f"{'sparsezoo' if is_release else 'sparsezoo-nightly'}~={version_base}"]