diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 9819e152d2..9eb4f03d53 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@
     <google.api.version>1.34.1</google.api.version>
     <google.http.version>1.41.8</google.http.version>
     <grpc.version>1.46.0</grpc.version>
-    <protobuf.version>3.20.1</protobuf.version>
+    <protobuf.version>3.21.0</protobuf.version>
     <opencensus.version>0.31.1</opencensus.version>
     <annotations-api.version>1.3.2</annotations-api.version>
     <guava.version>31.1-jre</guava.version>