diff --git a/core/setup.py b/core/setup.py
index aedf739bfff..2302927032a 100644
--- a/core/setup.py
+++ b/core/setup.py
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@
         "typing-extensions>=3.7.4",
         "werkzeug>=1,<3",
         "pathspec>=0.9,<0.12",
-        "protobuf>=4.0.0",
+        "protobuf>=4.0.0,<5",
         "pytz>=2015.7",
         # the following are all to match snowflake-connector-python
         "requests<3.0.0",