diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 965e4802c6d..e6f75e7b965 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 - Fix LogEmitterProvider.force_flush hanging randomly
   ([#2714](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/2714))
+- narrow protobuf dependencies to exclude protobuf >= 4
+  ([#2720](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/2720))
 
 ## [1.12.0rc1-0.31b0](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/releases/tag/v1.12.0rc1-0.31b0) - 2022-05-17
 
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-opencensus/setup.cfg b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-opencensus/setup.cfg
index f770c1e74d9..dd984a23462 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-opencensus/setup.cfg
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-opencensus/setup.cfg
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ install_requires =
     opencensus-proto >= 0.1.0, < 1.0.0
     opentelemetry-api ~= 1.3
     opentelemetry-sdk ~= 1.3
-    protobuf >= 3.13.0
+    protobuf ~= 3.13
     setuptools >= 16.0
 
 [options.packages.find]
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin-proto-http/setup.cfg b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin-proto-http/setup.cfg
index a7a35e4c988..70cbd52b139 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin-proto-http/setup.cfg
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin-proto-http/setup.cfg
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ package_dir=
     =src
 packages=find_namespace:
 install_requires =
-    protobuf >= 3.12
+    protobuf ~= 3.12
     requests ~= 2.7
     opentelemetry-api ~= 1.3
     opentelemetry-sdk ~= 1.11
diff --git a/opentelemetry-proto/setup.cfg b/opentelemetry-proto/setup.cfg
index 6f19ae8fd3a..94ec991771d 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-proto/setup.cfg
+++ b/opentelemetry-proto/setup.cfg
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ packages=find_namespace:
 zip_safe = False
 include_package_data = True
 install_requires =
-    protobuf>=3.13.0
+    protobuf~=3.13
 
 [options.packages.find]
 where = src