diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/grpcio-tools/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/grpcio-tools/default.nix
index 9fdcdce48927..d386deb44221 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/grpcio-tools/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/grpcio-tools/default.nix
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "1178f2ea531f80cc2027ec64728df6ffc8e98cf1df61652a496eafd612127183";
   };
 
+  postPatch = ''
+    substituteInPlace setup.py \
+    --replace 'protobuf>=3.12.0, < 4.0dev' 'protobuf'
+  '';
+
   outputs = [ "out" "dev" ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;