diff --git a/x2paddle/convert.py b/x2paddle/convert.py
index e80f05adfd73371a98125e35f8f1107bf8bf0d49..0ead2235275015564751224151792b23d8984fb2 100644
--- a/x2paddle/convert.py
+++ b/x2paddle/convert.py
@@ -122,16 +122,10 @@ def caffe2paddle(proto, weight, save_dir, caffe_proto):
     from x2paddle.decoder.caffe_decoder import CaffeDecoder
     from x2paddle.op_mapper.caffe_op_mapper import CaffeOpMapper
     from x2paddle.optimizer.caffe_optimizer import CaffeOptimizer
-    s = sys.version
-    if s.startswith('2'):
-        import commands
-        pb_version = commands.getstatusoutput('protoc --version')[1]
-    else:
-        import subprocess
-        pb_version = subprocess.getstatusoutput('protoc --version')[1]
-    ver_str = pb_version.split(' ')[-1].replace('.', '')
-    ver_int = int(ver_str)
-    assert ver_int >= 360, 'The version of protobuf must be larger than 3.6.0!'
+    import google.protobuf as gpb
+    ver_str = gpb.__version__.replace('.', '')
+    ver_int = int(ver_str[0:2])
+    assert ver_int >= 36, 'The version of protobuf must be larger than 3.6.0!'
     print("Now translating model from caffe to paddle.")
     model = CaffeDecoder(proto, weight, caffe_proto)
     mapper = CaffeOpMapper(model)