diff --git a/cmake/external/protobuf.cmake b/cmake/external/protobuf.cmake
index c2511d43e359e3b1f80bea14e911a54f82f6d3b0..bc7fe5454f5883108e43b4ca47920995dc13a1ff 100644
--- a/cmake/external/protobuf.cmake
+++ b/cmake/external/protobuf.cmake
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ FUNCTION(build_protobuf TARGET_NAME BUILD_FOR_HOST)
     ENDIF()
 
     SET(PROTOBUF_REPO "https://github.com/google/protobuf.git")
-    SET(PROTOBUF_TAG "v3.6.1")
+    SET(PROTOBUF_TAG "9f75c5aa851cd877fb0d93ccc31b8567a6706546")
 
     ExternalProject_Add(
         ${TARGET_NAME}
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ FUNCTION(build_protobuf TARGET_NAME BUILD_FOR_HOST)
     )
 ENDFUNCTION()
 
-SET(PROTOBUF_VERSION 3.6.1)
+SET(PROTOBUF_VERSION 3.1.0)
 
 IF(NOT PROTOBUF_FOUND)
     build_protobuf(extern_protobuf FALSE)
diff --git a/cmake/external/python.cmake b/cmake/external/python.cmake
index 351e7fa3ce227ee3a92f527fc49c873e52342594..623c53f4f75bbd217c157bcdda0cb12c510269ee 100644
--- a/cmake/external/python.cmake
+++ b/cmake/external/python.cmake
@@ -74,8 +74,8 @@ IF(PYTHONINTERP_FOUND)
     find_python_module(wheel REQUIRED)
     find_python_module(google.protobuf REQUIRED)
     FIND_PACKAGE(NumPy REQUIRED)
-    IF(${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} AND ${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "3.6.1")
-        MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Found Python Protobuf ${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} < 3.6.1, "
+    IF(${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} AND ${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "3.0.0")
+        MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Found Python Protobuf ${PY_GOOGLE.PROTOBUF_VERSION} < 3.0.0, "
         "please use pip to upgrade protobuf. pip install -U protobuf")
     ENDIF()
 ENDIF(PYTHONINTERP_FOUND)
diff --git a/python/requirements.txt b/python/requirements.txt
index 6cbda1db545957b8e7b943366f9b954ff1dfdc77..36bd5d4261cc7aa78d26b8c8ddfd87abd4f4e2e2 100644
--- a/python/requirements.txt
+++ b/python/requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 requests==2.9.2
 numpy>=1.12
-protobuf>=3.6
+protobuf>=3.1.0
 recordio>=0.1.0
 matplotlib==2.2.3 # TODO: let python3 paddlepaddle package use latest matplotlib
 rarfile