diff --git a/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.mod b/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.mod
index 6c6df8cfaa0..57c437fb6d3 100644
--- a/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.mod
+++ b/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.mod
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ require (
 	go.opentelemetry.io/proto/otlp v0.9.0
 	google.golang.org/genproto v0.0.0-20200526211855-cb27e3aa2013
 	google.golang.org/grpc v1.38.0
-	google.golang.org/protobuf v1.27.0
+	google.golang.org/protobuf v1.28.1
 )
 
 replace go.opentelemetry.io/otel => ../../../..
diff --git a/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.sum b/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.sum
index 15e39c79608..826ac9189f5 100644
--- a/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.sum
+++ b/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracegrpc/go.sum
@@ -114,6 +114,8 @@ google.golang.org/protobuf v1.26.0-rc.1/go.mod h1:jlhhOSvTdKEhbULTjvd4ARK9grFBp0
 google.golang.org/protobuf v1.26.0/go.mod h1:9q0QmTI4eRPtz6boOQmLYwt+qCgq0jsYwAQnmE0givc=
 google.golang.org/protobuf v1.27.0 h1:KhgSLlr/moiqjv0qUsSnLvdUL7NH7PHW8aZGn7Jpjko=
 google.golang.org/protobuf v1.27.0/go.mod h1:9q0QmTI4eRPtz6boOQmLYwt+qCgq0jsYwAQnmE0givc=
+google.golang.org/protobuf v1.28.1 h1:d0NfwRgPtno5B1Wa6L2DAG+KivqkdutMf1UhdNx175w=
+google.golang.org/protobuf v1.28.1/go.mod h1:HV8QOd/L58Z+nl8r43ehVNZIU/HEI6OcFqwMG9pJV4I=
 gopkg.in/check.v1 v0.0.0-20161208181325-20d25e280405 h1:yhCVgyC4o1eVCa2tZl7eS0r+SDo693bJlVdllGtEeKM=
 gopkg.in/check.v1 v0.0.0-20161208181325-20d25e280405/go.mod h1:Co6ibVJAznAaIkqp8huTwlJQCZ016jof/cbN4VW5Yz0=
 gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.2.2/go.mod h1:hI93XBmqTisBFMUTm0b8Fm+jr3Dg1NNxqwp+5A1VGuI=