diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/build.gradle b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/build.gradle
index 0ccb88b395..dbfbb0de89 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/build.gradle
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/build.gradle
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ dependencies {
     // bump io.confluent:* dependencies correspondingly when bumping org.apache.kafka.*
     // https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/release-notes/index.html
     implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients:3.6.1'
-    implementation 'org.apache.kafka:connect-json:3.6.1'
+    implementation 'org.apache.kafka:connect-json:3.8.1'
     implementation project(':data-prepper-plugins:http-common')
     implementation libs.avro.core
     implementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind'