diff --git a/requirements-app.txt b/requirements-app.txt
index 45e5a6197..ea0d82fcb 100644
--- a/requirements-app.txt
+++ b/requirements-app.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Run `make freeze-requirements` to update requirements.txt
 # with package version changes made in requirements-app.txt
 
+boto==2.49.0 # notify-api crashes in PaaS without this
 cffi==1.14.5
 celery[sqs]==5.1.2
 docopt==0.6.2
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index e14f0d527..304eda7be 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Run `make freeze-requirements` to update requirements.txt
 # with package version changes made in requirements-app.txt
 
+boto==2.49.0 # notify-api crashes in PaaS without this
 cffi==1.14.5
 celery[sqs]==5.1.2
 docopt==0.6.2