Square’s meticulous HTTP client for the JVM, Android, and GraalVM.
AI Analysis
OkHttp is Square's production-grade HTTP client library for the JVM, Android, and GraalVM, designed for efficient network communication with modern protocol support (HTTP/2, TLS 1.3, WebSockets). It serves developers building Java/Kotlin applications and Android apps that require reliable, high-performance HTTP networking with built-in connection pooling, response caching, and transparent compression. Not a general-purpose networking library for beginners—it's for engineers building systems t...
Inferred from signals mentioned in the README (tests, CI, type safety) — not a review of the actual code.
AI's overall editorial judgment — not an average of the bars above, can weigh other factors too.
OkHttp: The de-facto JVM and Android HTTP client with 14 years of production hardening
OkHttp is a mature, production-grade HTTP client for JVM, Android, and GraalVM, built and maintained by Square. It handles HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, WebSockets, and SSE with connection pooling, transparent GZIP, response caching, and robust TLS support. It is the foundational HTTP layer under Retrofit and is used by a vast portion of the Android app ecosystem. Its primary audience is Android developers and JVM backend/tooling engineers who need a reliable, spec-compliant HTTP client without rolling their own connection management.
Created in July 2012 by Square as a replacement for HttpURLConnection and Apache HttpClient on Android. Has evolved through major versions, currently at 5.x with Kotlin Multiplatform support, continuously tracking TLS ecosystem changes.
Growth was driven by Android ecosystem dominance — Retrofit's choice of OkHttp as its transport layer exposed millions of apps to it indirectly. Star growth has plateaued near 47k, reflecting a mature, ubiquitous library where new adoption is a given rather than a trend. Recent 7-day star gain of 9 reflects saturation, not decline.
Widely documented in production at scale: used as the HTTP layer by Retrofit (43k+ stars), by Square's own payment infrastructure, and by the majority of Android applications published since 2014. Maven Central download counts are among the highest in the Android ecosystem. Multiple Fortune 500 companies indirectly depend on it via Retrofit or direct integration.
Appears to follow a layered interceptor chain design, where each concern (caching, connection, retry, TLS) is a composable interceptor. Likely uses Okio for buffered I/O. Published as a Kotlin Multiplatform artifact targeting JVM and Android separately. Fluent builder API with immutable request/response objects is explicitly documented.
Not documented in README, but the project's maturity and Square's engineering culture suggest extensive test coverage. The README references a TLS compatibility history page and recipes, implying regression testing is taken seriously.
Last push on 2026-06-19, two days before the evaluation date — actively maintained. Version 5.4.0 is current on Maven Central. Active BOM support, ProGuard/R8 rules, and snapshot builds all indicate ongoing release engineering investment.
ADOPT IF: you are building Android applications, JVM services that need robust HTTP with interceptor extensibility, or any project already using Retrofit. AVOID IF: you need maximum configurability with non-standard or RFC-violating server behavior, are targeting Kotlin/Native or JS platforms without JVM, or want zero external dependencies on JDK 11+ server apps. MONITOR IF: you are evaluating Ktor Client for a greenfield Kotlin Multiplatform project — OkHttp's KMP story is evolving but may not match Ktor's native platform breadth.
Independent dimensions
Mainstream potential
9/10
Technical importance
9/10
Adoption evidence
10/10
- OkHttp's principled refusal to support non-RFC behavior (e.g., no GET with body) can be a hard blocker when integrating with poorly implemented third-party APIs.
- Kotlin Multiplatform publishing (empty Maven `okhttp` artifact requiring explicit `-jvm` or `-android` selection) adds friction for Maven-based projects and may cause silent dependency issues.
- The project depends on Okio and Kotlin stdlib, adding transitive dependency weight that may be undesirable in constrained environments.
- TLS configuration is intentionally limited — teams needing fine-grained control over TLS session handling or custom trust chains may find the API surface insufficient.
- Being a Square-maintained open source project, sustained long-term maintenance depends on Square's continued organizational investment, which has historically been strong but is not formally guaranteed.
OkHttp will remain the dominant HTTP client for Android and a top choice on JVM for the foreseeable future, with slow but steady evolution toward deeper Kotlin Multiplatform coverage.
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Languages
Information
- Website
- https://square.github.io/okhttp/
- Language
- Kotlin
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Last updated
- -55 min ago
- Created
- 170mo ago
- Analyzed with
- anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5
Stars over time
Contributors over time
Top 100 contributors only — repos with more will plateau at 100.
Open issues
Investigate SSLPeerUnverifiedException changes in Android 37
Consider APIs for dealing with CallEvents when there are variable failures
Make it possible for Interceptors to access the list of interceptors
Unhandled null return from ExtendedSSLSession.getRequestedServerNames
Top contributors
Recent releases
No releases published yet.
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Built into JDK 11+, requiring no dependency, but lacks connection pooling sophistication, transparent GZIP, response caching, and the interceptor model. OkHttp is preferred where fine-grained control and Android compatibility matter; Java HttpClient suits minimal-dependency JDK 11+ server-side contexts.
More configurable and permissive about non-standard HTTP behavior — explicitly the opposite of OkHttp's principled stance. Preferred in enterprise legacy contexts or where server-side quirks must be tolerated. OkHttp is more ergonomic and spec-correct by design.
Kotlin-native multiplatform HTTP client from JetBrains. Targets Kotlin/JS and Kotlin/Native beyond JVM/Android, making it broader in platform scope. OkHttp is more battle-tested on Android and integrates more deeply with the existing Android/Retrofit ecosystem.
Not a direct competitor — Retrofit is a type-safe REST adapter that sits on top of OkHttp. They are complementary; Retrofit handles API declaration while OkHttp handles transport. Choosing Retrofit does not mean replacing OkHttp.
A Kotlin HTTP client with a simpler API surface, aimed at reducing boilerplate. Far less adopted and battle-tested than OkHttp, and lacks the deep Android ecosystem integration. May appeal in pure-Kotlin coroutine-first projects but carries significantly less production validation.