The Android Studio build system is based on Gradle, and the Android Gradle plugin adds several features that are specific to build Android apps. Although the Android plugin is typically updated in lock-step with Android Studio, the plugin (and the rest of the Gradle system) can run independent of Android Studio and be updated separately.
This page explains how to keep your Gradle tools up to date and what's in the recent updates. For the release notes for past Android Gradle plugin versions, see past release notes.
For a high-level summary of upcoming breaking changes in the Android Gradle plugin, see the Android Gradle plugin roadmap.
For details about how to configure your Android builds with Gradle, see the following pages:
- Configure your build
- Android Gradle plugin DSL reference
- Gradle DSL reference
- Gradle performance user guide
For more information about the Gradle build system, see the Gradle user guide.
Update the Android Gradle plugin
When you update Android Studio, you may receive a prompt to automatically update the Android Gradle plugin to the latest available version. You can choose to accept the update or manually specify a version based on your project's build requirements.
You can specify the plugin version in
either the File > Project
Structure > Project menu in Android Studio, or
the top-level build.gradle file. The plugin version applies to
all modules built in that Android Studio project. The following example sets
the plugin to version 7.4.1 from the
build.gradle file:
Groovy
plugins {
id 'com.android.application' version '7.4.1' apply false
id 'com.android.library' version '7.4.1' apply false
id 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android' version '1.5.31' apply false
}
Kotlin
plugins {
id("com.android.application") version "7.4.1" apply false
id("com.android.library") version "7.4.1" apply false
id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") version "1.5.31" apply false
}
Caution: You should not use dynamic dependencies in version
numbers, such as 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.+'. Using
this feature can cause unexpected version updates and difficulty resolving
version differences.
If the specified plugin version has not been downloaded, Gradle downloads it the next time you build your project or click File > Sync Project with Gradle Files from the Android Studio menu bar.
Update Gradle
When you update Android Studio, you may receive a prompt to also update Gradle to the latest available version. You can choose to accept the update or manually specify a version based on your project's build requirements.
The following table lists which version of Gradle is required for each version of the Android Gradle plugin. For the best performance, you should use the latest possible version of both Gradle and the plugin.
| Plugin version | Minimum required Gradle version |
|---|---|
| 8.1 | 8.0 |
| 8.0 | 8.0 |
| 7.4 | 7.5 |
| 7.3 | 7.4 |
| 7.2 | 7.3.3 |
| 7.1 | 7.2 |
| 7.0 | 7.0 |
| 4.2.0+ | 6.7.1 |
Older versions
| Plugin version | Required Gradle version |
|---|---|
| 4.1.0+ | 6.5+ |
| 4.0.0+ | 6.1.1+ |
| 3.6.0 - 3.6.4 | 5.6.4+ |
| 3.5.0 - 3.5.4 | 5.4.1+ |
| 3.4.0 - 3.4.3 | 5.1.1+ |
| 3.3.0 - 3.3.3 | 4.10.1+ |
| 3.2.0 - 3.2.1 | 4.6+ |
| 3.1.0+ | 4.4+ |
| 3.0.0+ | 4.1+ |
| 2.3.0+ | 3.3+ |
| 2.1.3 - 2.2.3 | 2.14.1 - 3.5 |
| 2.0.0 - 2.1.2 | 2.10 - 2.13 |
| 1.5.0 | 2.2.1 - 2.13 |
| 1.2.0 - 1.3.1 | 2.2.1 - 2.9 |
| 1.0.0 - 1.1.3 | 2.2.1 - 2.3 |
You can specify the Gradle version in either the File >
Project Structure > Project menu in Android Studio,
or update your Gradle version using the command line.
The preferred way is to use the
Gradle Wrapper
command line tool, which updates the gradlew scripts. The following
example sets the Gradle version to 7.5.1 using the Gradle Wrapper.
Note, you need to run this command twice to upgrade both Gradle and the
Gradle Wrapper itself (for more information, see
Upgrading the Gradle Wrapper).
gradle wrapper --gradle-version 7.5.1
However this might fail in some cases, for example if you've just updated AGP
and it's no longer compliant with the current Gradle version. In this case,
you need to edit the Gradle distribution reference in the
gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties file. The following
example sets the Gradle version to 7.5.1 in the
gradle-wrapper.properties file.
...
distributionUrl = https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.5.1-bin.zip
...
Android Gradle plugin and Android Studio compatibility
The Android Studio build system is based on Gradle, and the Android Gradle plugin adds several features that are specific to building Android apps. The following table lists which version of the Android Gradle plugin is required for each version of Android Studio.
| Android Studio version | Required plugin version |
|---|---|
| Giraffe | 2022.3.1 | 3.2-8.1 |
| Flamingo | 2022.2.1 | 3.2-8.0 |
| Electric Eel | 2022.1.1 | 3.2-7.4 |
| Dolphin | 2021.3.1 | 3.2-7.3 |
| Chipmunk | 2021.2.1 | 3.2-7.2 |
| Bumblebee | 2021.1.1 | 3.2-7.1 |
| Arctic Fox | 2020.3.1 | 3.1-7.0 |
For information on what’s new in the Android Gradle plugin, see the Android Gradle plugin release notes.
Versioning changes (November 2020)
We are updating the version numbering for Android Gradle plugin (AGP) to more closely match the underlying Gradle build tool.
Here are the notable changes:
AGP will now use semantic versioning, and breaking changes will be targeted for major releases.
There will be one major version of AGP released per year, aligned with the Gradle major release.
The release after AGP 4.2 will be version 7.0 and will require an upgrade to Gradle version 7.x. Every major release of AGP will require a major version upgrade in the underlying Gradle tool.
APIs will be deprecated approximately one year in advance, with replacement functionality made available concurrently. Deprecated APIs will be removed approximately one year later during the subsequent major update.
7.4.0 (December 2022)
Android Gradle plugin 7.4.0 is a major release that includes a variety of new features and improvements.
Compatibility
| Minimum version | Default version | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gradle | 7.5 | 7.5 | To learn more, see updating Gradle. |
| SDK Build Tools | 30.0.3 | 30.0.3 | Install or configure SDK Build Tools. |
| NDK | N/A | 23.1.7779620 | Install or configure a different version of the NDK. |
| JDK | 11 | 11 | To learn more, see setting the JDK version. |
Patch releases
The following is a list of the patch releases for Android Gradle Plugin 7.4.
Android Gradle Plugin 7.4.2 (February 2023)
This minor update includes the following bug fixes:
| Fixed issues | |
|---|---|
|
DexingFileDependenciesTask.outputKeepRules is a directory but is marked as an OutputFile
|
|
AnnotationProcessorOptions.arguments are queried error when updating to 7.4 Beta 1 |
|
|
processDebugUnitTestManifest is failing with manifest placeholders for test variants
|
|
Android Gradle Plugin 7.4.1 (February 2023)
This minor update includes the following bug fixes:
| Fixed issues | |
|---|---|
|
Migrate from
destination property to
outputLocation property to address deprecation warning
and prepare for Gradle 9.0 |
|
|
AGP 7.4.0-rc01 breaks Variant API with "Querying the mapped value of
map(provider(java.util.Set)) before task '...' has completed is not supported" |
|
AGP Upgrade Assistant post-upgrade report and rollback functionality
The AGP Upgrade Assistant now includes a post-upgrade report. This report describes the steps that were completed and if the upgrade was successful or unsuccessful. It also includes an action to revert changes that were made by the upgrade assistant, if there are issues building or testing the project after the upgrade.
Project import runs in parallel
The Studio IDE now imports projects in parallel when you use Gradle 7.4.2 or higher and Android Gradle plugin 7.2.0 or higher. Specifically, when Android Studio triggers a Gradle sync, the information that describes projects included in your build is created in parallel. This usually speeds up the syncing process, especially for larger projects. Benchmarks show that the time it takes to build Gradle models for a very large project (with 3,500 Gradle subprojects) is reduced by 50%, from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
Android Gradle plugin targets JVM 11 bytecode
Starting with Android Gradle plugin 7.4.0-alpha04, AGP ships wth JVM 11
bytecode. This means that if you compile against AGP, or write custom Lint
checks, you need to start targeting JVM 11 bytecode. One of the ways to do this
is to include the following in your module-level build.gradle file:
sourceCompatibility = "11"
targetCompatibility = "11"