HTTP2 Experimental v1.13.0+

Experimental HTTP/2 support was added to the http adapter in version 1.13.0. It is available in Node.js environments only.

Basic usage

Use the httpVersion option to select the protocol version for a request. Setting it to 2 enables HTTP/2.

const { data, headers, status } = await axios.post(
  "https://httpbin.org/post",
  form,
  {
    httpVersion: 2,
  },
);

http2Options

Additional native options for the internal session.request() call can be passed via the http2Options config object. This also includes the custom sessionTimeout parameter, which controls how long (in milliseconds) an idle HTTP/2 session is kept alive before being closed. It defaults to 1000ms.

{
  httpVersion: 2,
  http2Options: {
    rejectUnauthorized: false, // accept self-signed certificates (dev only)
    sessionTimeout: 5000,      // keep idle session alive for 5 seconds
  },
}

WARNING

HTTP/2 support is currently experimental. The API may change in future minor or patch releases.

Redirects are not supported over HTTP/2

The HTTP/2 adapter does not currently follow redirects. If a request issued with httpVersion: 2 receives a 3xx response, the redirect is not followed automatically. Handle these responses manually or stay on HTTP/1.x for endpoints that rely on redirects.

Full example

The example below sends a multipart/form-data POST request over HTTP/2 and tracks both upload and download progress.

const form = new FormData();
form.append("foo", "123");

const { data, headers, status } = await axios.post(
  "https://httpbin.org/post",
  form,
  {
    httpVersion: 2,
    http2Options: {
      // rejectUnauthorized: false,
      // sessionTimeout: 1000
    },
    onUploadProgress(e) {
      console.log("upload progress", e);
    },
    onDownloadProgress(e) {
      console.log("download progress", e);
    },
    responseType: "arraybuffer",
  },
);

Config reference

Option	Type	Default	Description
httpVersion	number	1	HTTP protocol version to use. Set to 2 to enable HTTP/2.
http2Options.sessionTimeout	number	1000	Time in milliseconds before an idle HTTP/2 session is closed.

All other native session.request() options supported by Node.js's built-in http2 module can also be passed inside http2Options.