---
title: "Why gRPC Uses HTTP2"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-grpc-uses-http2-atb2xrbei
source_url: https://arpitbhayani.me/blogs/grpc-http2
type: article
source: "Arpit Bhayani"
published: 2026-05-31T07:54:45.846Z
updated: 2026-05-31T09:20:49.012Z
tags: ["backend", "microservices", "distributed-systems", "grpc"]
reading_time: 8
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Why gRPC Uses HTTP2

**[Arpit Bhayani](https://daily.dev/sources/arpit-bhayani)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A deep dive into why gRPC was built on HTTP/2 rather than HTTP/1.1. Covers the key HTTP/2 features that make gRPC work well: binary framing, multiplexing (multiple streams over one TCP connection), HPACK header compression (85-90% reduction), and built-in flow control. Explains how these map to gRPC's four RPC patterns (unary, server streaming, client streaming, bidirectional streaming). Also includes concrete performance numbers (20-40% latency reduction, 67% fewer TCP connections in microservices), trade-offs like debugging complexity and load balancer compatibility, and how Protocol Buffers' binary format complements HTTP/2's binary frames.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://arpitbhayani.me/blogs/grpc-http2>

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [gRPC deep dive: from service definition to wire format](https://daily.dev/posts/grpc-deep-dive-from-service-definition-to-wire-format-mykdq3gjn) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
- [HTTP/2 and HTTP/3: what changed and why it matters](https://daily.dev/posts/http-2-and-http-3-what-changed-and-why-it-matters-kxd7rny7x) · Flavio Copes · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend), [#microservices](https://daily.dev/tags/microservices), [#distributed-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/distributed-systems), [#grpc](https://daily.dev/tags/grpc)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-grpc-uses-http2-atb2xrbei)