The Android Gradle Plugin and Gradle version-compatibility

http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/version-compatibility

Version Compatibility

Post 1.0 Compatibility
Starting with Android Studio 1.0 and the Gradle plugin for Android 1.0, compatibility is a critical requirement.

While we are still looking at finalizing our policy you should at least expect:

 

Android Studio and the Android Gradle Plugin

Studio 1.x works with Gradle Plugin 1.y

Newer versions of the Gradle plugin may require newer versions of Studio to enable the new features in the IDE, but the project should open in older versions of Studio, and build from there (since Gradle does the build). We will be very careful about this.

We will determine later our compatibility story between Studio 2.x and Gradle Plugin 1.x and between Studio 1.x and Gradle Plugin 2.x

We will make every effort to keep compatibility where possible, and to provide good Quick Assist to help with migration where applicable.

The Android Gradle Plugin and Gradle

Android Gradle Plugin	Requires Gradle
1.0.0 - 1.1.3	2.2.1 - 2.3
1.2.0 - 1.3.1	2.2.1 - 2.9
1.5.0	2.2.1 - 2.+
2.0.0	2.10 - 2.+

We recommend using the latest Gradle possible for your project for performance reasons.

Post 1.0 DSL compatibility

The DSL changed a lot before 1.0, but it should be stable now.

If/When we need to change things we will have long deprecation periods, likely longer than 6 months, possibly 12 months.

Preview Compatibility

This table indicate compatibility for pre-1.0 components.

 

All this breaking changes happened because we tweaked the model exchanged between the IDE and Gradle a lot. All this work was to ensure stability after 1.0. 

 

Android Studio	Android Gradle Plugin	Gradle
1.0.0 RC1 - 1.0.0 RC 4	0.14.0 - 1.0.0.rc4+	2.2, 2.2.1
0.9.0-0.9.3	0.14.0 - 0.14.4	2.1
0.8.11+	0.13+, 0.12+	2.1 (for plugin 0.13; for 0.12 use 1.10-1.12)
0.8.0 - 0.8.10	0.12+	1.10 - 1.12
0.6.0, 0.6.1+	0.11+	1.10 - 1.12
0.5.8 - 0.5.9	0.9, 0.10	1.10 - 1.12 (1.12 requires plugin 0.10)
0.5.0 - 0.5.7	0.9	1.10, 1.11
0.4.3 - 0.4.6	0.7, 0.8	1.9, 1.10 (required for plugin 0.8)
0.4.0 - 0.4.2	0.7	1.9
0.3.0 - 0.3.7	0.6	1.8
0.2.0 - 0.2.13	0.5	1.7