If you’re like me and you run Gradle builds dozens of times a day, slow builds are more than just annoying – they’re productivity killers. Even small inefficiencies add up over time. Thankfully, Gradle provides a whole toolbox of optimisations to make builds faster and smoother. Here’s a breakdown of how to tune Gradle for performance, based on the official Gradle user guide.

1. Measure First: Inspect Your Build

Before you start changing things, benchmark where you are. Use Build Scans or Gradle’s built-in profiling to get a snapshot of:

• Total build time
• Which parts (tasks, configuration, dependency resolution) are the slowest

This gives you a baseline. Then: make one optimisation, re-measure, and compare. If something doesn’t help, you can roll it back.

2. Keep Gradle, Java & Plugins Up to Date

Gradle itself: Newer versions often bring performance improvements. Use the Gradle Wrapper (gradle wrapper --gradle-version X.Y) so your project stays consistent. Gradle Documentation

Java runtime: Gradle runs on the JVM, so newer Java versions (if compatible) may run Gradle more efficiently. Gradle Documentation

Plugins: Old plugins may have inefficiencies. Check that your Android / Kotlin / Java plugins are on current versions — they often include optimisations.

3. Enable Parallel Execution

If your project has multiple independent subprojects, you can run tasks in parallel. By default, Gradle doesn’t do this. Use:

gradle <task> --parallel

Or make it the default by adding to your gradle.properties:

org.gradle.parallel=true

This can significantly cut build time – though the benefit depends on how your subprojects depend on each other. Gradle Documentation

4. Use the Gradle Daemon

The Gradle Daemon keeps a JVM running in the background, which means:

• You skip JVM startup costs
• Gradle can cache project information between builds
• Better file‐system watching and incremental rebuilds

If it’s disabled, re-enable it:

gradle <task> --daemon

Or in gradle.properties:

org.gradle.daemon=true

On developer machines, this almost always helps. On CI, it’s more nuanced (depends on how long agents live). Gradle Documentation

5. Turn On the Build Cache

Gradle’s Build Cache can make a huge difference. The idea: task outputs are cached, so if nothing has changed for a given input, Gradle can reuse the result instead of re-running the task.

To enable:

gradle <task> --build-cache

Or permanently in gradle.properties:

org.gradle.caching=true

You can use:

• A local cache, for speeding up builds on your own machine
• A shared cache, for speeding up CI or teams (shared across machines) Gradle Documentation

A Build Scan helps you visualise which tasks are cacheable and how the cache is being used. Gradle Documentation

6. Try Configuration Cache

The Configuration Cache is more advanced: it lets Gradle skip the configuration phase entirely if nothing relevant has changed.

• Turn it on with:gradle <task> --configuration-cache
• Or set in gradle.properties:org.gradle.configuration-cache=true

BUT: not all plugins support it yet, and there are edge-cases (especially with IDE sync). Gradle Documentation

When it’s compatible, it’s super powerful: tasks run in parallel even within a single subproject, and dependency resolution results get cached between runs. Gradle Documentation

7. Make Custom Tasks Incremental

If you write your own Gradle tasks, you can make them incremental – meaning Gradle will skip them if their inputs and outputs haven’t changed.

You need to declare inputs and outputs precisely. For example (Kotlin DSL):

tasks.register("myTask") {
  inputs.files(fileTree("src/templates")).withPropertyName("templates")
  inputs.property("engineType", "FREEMARKER")
  outputs.dir(layout.buildDirectory.dir("generated"))

  doLast {
    // task logic here
  }
}

If done right, Gradle will only re-run that task when something actually changes. Gradle Documentation

8. Tailor Builds to Workflow

Not every developer needs to run all tasks every time. You can define developer-specific workflows to only build what’s relevant:

• Use task groups wisely
• Create aggregate tasks (tasks that do nothing themselves but depend on others)
• Defer configuration logic using gradle.taskGraph.whenReady() so you only configure what’s needed

This way, you avoid unnecessary tasks and speed up your common workflows. Gradle Documentation

9. Allocate More Memory (Heap)

If your builds are large or complex, Gradle’s default heap (512MB) might not cut it. You can bump it up in gradle.properties:

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048M

More heap means fewer garbage collections and better performance — especially for big builds. Gradle Documentation

10. Reduce Costly Configuration

The configuration phase (when Gradle reads all your build scripts, applies plugins, sets up tasks) runs on every build. If this phase is slow, it drags down all builds, even trivial ones.

Some tips:

• Avoid heavy work in apply() methods (e.g. network calls)
• Don’t apply scripts/plugins globally if only a subset of subprojects need them – instead, apply selectively
• Use statically compiled code (Groovy with @CompileStatic, or better: Kotlin/Java) for your build logic — it’s faster than dynamically interpreted Groovy Gradle Documentation

11. Optimise Dependency Resolution

Dependencies are often a big drag, especially if resolution logic is complex or you’re hitting remote servers too often.

• Prefer fixed versions over dynamic versions (e.g. use 1.2.3 instead of 1.+) to avoid repeated resolution. Gradle Documentation
• Order your repositories logically – put the ones that host most of your dependencies first. Gradle Documentation
• Avoid custom resolution logic that does network calls during dependency resolution – it’ll slow things down. Gradle Documentation

Use Build Scans to check how much time is spent resolving dependencies, then refactor your logic if needed. Gradle Documentation

12. Java-specific Optimisations

If you’re working on a Java (or JVM) project, there are more levers you can pull:

• Parallelise test execution: set maxParallelForks on your Test tasks to run tests in parallel across classes or methods. Gradle Documentation
• Fork your compilation process: rather than compiling in the same JVM as Gradle, run compilation in a separate JVM. This isolates GC and can speed up builds. Gradle Documentation
• Use implementation vs api: in multi-module builds, using implementation for internal dependencies reduces unnecessary recompiling of downstream modules. Gradle Documentation
• Incremental compilation: make sure Gradle incremental compilation is enabled so only changed code gets recompiled. Gradle Documentation
• Compile avoidance: Gradle can skip recompiling downstream modules when only non-public API changes, but this works best if you use newer Gradle versions. Gradle Documentation

13. Android-specific Tips

If your project is an Android app or library, there are extra Gradle optimisations tailored for Android. (The official Gradle guide goes into detail; worth checking if you’re building Android.)

14. Backporting to Older Gradle Versions

If you’re stuck on an older Gradle version, don’t worry – many of these optimisations still apply:

• Use the daemon if it’s not already enabled
• Turn on incremental builds for Java tasks
• Use the build cache (if available)
• Tune memory / JVM args

Even older builds can benefit from careful tuning.

Final Thoughts

Optimising your Gradle build isn’t a one-time task. It’s more of a continuous process:

1. Measure → 2. Change → 3. Measure again → 4. Repeat

By applying even a few of these techniques, you can dramatically reduce build times, make your dev iteration faster, and get a smoother CI experience.