---
id: urllib3-future
version: "2.24.900"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# urllib3-future — urllib3.future is a powerful HTTP 1.1, 2, and 3 client with both sync and async interfaces

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 2.0M/mo

## What it is and what it does

urllib3-future is a backward-compatible fork of urllib3 that adds HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 support alongside the existing HTTP/1.1 implementation. It provides both synchronous and asynchronous APIs, connection pooling, and advanced DNS resolution capabilities including DNS over TLS, QUIC, and HTTPS. The package is designed as a drop-in replacement for urllib3, automatically taking precedence over the standard library when installed to ensure a consistent environment across transitive dependencies.

The fork exists because upstream urllib3 has not prioritized HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 support despite years of requests. urllib3-future maintains compatibility with existing urllib3 code while extending the feature set to include async support, task safety, thread safety, Happy Eyeballs, multipart file uploads, compression (gzip, deflate, brotli, zstd), WebSocket support, and DNSSEC protection. It supports Python 3.7 through 3.15 and PyPy.

Use it for:

- Building async web scrapers or API clients that need HTTP/2 multiplexing and modern protocol support
- Replacing urllib3 in projects where transitive dependencies pull it in but you need HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 capabilities
- Implementing DNS-over-HTTPS or DNS-over-TLS for privacy-conscious network requests
- Developing applications that must work with servers that have disabled HTTP/1.1 in favor of HTTP/2+
- Creating thread-safe or async-safe HTTP clients with automatic connection pooling and keep-alive

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

HTTP client library supporting HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 with both synchronous and asynchronous interfaces, connection pooling, and advanced DNS resolution options.

Yes, if you need HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 support in Python and want a drop-in replacement for urllib3. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and installs with low friction. The main trade-off is that it overrides the urllib3 namespace by default—acceptable for most users but worth understanding if you have strict dependency isolation requirements. Verify compatibility with your specific transitive dependencies before deploying to production.

## Install

pip install urllib3-future
uv add urllib3-future
poetry add urllib3-future

## Installing urllib3-future

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-01 and version released 2026-07-27. Depends on h11, jh2, and qh3 for protocol handling.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) allows use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install urllib3-future

import urllib3
pm = urllib3.PoolManager()
resp = pm.request("GET", "https://httpbin.org/robots.txt")
print(resp.status, resp.data)

Requires Python 3.7 or later. By default, urllib3-future overrides the urllib3 namespace; set URLLIB3_NO_OVERRIDE=1 and import urllib3_future directly to avoid this.

Verify before relying:

- Actual performance characteristics compared to standard urllib3 or other HTTP clients
- Completeness of backward compatibility with urllib3 in real-world production scenarios
- Stability and maturity of HTTP/3 and advanced DNS features in practice

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 2.0M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

http client library python, async http requests, http/2 http/3 support, connection pooling, dns over https tls quic, http-client, async-io, dns-privacy

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