HTTP/2
HTTP/2 is the version of the web's request protocol that lets a browser send many requests at once over a single encrypted connection instead of queuing them.
Explanation
In depth
HTTP/1.1 handles one request at a time per connection, so browsers open several connections (Chrome uses six per host) and still queue the rest. A modern page with a hundred images and scripts feels that queue. HTTP/2, first published as RFC 7540 in 2015 and now RFC 9113, splits one connection into many parallel streams, compresses repeated headers and uses a binary format. Browsers use it only over TLS and pick it during the handshake through a setting called ALPN, where 'h2' means HTTP/2. Server push was part of the original design, but Chrome removed it in 2022. HTTP/3 (RFC 9114) carries the same ideas over QUIC on UDP, and browsers fall back to HTTP/2 when UDP is blocked. A web proxy has two separate connections, and each picks its own version. On 15 October 2026, AnyProxy's regional hosts (sg., fr. and us.anyproxy.site) negotiated h2 with the browser and also advertised HTTP/3 in their alt-svc header. On the onward side, Cloudflare's trace page reported http=http/2 for the connection from each AnyProxy region. A site that only speaks HTTP/1.1 would get HTTP/1.1 on that second leg.
In practice
HTTP/2 in the real world
Both legs of an AnyProxy session were checked on 15 Oct 2026. Browser to proxy: openssl showed ALPN 'h2' and TLS 1.3 on sg., fr. and us.anyproxy.site, and their responses carry alt-svc: h3=":443", which invites the browser to switch to HTTP/3. Proxy to site: Cloudflare's trace page, opened through each region, reported http=http/2. The two versions are negotiated independently, so a fast first leg cannot fix a slow, old-protocol site behind it.
Sources: RFC 9113 — HTTP/2 · RFC 9114 — HTTP/3 · Chrome — Removing HTTP/2 Server Push · Cloudflare trace page used in the tests
We checked
What one.one.one.one/cdn-cgi/trace reported through each AnyProxy region
Questions about HTTP/2
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