diff --git a/api/build.gradle b/api/build.gradle
index 6906a2ae0d9..bc2301cee35 100644
--- a/api/build.gradle
+++ b/api/build.gradle
@@ -16,9 +16,13 @@ sourceSets {
     }
 }
 
-compileContextJava {
-    sourceCompatibility = 1.7
-    targetCompatibility = 1.7
+tasks.named("compileContextJava").configure {
+    if (JavaVersion.current().isJava9Compatible()) {
+        options.release = 7
+    } else {
+        sourceCompatibility = 1.7
+        targetCompatibility = 1.7
+    }
 }
 
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 31801ef291b..13d8d819ee4 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -181,9 +181,6 @@ subprojects {
     }
 
     plugins.withId("java") {
-        sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-        targetCompatibility = 1.8
-
         dependencies {
             testImplementation libraries.junit,
                     libraries.mockito.core,
@@ -239,6 +236,14 @@ subprojects {
             }
         }
 
+        tasks.withType(JavaCompile).configureEach {
+            if (JavaVersion.current().isJava9Compatible()) {
+                options.release = 8
+            } else {
+                sourceCompatibility = 1.8
+                targetCompatibility = 1.8
+            }
+        }
         tasks.named("compileJava").configure {
             // This project targets Java 7 (no time.Duration class)
             options.errorprone.check("PreferJavaTimeOverload", CheckSeverity.OFF)
@@ -279,10 +284,6 @@ subprojects {
     plugins.withId("me.champeau.jmh") {
         // invoke jmh on a single benchmark class like so:
         //   ./gradlew -PjmhIncludeSingleClass=StatsTraceContextBenchmark clean :grpc-core:jmh
-	tasks.named("compileJmhJava").configure {
-	    sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-	    targetCompatibility = 1.8
-	}
         tasks.named("jmh").configure {
             warmupIterations = 10
             iterations = 10
diff --git a/gae-interop-testing/gae-jdk8/build.gradle b/gae-interop-testing/gae-jdk8/build.gradle
index 78cadc60582..f3ff765ddfb 100644
--- a/gae-interop-testing/gae-jdk8/build.gradle
+++ b/gae-interop-testing/gae-jdk8/build.gradle
@@ -90,9 +90,6 @@ appengine {
 group = 'io.grpc'   // Generated output GroupId
 version = '1.0-SNAPSHOT'          // Version in generated output
 
-sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-targetCompatibility = 1.8
-
 /** Returns the service name. */
 String getGaeProject() {
     def stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
diff --git a/servlet/build.gradle b/servlet/build.gradle
index f5ef32ae11e..50f06f60ae7 100644
--- a/servlet/build.gradle
+++ b/servlet/build.gradle
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@ plugins {
 
 description = "gRPC: Servlet"
 
-// javax.servlet-api 4.0 requires a minimum of Java 8, so we might as well use that source level
-sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-targetCompatibility = 1.8
-
 def jettyVersion = '10.0.7'
 
 configurations {
diff --git a/servlet/jakarta/build.gradle b/servlet/jakarta/build.gradle
index 59f5ac78d80..7b784bce9ac 100644
--- a/servlet/jakarta/build.gradle
+++ b/servlet/jakarta/build.gradle
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 description = "gRPC: Jakarta Servlet"
-sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-targetCompatibility = 1.8
 
 // Set up classpaths and source directories for different servlet tests
 configurations {