diff --git a/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/src/backend.rs b/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/src/backend.rs
index 8de7e000..b42dd29c 100644
--- a/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/src/backend.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/src/backend.rs
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ pub struct BackendOptions {
     pub bypass_cache: bool,
     pub timeout: Option<Duration>,
     pub tls: TlsConfig,
+    /// A caller-owned, pooled client shared by every server. `None` builds
+    /// one client per server from `tls`.
+    pub shared_client: Option<adc_backend_core::Client>,
 }
 
 /// Stands in for a version that couldn't be determined (missing/unparseable
@@ -111,12 +114,17 @@ impl Backend {
                 let token = if paired_tokens { opts.tokens.get(index) } else { opts.tokens.first() }
                     .cloned()
                     .ok_or_else(|| BackendError::Other("apisix-standalone backend requires at least one token".into()))?;
-                let client = HttpClient::new(HttpClientConfig {
-                    server: server.clone(),
-                    token,
-                    timeout: opts.timeout,
-                    tls: opts.tls.clone(),
-                })?
+                let client = match &opts.shared_client {
+                    Some(shared) => {
+                        HttpClient::with_shared_client(shared.clone(), server.clone(), token, opts.timeout)?
+                    }
+                    None => HttpClient::new(HttpClientConfig {
+                        server: server.clone(),
+                        token,
+                        timeout: opts.timeout,
+                        tls: opts.tls.clone(),
+                    })?,
+                }
                 .with_log_scope(vec!["APISIX".to_string()]);
                 Ok(StandaloneServer { server, client })
             })
diff --git a/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/tests/common/mod.rs b/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/tests/common/mod.rs
index e5fe66ea..61048a04 100644
--- a/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/tests/common/mod.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/adc-backend-apisix-standalone/tests/common/mod.rs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ pub fn backend_options(servers: Vec<String>, cache_key: &str) -> adc_backend_api
         bypass_cache: false,
         timeout: Some(Duration::from_secs(10)),
         tls: tls(),
+        shared_client: None,
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/rust/crates/adc-backend-core/src/lib.rs b/rust/crates/adc-backend-core/src/lib.rs
index 9d896ba8..37087d5e 100644
--- a/rust/crates/adc-backend-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/adc-backend-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ pub use resource_path::resource_type_collection_name;
 pub use retry::RetryPolicy;
 pub use tls::TlsConfig;
 
-pub use reqwest::{Method, RequestBuilder, Response};
+pub use reqwest::{Client, Method, RequestBuilder, Response};
diff --git a/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/pipeline.rs b/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/pipeline.rs
index e1a0eafc..cd3d929d 100644
--- a/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/pipeline.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/pipeline.rs
@@ -74,8 +74,7 @@ impl TryFrom<&BackendArgs> for BackendSpec {
 
 /// `shared_client`: `None` builds a fresh `HttpClient` from `spec.tls` (the
 /// one-shot CLI); `Some` reuses an already-built, pooled `reqwest::Client`
-/// (the ingress-server daemon). Only `apisix`/`api7ee` look at it —
-/// `apisix-standalone` always builds its own clients from `spec.tls`.
+/// (the ingress-server daemon), shared by every server of the backend.
 pub fn init_backend(
     spec: BackendSpec,
     shared_client: Option<reqwest::Client>,
@@ -103,6 +102,7 @@ pub fn init_backend(
                 bypass_cache: spec.bypass_cache,
                 timeout: spec.timeout,
                 tls: spec.tls,
+                shared_client,
             },
         )?)),
         "" | "apisix" => {
diff --git a/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/server/backend.rs b/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/server/backend.rs
index f542fc33..2e127ad5 100644
--- a/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/server/backend.rs
+++ b/rust/crates/adc-cli/src/server/backend.rs
@@ -146,6 +146,56 @@ mod tests {
         task.abort();
     }
 
+    /// A plain HTTP stub that answers every request with an empty `200` and
+    /// counts accepted TCP connections.
+    async fn spawn_counting_http_stub() -> (std::net::SocketAddr, Arc<std::sync::atomic::AtomicUsize>) {
+        use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
+        use tokio::io::{AsyncReadExt, AsyncWriteExt};
+
+        let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind("127.0.0.1:0").await.unwrap();
+        let addr = listener.local_addr().unwrap();
+        let accepted = Arc::new(AtomicUsize::new(0));
+        let counter = accepted.clone();
+        tokio::spawn(async move {
+            loop {
+                let (mut stream, _) = listener.accept().await.unwrap();
+                counter.fetch_add(1, Ordering::SeqCst);
+                tokio::spawn(async move {
+                    let response = b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\n\r\n";
+                    let mut pending = Vec::new();
+                    let mut buf = [0u8; 1024];
+                    while stream.read(&mut buf).await.is_ok_and(|n| {
+                        pending.extend_from_slice(&buf[..n]);
+                        n > 0
+                    }) {
+                        // One response per complete request head, however the
+                        // bytes were split across reads.
+                        while let Some(end) = pending.windows(4).position(|w| w == b"\r\n\r\n") {
+                            pending.drain(..end + 4);
+                            if stream.write_all(response).await.is_err() {
+                                return;
+                            }
+                        }
+                    }
+                });
+            }
+        });
+        (addr, accepted)
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn apisix_standalone_backends_reuse_one_connection_across_builds() {
+        let (addr, accepted) = spawn_counting_http_stub().await;
+        let mut o = opts(&format!("http://{addr}"), None);
+        o.backend = "apisix-standalone".to_string();
+        o.cache_key = "test-standalone-reuse".to_string();
+
+        for _ in 0..3 {
+            build_backend(&o).unwrap().ping().await.unwrap();
+        }
+        assert_eq!(accepted.load(std::sync::atomic::Ordering::SeqCst), 1);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn build_backend_constructs_an_api7ee_backend() {
         let mut o = opts("http://127.0.0.1:9180", None);