diff --git a/.changelog/12409.txt b/.changelog/12409.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..98daac1af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/12409.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+api: default to using DefaultPooledTransport client to support keep-alive by default
+```
diff --git a/api/api.go b/api/api.go
index 2dc00a3f6..8e7c87106 100644
--- a/api/api.go
+++ b/api/api.go
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ func (t *TLSConfig) Copy() *TLSConfig {
 }
 
 func defaultHttpClient() *http.Client {
-	httpClient := cleanhttp.DefaultClient()
+	httpClient := cleanhttp.DefaultPooledClient()
 	transport := httpClient.Transport.(*http.Transport)
 	transport.TLSHandshakeTimeout = 10 * time.Second
 	transport.TLSClientConfig = &tls.Config{