Error:(1, 0) Plugin with id 'com.android.application' not found

Updated Answer (Dec. 2, 2020)

Latest Gradle: 6.5

Version check:

• ./gradlew -v

How to update:

• Set URL: ./gradlew wrapper --gradle-version=6.5 --distribution-type=all
• Update: ./gradlew wrapper

Latest Android Gradle Plugin: 4.1.0

If you add the following code snippet to the top of your build.gradle file. Gradle will update the build tools.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google() // For Gradle 4.0+
        maven { url 'https://maven.google.com' } // For Gradle < 4.0
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.1.0'
    }
}

Read more here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/index.html and about version compatibility here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/gradle-plugin.html#updating-gradle and https://dl.google.com/dl/android/maven2/index.html.

Original Answer

I had this same error, you need to make sure your Gradle version is compatible with your Android Gradle Plugin.

The latest version of Gradle is 2.0 but you need to use 1.12 in order to use the Android Gradle Plugin.

This can happen if you miss adding the Top-level build file.

Just add build.gradle to top level.

It should look like this

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.
buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.xx.y'
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

In my case, I download the project from GitHub and the Gradle file was missing. So I just create a new project with success build. Then copy-paste the Gradle missing file. And re-build the project is working for me.

Root-gradle file:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:x.x.x'
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
}

Gradle-wrapper.properties file:

distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-x.x-all.zip

I am writing this not as a solution meant for many, but for some people who may commit a simple mistake like specifying the wrong url for importing projects from SVN. It is intended for those guys :)

This happened to me when I imported the project from SVN -> automatic prompt by Studio to open the project -> It asked for Gradle location -> D:\Software\Android\gradle-2.5 -> Then the error.

The same project in a different SVN branch works fine with the Gradle plugin and Gradle which I have configured in Studio. I tried changing Android Gradle plugin and Gradle to get it working on the erring branch without any success.

Finally, I figured out that it was my following mistake: I tried importing a specific Application alone instead of importing the application along with dependent library projects. The url which I used for import initially had the Application porject's name at the end. Once I removed it, and specified the parent directory which contained both application project and its dependent project, everything went smooth :)