diff --git a/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.cpp b/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.cpp
index 192032c1ac..0b4c998a40 100644
--- a/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
-#include "http_request_host.h"
-
 #ifdef USE_HOST
 
+#define USE_HTTP_REQUEST_HOST_H
+#define CPPHTTPLIB_NO_EXCEPTIONS
+#include "httplib.h"
+#include "http_request_host.h"
+
 #include <regex>
 #include "esphome/components/network/util.h"
 #include "esphome/components/watchdog/watchdog.h"
diff --git a/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.h b/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.h
index 49fd3b43fe..bbeed87f70 100644
--- a/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.h
+++ b/esphome/components/http_request/http_request_host.h
@@ -1,11 +1,7 @@
 #pragma once
 
-#include "http_request.h"
-
 #ifdef USE_HOST
-
-#define CPPHTTPLIB_NO_EXCEPTIONS
-#include "httplib.h"
+#include "http_request.h"
 namespace esphome {
 namespace http_request {
 
diff --git a/esphome/components/http_request/httplib.h b/esphome/components/http_request/httplib.h
index a2f4436ec7..8b08699702 100644
--- a/esphome/components/http_request/httplib.h
+++ b/esphome/components/http_request/httplib.h
@@ -3,12 +3,10 @@
 /**
  * NOTE: This is a copy of httplib.h from https://github.com/yhirose/cpp-httplib
  *
- * It has been modified only to add ifdefs for USE_HOST. While it contains many functions unused in ESPHome,
+ * It has been modified to add ifdefs for USE_HOST. While it contains many functions unused in ESPHome,
  * it was considered preferable to use it with as few changes as possible, to facilitate future updates.
  */
 
-#include "esphome/core/defines.h"
-
 //
 //  httplib.h
 //
@@ -17,6 +15,11 @@
 //
 
 #ifdef USE_HOST
+// Prevent this code being included in main.cpp
+#ifdef USE_HTTP_REQUEST_HOST_H
+
+#include "esphome/core/defines.h"
+
 #ifndef CPPHTTPLIB_HTTPLIB_H
 #define CPPHTTPLIB_HTTPLIB_H
 
@@ -9687,5 +9690,6 @@ inline SSL_CTX *Client::ssl_context() const {
 #endif
 
 #endif  // CPPHTTPLIB_HTTPLIB_H
+#endif  // USE_HTTP_REQUEST_HOST_H
 
 #endif