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The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a measure of diet quality that is based on key recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Starting with the 2005 version, it has used a universal set of standards, which allows it to be applied to any set of foods and therefore have applications in a variety of research settings. We conducted a literature review to describe and assess the various research applications of the HEI‐2005 and HEI‐2010 from 2008 to 2015. There have been over 130 papers published using HEI‐2005 since its release in 2008. Over 65 papers have been published that used HEI‐2010, which was released in 2013. The number and scope of publications continued to grow each year; nearly 90 papers were published in 2015 alone. A majority of studies that used the HEI examined either the prospective or cross sectional association between overall diet quality and health outcomes. Examples of health outcomes studied included cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dental health, and ocular health. Additionally, the HEI was used to assess the impact of nutrition interventions on diet quality, to examine associations between single foods and overall diet quality, and to investigate the association between diet quality and biomarkers. Both versions of the HEI were used to examine diet quality of specific subgroups of the population such as children and adolescents, older adults, and specific race‐ethnic populations. A smaller number of studies examined the diet quality of a particular set of foods in the food environment, for example, foods provided in distribution programs or available in the US food supply. This literature review demonstrates the importance of the concept of diet quality as represented by the HEI to assess adherence to guidelines and investigate the relationship between diet quality and health outcomes across a variety of research settings. A better understanding of the current applications of HEI will inform future development of resources for researchers and policymakers.