diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index dcc1c0cd..3e3fee76 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -239,6 +239,19 @@ dependencies = [
  "pin-project-lite",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "async-compression"
+version = "0.4.10"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9c90a406b4495d129f00461241616194cb8a032c8d1c53c657f0961d5f8e0498"
+dependencies = [
+ "flate2",
+ "futures-core",
+ "memchr",
+ "pin-project-lite",
+ "tokio",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "async-executor"
 version = "1.13.0"
@@ -5043,6 +5056,7 @@ version = "0.11.27"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "dd67538700a17451e7cba03ac727fb961abb7607553461627b97de0b89cf4a62"
 dependencies = [
+ "async-compression",
  "base64 0.21.7",
  "bytes",
  "encoding_rs",
@@ -5069,6 +5083,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "system-configuration",
  "tokio",
  "tokio-rustls 0.24.1",
+ "tokio-util",
  "tower-service",
  "url",
  "wasm-bindgen",
@@ -6621,12 +6636,16 @@ version = "0.5.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "1e9cd434a998747dd2c4276bc96ee2e0c7a2eadf3cae88e52be55a05fa9053f5"
 dependencies = [
+ "async-compression",
  "bitflags 2.6.0",
  "bytes",
+ "futures-core",
  "http 1.1.0",
  "http-body 1.0.1",
  "http-body-util",
  "pin-project-lite",
+ "tokio",
+ "tokio-util",
  "tower-layer",
  "tower-service",
  "tracing",
diff --git a/crates/kcli/Cargo.toml b/crates/kcli/Cargo.toml
index 06afd41c..05f34660 100644
--- a/crates/kcli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/kcli/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ lexicmp = "0.1"
 message = {path="../message", default-features=false}
 ordermap = {version="0.5", features=["serde"]}
 kumo-api-types = {path="../kumo-api-types", default-features=false}
-reqwest = {workspace=true, default-features=false, features=["json", "rustls-tls"]}
+reqwest = {workspace=true, default-features=false, features=["json", "rustls-tls", "deflate", "gzip"]}
 serde = {version="1.0", features=["derive"]}
 serde_json = "1.0"
 tabout = "0.3"
diff --git a/crates/kumo-server-common/Cargo.toml b/crates/kumo-server-common/Cargo.toml
index 79652c07..096ead34 100644
--- a/crates/kumo-server-common/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/kumo-server-common/Cargo.toml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ throttle = {path="../throttle"}
 tokio = {workspace=true, features=["full", "tracing"]}
 tokio-metrics = "0.3.1"
 tokio-metrics-collector = "0.2.1"
-tower-http = {version="0.5", features=["trace"]}
+tower-http = {version="0.5", features=["trace", "compression-deflate", "compression-gzip"]}
 tracing = "0.1"
 tracing-appender = "0.2"
 tracing-subscriber = {version="0.3", features=["env-filter", "std", "fmt", "json"]}
diff --git a/crates/kumo-server-common/src/http_server/mod.rs b/crates/kumo-server-common/src/http_server/mod.rs
index aac9e8da..bbd0ac77 100644
--- a/crates/kumo-server-common/src/http_server/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/kumo-server-common/src/http_server/mod.rs
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ use prometheus::Histogram;
 use serde::Deserialize;
 use std::net::{IpAddr, SocketAddr, TcpListener};
 use std::sync::Arc;
+use tower_http::compression::CompressionLayer;
 use tower_http::trace::TraceLayer;
 use utoipa::openapi::security::{Http, HttpAuthScheme, SecurityScheme};
 use utoipa::OpenApi;
@@ -149,6 +150,11 @@ impl HttpListenerParams {
     pub async fn start(self, router_and_docs: RouterAndDocs) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         let api_docs = router_and_docs.make_docs();
 
+        let compression_layer: CompressionLayer = CompressionLayer::new()
+            .deflate(true)
+            .gzip(true)
+            .quality(tower_http::CompressionLevel::Fastest);
+
         let app = router_and_docs
             .router
             .layer(DefaultBodyLimit::max(
@@ -169,6 +175,7 @@ impl HttpListenerParams {
                 },
                 auth_middleware,
             ))
+            .layer(compression_layer)
             .layer(TraceLayer::new_for_http());
         let socket = TcpListener::bind(&self.listen)
             .with_context(|| format!("listen on {}", self.listen))?;