diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e6b8399b5e..b996f9d384 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -7561,6 +7561,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "axum",
  "base64 0.22.1",
  "bytes",
+ "flate2",
  "h2 0.4.4",
  "http 1.1.0",
  "http-body 1.0.0",
@@ -7580,6 +7581,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "tower-layer",
  "tower-service",
  "tracing",
+ "zstd",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 2f4fcbc249..076d8d0b60 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ tokio-tar = "0.3"
 tokio-util = { version = "0.7.10", features = ["io", "rt"] }
 toml = "0.8"
 toml_edit = "0.22"
-tonic = { version = "0.13.1", default-features = false, features = ["channel", "codegen", "prost", "router", "server", "tls-ring", "tls-native-roots"] }
+tonic = { version = "0.13.1", default-features = false, features = ["channel", "codegen", "gzip", "prost", "router", "server", "tls-ring", "tls-native-roots", "zstd"] }
 tonic-reflection = { version = "0.13.1", features = ["server"] }
 tower = { version = "0.5.2", default-features = false }
 tower-http = { version = "0.6.2", features = ["auth", "request-id", "trace"] }
diff --git a/pageserver/page_api/src/client.rs b/pageserver/page_api/src/client.rs
index 057a1d4ad6..274f036f3d 100644
--- a/pageserver/page_api/src/client.rs
+++ b/pageserver/page_api/src/client.rs
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ impl Client {
         timeline_id: TimelineId,
         shard_id: ShardIndex,
         auth_header: Option<String>,
+        compression: Option<tonic::codec::CompressionEncoding>,
     ) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
         let endpoint: tonic::transport::Endpoint = into_endpoint
             .try_into()
@@ -90,7 +91,15 @@ impl Client {
         let channel = endpoint.connect().await?;
         let auth = AuthInterceptor::new(tenant_id, timeline_id, auth_header, shard_id)
             .map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!(e.to_string()))?;
-        let client = proto::PageServiceClient::with_interceptor(channel, auth);
+        let mut client = proto::PageServiceClient::with_interceptor(channel, auth);
+
+        if let Some(compression) = compression {
+            // TODO: benchmark this (including network latency).
+            // TODO: consider enabling compression by default.
+            client = client
+                .accept_compressed(compression)
+                .send_compressed(compression);
+        }
 
         Ok(Self { client })
     }
diff --git a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
index 57087dc6c3..800b47f235 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/page_service.rs
@@ -3286,7 +3286,14 @@ impl GrpcPageServiceHandler {
                 Ok(req)
             }))
             // Run the page service.
-            .service(proto::PageServiceServer::new(page_service_handler));
+            .service(
+                proto::PageServiceServer::new(page_service_handler)
+                    // Support both gzip and zstd compression. The client decides what to use.
+                    .accept_compressed(tonic::codec::CompressionEncoding::Gzip)
+                    .accept_compressed(tonic::codec::CompressionEncoding::Zstd)
+                    .send_compressed(tonic::codec::CompressionEncoding::Gzip)
+                    .send_compressed(tonic::codec::CompressionEncoding::Zstd),
+            );
         let server = server.add_service(page_service);
 
         // Reflection service for use with e.g. grpcurl.
@@ -3532,7 +3539,6 @@ impl proto::PageService for GrpcPageServiceHandler {
         Ok(tonic::Response::new(resp.into()))
     }
 
-    // TODO: ensure clients use gzip compression for the stream.
     #[instrument(skip_all, fields(lsn))]
     async fn get_base_backup(
         &self,