diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ba26b47c..f50b5e0b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -268,6 +268,20 @@ TABLES
 GoodBye!
 ```
 
+
+# Compressed Data
+
+Consider using the new "extra_headers" optional parameter to send
+"Accept-Encoding: gzip" and have Druid return the results compressed,
+increasing the performance of the query especially for large data sets.
+
+```python
+from pydruid.client import PyDruid
+
+query = PyDruid(druid_url_goes_here, 'druid/v2', extra_headers={"Accept-Encoding": "gzip"})
+```
+
+
 # Contributing
 
 Contributions are welcomed of course. We like to use `black` and `flake8`.
diff --git a/pydruid/client.py b/pydruid/client.py
index 95dca1dd..16e41eb6 100755
--- a/pydruid/client.py
+++ b/pydruid/client.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
+import sys
 import json
 import re
 
@@ -24,19 +25,35 @@
 from pydruid.query import QueryBuilder
 from base64 import b64encode
 
+if sys.version_info.major == 2 and sys.version_info.minor == 7:
+    import StringIO
+    from gzip import GzipFile
+
+    def decompress(data):
+        infile = StringIO.StringIO()
+        infile.write(data)
+        with GzipFile(fileobj=infile, mode="r") as f:
+            f.rewind()
+            ud = f.read()
+        return ud
+
+
+else:
+    from gzip import decompress
 
 # extract error from the <PRE> tag inside the HTML response
 HTML_ERROR = re.compile("<pre>\\s*(.*?)\\s*</pre>", re.IGNORECASE)
 
 
 class BaseDruidClient(object):
-    def __init__(self, url, endpoint):
+    def __init__(self, url, endpoint, extra_headers=None):
         self.url = url
         self.endpoint = endpoint
         self.query_builder = QueryBuilder()
         self.username = None
         self.password = None
         self.proxies = None
+        self.extra_headers = extra_headers
 
     def set_basic_auth_credentials(self, username, password):
         self.username = username
@@ -55,6 +72,8 @@ def _prepare_url_headers_and_body(self, query):
         else:
             url = self.url + "/" + self.endpoint
         headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}
+        if self.extra_headers and isinstance(self.extra_headers, dict):
+            headers.update(self.extra_headers)
         if (self.username is not None) and (self.password is not None):
             authstring = "{}:{}".format(self.username, self.password)
             b64string = b64encode(authstring.encode()).decode()
@@ -542,15 +561,23 @@ class PyDruid(BaseDruidClient):
                 1      6  2013-10-04T00:00:00.000Z         user_2
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, url, endpoint):
-        super(PyDruid, self).__init__(url, endpoint)
+    def __init__(self, url, endpoint, extra_headers=None):
+        super(PyDruid, self).__init__(url, endpoint, extra_headers)
 
     def _post(self, query):
         try:
             headers, querystr, url = self._prepare_url_headers_and_body(query)
             req = urllib.request.Request(url, querystr, headers)
             res = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
-            data = res.read().decode("utf-8")
+            content_encoding = res.info().get("Content-Encoding")
+            if content_encoding == "gzip":
+                data = decompress(res.read()).decode("utf-8")
+            elif content_encoding:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    "Invalid content encoding: {}".format(content_encoding)
+                )
+            else:
+                data = res.read().decode("utf-8")
             res.close()
         except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
             err = e.read()
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 8f2d0a1b..161eeebc 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
 import textwrap
-
+import sys
 import pytest
 from mock import patch, Mock
 from six.moves import urllib
@@ -11,29 +11,38 @@
 from pydruid.utils.aggregators import doublesum
 from pydruid.utils.filters import Dimension
 
+if sys.version_info.major == 2 and sys.version_info.minor == 7:
+    from gzip import GzipFile
+
+    def compress(data):
+        out = StringIO()
+        with GzipFile(fileobj=out, mode="w") as f:
+            f.write(data)
+        return out.getvalue()
+
+
+else:
+    from gzip import compress
 
-def create_client():
-    return PyDruid("http://localhost:8083", "druid/v2/")
+
+def create_client(headers=None):
+    return PyDruid("http://localhost:8083", "druid/v2/", headers)
 
 
 def create_blank_query():
-    return Query({}, 'none')
+    return Query({}, "none")
 
 
-def _http_error(code, msg, data = ''):
+def _http_error(code, msg, data=""):
     # Need a file-like object for the response data
     fp = StringIO(data)
     return urllib.error.HTTPError(
-        url='http://fakeurl:8080/druid/v2/',
-        hdrs={},
-        code=code,
-        msg=msg,
-        fp=fp,
+        url="http://fakeurl:8080/druid/v2/", hdrs={}, code=code, msg=msg, fp=fp
     )
 
 
 class TestPyDruid:
-    @patch('pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen')
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
     def test_druid_returns_error(self, mock_urlopen):
         # given
         mock_urlopen.side_effect = _http_error(500, "Druid error")
@@ -42,20 +51,22 @@ def test_druid_returns_error(self, mock_urlopen):
         # when / then
         with pytest.raises(IOError):
             client.topn(
-                    datasource="testdatasource",
-                    granularity="all",
-                    intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
-                    aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
-                    dimension="user_name",
-                    metric="count",
-                    filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
-                    threshold=1,
-                    context={"timeout": 1000})
-
-    @patch('pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen')
+                datasource="testdatasource",
+                granularity="all",
+                intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
+                aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
+                dimension="user_name",
+                metric="count",
+                filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
+                threshold=1,
+                context={"timeout": 1000},
+            )
+
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
     def test_druid_returns_html_error(self, mock_urlopen):
         # given
-        message = textwrap.dedent("""
+        message = textwrap.dedent(
+            """
             <html>
             <head>
             <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"/>
@@ -68,24 +79,29 @@ def test_druid_returns_html_error(self, mock_urlopen):
             <hr /><a href="http://eclipse.org/jetty">Powered by Jetty:// 9.3.19.v20170502</a><hr/>
             </body>
             </html>
-        """).strip()
-        mock_urlopen.side_effect = _http_error(500, 'Internal Server Error', message)
+        """
+        ).strip()
+        mock_urlopen.side_effect = _http_error(500, "Internal Server Error", message)
         client = create_client()
 
         # when / then
         with pytest.raises(IOError) as e:
             client.topn(
-                    datasource="testdatasource",
-                    granularity="all",
-                    intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
-                    aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
-                    dimension="user_name",
-                    metric="count",
-                    filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
-                    threshold=1,
-                    context={"timeout": 1000})
-
-        assert str(e.value) == textwrap.dedent("""
+                datasource="testdatasource",
+                granularity="all",
+                intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
+                aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
+                dimension="user_name",
+                metric="count",
+                filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
+                threshold=1,
+                context={"timeout": 1000},
+            )
+
+        assert (
+            str(e.value)
+            == textwrap.dedent(
+                """
             HTTP Error 500: Internal Server Error 
              Druid Error: javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded 
              Query is: {
@@ -112,9 +128,11 @@ def test_druid_returns_html_error(self, mock_urlopen):
                 "queryType": "topN",
                 "threshold": 1
             }
-        """).strip()
+        """
+            ).strip()
+        )
 
-    @patch('pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen')
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
     def test_druid_returns_results(self, mock_urlopen):
         # given
         response = Mock()
@@ -126,28 +144,32 @@ def test_druid_returns_results(self, mock_urlopen):
     "metric" : 100
   } ]
             } ]
-        """.encode("utf-8")
+        """.encode(
+            "utf-8"
+        )
+        response.info.return_value = {}
         mock_urlopen.return_value = response
         client = create_client()
 
         # when
         top = client.topn(
-                datasource="testdatasource",
-                granularity="all",
-                intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
-                aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
-                dimension="user_name",
-                metric="count",
-                filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
-                threshold=1,
-                context={"timeout": 1000})
+            datasource="testdatasource",
+            granularity="all",
+            intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
+            aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
+            dimension="user_name",
+            metric="count",
+            filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
+            threshold=1,
+            context={"timeout": 1000},
+        )
 
         # then
         assert top is not None
         assert len(top.result) == 1
-        assert len(top.result[0]['result']) == 1
+        assert len(top.result[0]["result"]) == 1
 
-    @patch('pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen')
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
     def test_client_allows_to_export_last_query(self, mock_urlopen):
         # given
         response = Mock()
@@ -159,29 +181,79 @@ def test_client_allows_to_export_last_query(self, mock_urlopen):
     "metric" : 100
   } ]
             } ]
-        """.encode("utf-8")
+        """.encode(
+            "utf-8"
+        )
+        response.info.return_value = {}
         mock_urlopen.return_value = response
         client = create_client()
         client.topn(
-                datasource="testdatasource",
-                granularity="all",
-                intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
-                aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
-                dimension="user_name",
-                metric="count",
-                filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
-                threshold=1,
-                context={"timeout": 1000})
+            datasource="testdatasource",
+            granularity="all",
+            intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
+            aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
+            dimension="user_name",
+            metric="count",
+            filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
+            threshold=1,
+            context={"timeout": 1000},
+        )
 
         # when / then
-        # assert that last_query.export_tsv method was called (it should throw an exception, given empty path)
+        # assert that last_query.export_tsv method was called (it should throw an
+        # exception, given empty path)
         with pytest.raises(TypeError):
             client.export_tsv(None)
 
-    @patch('pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen')
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
     def test_client_auth_creds(self, mock_urlopen):
         client = create_client()
         query = create_blank_query()
-        client.set_basic_auth_credentials('myUsername', 'myPassword')
+        client.set_basic_auth_credentials("myUsername", "myPassword")
+        headers, _, _ = client._prepare_url_headers_and_body(query)
+        assert headers["Authorization"] == "Basic bXlVc2VybmFtZTpteVBhc3N3b3Jk"
+
+    def test_client_allows_extra_headers(self):
+        client = create_client(headers={"Accept-Encoding": "gzip"})
+        query = create_blank_query()
         headers, _, _ = client._prepare_url_headers_and_body(query)
-        assert headers['Authorization'] == "Basic bXlVc2VybmFtZTpteVBhc3N3b3Jk"
+        assert headers["Accept-Encoding"] == "gzip"
+
+    @patch("pydruid.client.urllib.request.urlopen")
+    def test_return_compressed_data(self, mock_urlopen):
+        # given
+        response = Mock()
+        response.read.return_value = compress(
+            """
+            [ {
+              "timestamp" : "2015-12-30T14:14:49.000Z",
+              "result" : [ {
+                "dimension" : "aaaa",
+                "metric" : 100
+              } ]
+            } ]
+        """.encode(
+                "utf-8"
+            )
+        )
+        response.info.return_value = {"Content-Encoding": "gzip"}
+        mock_urlopen.return_value = response
+        client = create_client(headers={"Accept-Encoding": "gzip"})
+
+        # when
+        top = client.topn(
+            datasource="testdatasource",
+            granularity="all",
+            intervals="2015-12-29/pt1h",
+            aggregations={"count": doublesum("count")},
+            dimension="user_name",
+            metric="count",
+            filter=Dimension("user_lang") == "en",
+            threshold=1,
+            context={"timeout": 1000},
+        )
+
+        # then
+        assert top is not None
+        assert len(top.result) == 1
+        assert len(top.result[0]["result"]) == 1