---
title: Gzip vs Brotli: web compression compared
description: Text compression shrinks your HTML, CSS and JS before they travel — for free speed. Here's how gzip and Brotli compare, and which to use where.
canonical: https://watchfor.io/blog/gzip-vs-brotli
---

# Gzip vs Brotli: web compression compared

2026-01-15 · WatchFor Team · Performance · performance, web, basics

Text compression shrinks your HTML, CSS and JS before they travel — for free speed. Here's how gzip and Brotli compare, and which to use where.

Every time your server sends HTML, CSS or JavaScript, it can **compress** it first — shrinking the bytes that travel across the network, so pages arrive faster. It's one of the easiest performance wins there is, usually a single config flag. The two compression methods you'll meet are **gzip** and **Brotli**. Here's the difference and how to choose.

## Why compression matters

Text-based files (HTML, CSS, JS, SVG, JSON) are highly compressible — often shrinking by **60–80%**. Smaller files mean less to download, which means faster page loads, especially on slow connections. And it's essentially free: the browser decompresses automatically.

Note: this is for **text**. Images and video are already compressed in their own formats, so gzip/Brotli don't help there (that's what [image optimization](/blog/image-optimization) is for).

## Gzip: the universal workhorse

**Gzip** has been around for decades and is supported by **everything** — every browser, every server. It's fast to compress and decompress, and it reliably shrinks text well. For years it was simply *the* answer.

## Brotli: the modern upgrade

**Brotli** (from Google) is the newer algorithm, and it generally **compresses text smaller than gzip** — especially at higher settings, and especially for the kind of repetitive text web files contain. It's now supported by all modern browsers and is increasingly the default.

## Side by side

| | gzip | Brotli |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Support** | Universal (everywhere) | All modern browsers |
| **Compression ratio** | Good | Better (smaller files) |
| **Best for** | Maximum compatibility | Best size on modern clients |
| **Speed** | Very fast | Fast (higher levels slower to compress) |

> **The practical answer: use both.** Serve **Brotli** to clients that support it (almost all of them now) and fall back to **gzip** for the rest. Most servers and CDNs negotiate this automatically based on the browser's `Accept-Encoding` header — you just enable both.

## A note on compression levels

Both algorithms have levels trading compression for CPU time:

- For **static assets** (cached and served repeatedly), compress once at a **high level** — you pay the CPU cost a single time for maximum savings.
- For **dynamic responses** (generated per request), use a **moderate level** so you're not burning CPU on every response.

This is why pre-compressing static files (or letting your CDN handle it) is ideal.

## How to turn it on

You rarely write code for this:

1. **Enable compression** in your web server, framework, or CDN config.
2. **Prefer Brotli with gzip fallback** — most modern stacks support both out of the box.
3. **Confirm it's working** — check the response headers for `content-encoding: br` (Brotli) or `gzip`.

You can inspect those headers on any URL with an [HTTP header checker](/http-header-checker).

## The bottom line

| | In one line |
| --- | --- |
| **What** | Shrink text files before sending them — free speed. |
| **gzip** | Universal, fast, good ratio. |
| **Brotli** | Smaller files; the modern default. |
| **Do** | Enable both — Brotli with gzip fallback. |

Compression is one flag away from a meaningfully faster site. Turn on Brotli with a gzip fallback, compress static assets at a high level, and your text files travel 60–80% lighter — at no cost to quality.

Related: [How to speed up your website](/blog/how-to-speed-up-your-website), [image optimization](/blog/image-optimization); check headers with the free [HTTP header checker](/http-header-checker).

---

Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/blog/gzip-vs-brotli · All articles: https://watchfor.io/blog/all.md · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt