diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py b/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
index 163ff0ccbb..6995ecce89 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import urllib3
 from urllib3.exceptions import ReadTimeoutError, SSLError as UrllibSSLError
 import warnings
+import gzip
 
 CA_CERTS = None
 
@@ -57,13 +58,15 @@ class Urllib3HttpConnection(Connection):
         host. See https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/1.4/pools.html#api for more
         information.
     :arg headers: any custom http headers to be add to requests
+    :arg http_compress: Use gzip compression
     """
     def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, http_auth=None,
             use_ssl=False, verify_certs=True, ca_certs=None, client_cert=None,
             client_key=None, ssl_version=None, ssl_assert_hostname=None,
-            ssl_assert_fingerprint=None, maxsize=10, headers=None, ssl_context=None, **kwargs):
+            ssl_assert_fingerprint=None, maxsize=10, headers=None, ssl_context=None, http_compress=False, **kwargs):
 
         super(Urllib3HttpConnection, self).__init__(host=host, port=port, use_ssl=use_ssl, **kwargs)
+        self.http_compress = http_compress
         self.headers = urllib3.make_headers(keep_alive=True)
         if http_auth is not None:
             if isinstance(http_auth, (tuple, list)):
@@ -144,6 +147,10 @@ def perform_request(self, method, url, params=None, body=None, timeout=None, ign
 
             request_headers = self.headers
             if headers:
+                if self.http_compress == True:
+                    headers.update(urllib3.make_headers(accept_encoding=True))
+                    headers.update({'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'})
+                    body = gzip.compress(body)
                 request_headers = request_headers.copy()
                 request_headers.update(headers)
             response = self.pool.urlopen(method, url, body, retries=False, headers=request_headers, **kw)
diff --git a/test_elasticsearch/test_connection.py b/test_elasticsearch/test_connection.py
index 66ac2afaa1..c520f41c60 100644
--- a/test_elasticsearch/test_connection.py
+++ b/test_elasticsearch/test_connection.py
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@
 
 
 class TestUrllib3Connection(TestCase):
+    def test_http_compression(self):
+        con = Urllib3HttpConnection(http_compress=True)
+        self.assertTrue(con.http_compress)
+
     def test_timeout_set(self):
         con = Urllib3HttpConnection(timeout=42)
         self.assertEquals(42, con.timeout)