diff --git a/src/datasets/io/json.py b/src/datasets/io/json.py
index ae4710e0726..2d4698df966 100644
--- a/src/datasets/io/json.py
+++ b/src/datasets/io/json.py
@@ -95,7 +95,10 @@ def write(self) -> int:
         lines = self.to_json_kwargs.pop("lines", True if orient == "records" else False)
         if "index" not in self.to_json_kwargs and orient in ["split", "table"]:
             self.to_json_kwargs["index"] = False
-        compression = self.to_json_kwargs.pop("compression", None)
+
+        # Determine the default compression value based on self.path_or_buf type
+        default_compression = "infer" if isinstance(self.path_or_buf, (str, bytes, os.PathLike)) else None
+        compression = self.to_json_kwargs.pop("compression", default_compression)
 
         if compression not in [None, "infer", "gzip", "bz2", "xz"]:
             raise NotImplementedError(f"`datasets` currently does not support {compression} compression")