diff --git a/synapse/app/homeserver.py b/synapse/app/homeserver.py
index d93afdc1c..65a5dfa84 100755
--- a/synapse/app/homeserver.py
+++ b/synapse/app/homeserver.py
@@ -87,10 +87,16 @@ class SynapseHomeServer(HomeServer):
         return MatrixFederationHttpClient(self)
 
     def build_resource_for_client(self):
-        return gz_wrap(ClientV1RestResource(self))
+        res = ClientV1RestResource(self)
+        if self.config.gzip_responses:
+            res = gz_wrap(res)
+        return res
 
     def build_resource_for_client_v2_alpha(self):
-        return gz_wrap(ClientV2AlphaRestResource(self))
+        res = ClientV2AlphaRestResource(self)
+        if self.config.gzip_responses:
+            res = gz_wrap(res)
+        return res
 
     def build_resource_for_federation(self):
         return JsonResource(self)
diff --git a/synapse/config/server.py b/synapse/config/server.py
index 48a26c65d..d0c8fb8f3 100644
--- a/synapse/config/server.py
+++ b/synapse/config/server.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ class ServerConfig(Config):
         self.soft_file_limit = config["soft_file_limit"]
         self.daemonize = config.get("daemonize")
         self.use_frozen_dicts = config.get("use_frozen_dicts", True)
+        self.gzip_responses = config["gzip_responses"]
 
         # Attempt to guess the content_addr for the v0 content repostitory
         content_addr = config.get("content_addr")
@@ -86,6 +87,11 @@ class ServerConfig(Config):
         # Turn on the twisted telnet manhole service on localhost on the given
         # port.
         #manhole: 9000
+
+        # Should synapse compress HTTP responses to clients that support it?
+        # This should be disabled if running synapse behind a load balancer
+        # that can do automatic compression.
+        gzip_responses: True
         """ % locals()
 
     def read_arguments(self, args):