diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4bad2e3..7432cbe 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2768,6 +2768,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "dipstick",
  "dynamodb_lock",
  "env_logger",
+ "flate2",
  "futures",
  "jmespatch",
  "lazy_static",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 9f34759..4a9985f 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ authors = ["R. Tyler Croy <rtyler@brokenco.de>", "Christian Williams <christianw
 edition = "2018"
 
 [dependencies]
+flate2 = "1.0"
 anyhow = "1"
 async-trait = "0.1"
 apache-avro = "^0.14"
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
index 463f8ff..edc961e 100644
--- a/README.adoc
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -210,6 +210,12 @@ Make sure to provide the additional option:
 
 when invoking the cli command as well.
 
+== Gzip Compressed Messages
+
+kafka-delta-ingest now supports ingestion of gzip-compressed messages. This can be particularly useful when dealing with large volumes of data that benefit from compression.
+
+To enable gzip decompression, use the `--decompress_gzip` flag when starting the ingestion process.
+
 == Writing to S3
 
 When writing to S3, you may experience an error like `source: StorageError { source: S3Generic("dynamodb locking is not enabled") }`.
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 6f96d9b..f1ab51a 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -294,6 +294,8 @@ pub struct IngestOptions {
     pub input_format: MessageFormat,
     /// Terminates when initial offsets are reached
     pub end_at_last_offsets: bool,
+    /// Assume that message payloads are gzip compressed and decompress them before processing.
+    pub decompress_gzip: bool,
 }
 
 impl Default for IngestOptions {
@@ -315,6 +317,7 @@ impl Default for IngestOptions {
             statsd_endpoint: "localhost:8125".to_string(),
             input_format: MessageFormat::DefaultJson,
             end_at_last_offsets: false,
+            decompress_gzip: false,
         }
     }
 }
@@ -757,10 +760,12 @@ impl IngestProcessor {
         let table = delta_helpers::load_table(table_uri, HashMap::new()).await?;
         let coercion_tree = coercions::create_coercion_tree(table.schema().unwrap());
         let delta_writer = DataWriter::for_table(&table, HashMap::new())?;
-        let deserializer = match MessageDeserializerFactory::try_build(&opts.input_format) {
-            Ok(deserializer) => deserializer,
-            Err(e) => return Err(IngestError::UnableToCreateDeserializer { source: e }),
-        };
+        let deserializer =
+            match MessageDeserializerFactory::try_build(&opts.input_format, opts.decompress_gzip) {
+                Ok(deserializer) => deserializer,
+                Err(e) => return Err(IngestError::UnableToCreateDeserializer { source: e }),
+            };
+
         Ok(IngestProcessor {
             topic,
             consumer,
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 56a2c50..3420f28 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -141,6 +141,8 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
 
             let end_at_last_offsets = ingest_matches.get_flag("end");
 
+            let decompress_gzip = ingest_matches.get_flag("decompress_gzip");
+
             // ingest_matches.get_flag("end")
             let format = convert_matches_to_message_format(ingest_matches).unwrap();
 
@@ -161,6 +163,7 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
                 statsd_endpoint,
                 input_format: format,
                 end_at_last_offsets,
+                decompress_gzip,
             };
 
             tokio::spawn(async move {
@@ -452,6 +455,11 @@ This can be used to provide TLS configuration as in:
                     .num_args(0)
                     .action(ArgAction::SetTrue)
                     .help(""))
+                .arg(Arg::new("decompress_gzip")
+                    .long("decompress_gzip")
+                    .env("DECOMPRESS_GZIP")
+                    .help("Enable gzip decompression for incoming messages")
+                    .action(ArgAction::SetTrue))
         )
         .arg_required_else_help(true)
 }
diff --git a/src/serialization.rs b/src/serialization.rs
index 9dfc68b..6068203 100644
--- a/src/serialization.rs
+++ b/src/serialization.rs
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
-use std::{borrow::BorrowMut, convert::TryFrom, io::Cursor, path::PathBuf};
-
+use crate::{dead_letters::DeadLetter, MessageDeserializationError, MessageFormat};
 use async_trait::async_trait;
+use flate2::read::GzDecoder;
 use schema_registry_converter::async_impl::{
     easy_avro::EasyAvroDecoder, easy_json::EasyJsonDecoder, schema_registry::SrSettings,
 };
 use serde_json::Value;
-
-use crate::{dead_letters::DeadLetter, MessageDeserializationError, MessageFormat};
+use std::{borrow::BorrowMut, convert::TryFrom, io::Cursor, io::Read, path::PathBuf};
 
 #[async_trait]
 pub(crate) trait MessageDeserializer {
@@ -17,20 +16,22 @@ pub(crate) trait MessageDeserializer {
 }
 
 pub(crate) struct MessageDeserializerFactory {}
+
 impl MessageDeserializerFactory {
     pub fn try_build(
         input_format: &MessageFormat,
+        decompress_gzip: bool, // Add this parameter
     ) -> Result<Box<dyn MessageDeserializer + Send>, anyhow::Error> {
         match input_format {
             MessageFormat::Json(data) => match data {
-                crate::SchemaSource::None => Ok(Self::json_default()),
+                crate::SchemaSource::None => Ok(Self::json_default(decompress_gzip)),
                 crate::SchemaSource::SchemaRegistry(sr) => {
                     match Self::build_sr_settings(sr).map(JsonDeserializer::from_schema_registry) {
                         Ok(s) => Ok(Box::new(s)),
                         Err(e) => Err(e),
                     }
                 }
-                crate::SchemaSource::File(_) => Ok(Self::json_default()),
+                crate::SchemaSource::File(_) => Ok(Self::json_default(decompress_gzip)),
             },
             MessageFormat::Avro(data) => match data {
                 crate::SchemaSource::None => Ok(Box::<AvroSchemaDeserializer>::default()),
@@ -47,12 +48,12 @@ impl MessageDeserializerFactory {
                     }
                 }
             },
-            _ => Ok(Box::new(DefaultDeserializer {})),
+            _ => Ok(Box::new(DefaultDeserializer::new(decompress_gzip))),
         }
     }
 
-    fn json_default() -> Box<dyn MessageDeserializer + Send> {
-        Box::new(DefaultDeserializer {})
+    fn json_default(decompress_gzip: bool) -> Box<dyn MessageDeserializer + Send> {
+        Box::new(DefaultDeserializer::new(decompress_gzip))
     }
 
     fn build_sr_settings(registry_url: &url::Url) -> Result<SrSettings, anyhow::Error> {
@@ -80,16 +81,41 @@ impl MessageDeserializerFactory {
     }
 }
 
-struct DefaultDeserializer {}
+struct DefaultDeserializer {
+    decompress_gzip: bool,
+}
+
+impl DefaultDeserializer {
+    pub fn new(decompress_gzip: bool) -> Self {
+        DefaultDeserializer { decompress_gzip }
+    }
+
+    fn decompress(bytes: &[u8]) -> std::io::Result<Vec<u8>> {
+        let mut decoder = GzDecoder::new(bytes);
+        let mut decompressed_data = Vec::new();
+        decoder.read_to_end(&mut decompressed_data)?;
+        Ok(decompressed_data)
+    }
+}
 
 #[async_trait]
 impl MessageDeserializer for DefaultDeserializer {
     async fn deserialize(&mut self, payload: &[u8]) -> Result<Value, MessageDeserializationError> {
-        let value: Value = match serde_json::from_slice(payload) {
+        let payload = if self.decompress_gzip {
+            Self::decompress(payload).map_err(|e| {
+                MessageDeserializationError::JsonDeserialization {
+                    dead_letter: DeadLetter::from_failed_deserialization(payload, e.to_string()),
+                }
+            })?
+        } else {
+            payload.to_vec()
+        };
+
+        let value: Value = match serde_json::from_slice(&payload) {
             Ok(v) => v,
             Err(e) => {
                 return Err(MessageDeserializationError::JsonDeserialization {
-                    dead_letter: DeadLetter::from_failed_deserialization(payload, e.to_string()),
+                    dead_letter: DeadLetter::from_failed_deserialization(&payload, e.to_string()),
                 });
             }
         };