diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 065078e7f7768..5de2372ae0faf 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -12482,6 +12482,7 @@ version = "0.4.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "61c5bb1d698276a2443e5ecfabc1008bf15a36c12e6a7176e7bf089ea9131140"
 dependencies = [
+ "async-compression",
  "bitflags 2.4.0",
  "bytes",
  "futures-core",
diff --git a/src/meta/Cargo.toml b/src/meta/Cargo.toml
index 20a82883e81ce..af47427398d56 100644
--- a/src/meta/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/meta/Cargo.toml
@@ -92,7 +92,12 @@ uuid = { version = "1", features = ["v4"] }
 
 [target.'cfg(not(madsim))'.dependencies]
 axum = "0.6"
-tower-http = { version = "0.4", features = ["add-extension", "cors", "fs"] }
+tower-http = { version = "0.4", features = [
+    "add-extension",
+    "cors",
+    "fs",
+    "compression-gzip",
+] }
 workspace-hack = { path = "../workspace-hack" }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/src/meta/src/dashboard/mod.rs b/src/meta/src/dashboard/mod.rs
index f531991336db3..5e5a7476fa10c 100644
--- a/src/meta/src/dashboard/mod.rs
+++ b/src/meta/src/dashboard/mod.rs
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ use risingwave_rpc_client::ComputeClientPool;
 use thiserror_ext::AsReport;
 use tower::{ServiceBuilder, ServiceExt};
 use tower_http::add_extension::AddExtensionLayer;
+use tower_http::compression::CompressionLayer;
 use tower_http::cors::{self, CorsLayer};
 use tower_http::services::ServeDir;
 
@@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ pub(super) mod handlers {
     use risingwave_pb::catalog::table::TableType;
     use risingwave_pb::catalog::{Sink, Source, Table, View};
     use risingwave_pb::common::{WorkerNode, WorkerType};
-    use risingwave_pb::meta::{ActorLocation, PbTableFragments};
+    use risingwave_pb::meta::PbTableFragments;
     use risingwave_pb::monitor_service::{
         GetBackPressureResponse, HeapProfilingResponse, ListHeapProfilingResponse,
         StackTraceResponse,
@@ -440,7 +441,8 @@ impl DashboardService {
         let app = Router::new()
             .fallback_service(dashboard_router)
             .nest("/api", api_router)
-            .nest("/trace", trace_ui_router);
+            .nest("/trace", trace_ui_router)
+            .layer(CompressionLayer::new());
 
         axum::Server::bind(&srv.dashboard_addr)
             .serve(app.into_make_service())