WP Speed Guide 2026
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Server 10 min Updated 2026

Enabling GZIP & Brotli Compression

Configure your server to compress text-based assets before sending them to the browser.

Enabling GZIP & Brotli Compression

Compression is the "zipping" of your website files before they are sent to the browser. Just like you zip a folder to email it, your server zips HTML, CSS, and JS files to send them to the visitor. The browser then unzips them instantly.

GZIP vs. Brotli

  • GZIP: The industry standard for decades. Good compression, supported by everything.
  • Brotli: The modern standard developed by Google. It compresses text files 15-20% better than GZIP.

Goal for 2026: You should be using Brotli.

Step 1: Checking Your Current Status

Before making changes, check if you are already compressed.

  1. Go to GiftOfSpeed GZIP Test.
  2. Enter your URL.
  3. It will tell you if GZIP or Brotli is enabled.

Step 2: Enabling Brotli on Cloudflare (Easiest)

If you followed our CDN guide and are using Cloudflare, this is already done!

  1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard.
  2. Speed > Optimization > Content Optimization.
  3. Toggle Brotli to On.

This is the preferred method because Cloudflare's servers are highly optimized for this.

Step 3: Enabling GZIP/Brotli on Apache

If you aren't using Cloudflare, you need to enable compression on your origin server.

Add this to your .htaccess file for GZIP:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
</IfModule>

Note: Enabling Brotli on Apache/Nginx usually requires root access to install the module. If you are on shared hosting, ask your support team.

Step 4: Enabling GZIP on Nginx

Add this to your nginx.conf or server block:

gzip on;
gzip_disable "msie6";
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

Conclusion

Compression is non-negotiable. It drastically reduces the amount of data traveling over the wire, which is especially critical for mobile users on unstable networks.

Next, we will look at the foundation of your site: Choosing the Right Hosting Provider.