Enable Gzip Compression via htaccess

Learn how to enable Gzip compression using your .htaccess file to reduce file sizes, improve website loading speed, and boost overall performance in this step-by-step guide.

Your pages ship a lot of text: HTML, CSS, JavaScript. That text compresses well, and gzip does it before the bytes leave your server. Turn it on and a typical CSS or JS file drops 60 to 80 percent on the wire. Here’s how to switch it on in .htaccess on Apache.

One thing to check first: a lot of hosts and every serious CDN (Cloudflare, Fastly, most managed WordPress hosts) already do this for you. Run your site through the tools in Step 3 before you touch anything. If compression already shows up, you’re done, leave the file alone.

Step 1: Check if mod_deflate is Enabled

Gzip on Apache is handled by mod_deflate. The old mod_gzip module is legacy and isn’t present on modern Apache, so ignore any guide that reaches for it. To confirm mod_deflate is loaded, drop this in your .htaccess:

<?php
&lt;IfModule mod_deflate.c&gt;
&#35; mod_deflate is enabled
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

Anything inside those tags only runs when the module is active. If your rules do nothing, mod_deflate isn’t loaded, and that’s a call to your host, not something you can force from .htaccess.

Step 2: Add the Gzip Compression Code

Once mod_deflate is confirmed, add the block below. It tells Apache which content types to compress and carries a few guards for ancient browsers:

<?php
&#35; BEGIN Gzip compression htaccess
&lt;IfModule mod_deflate.c&gt;
  &#35; Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML, and fonts
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
  &#35; Remove browser bugs (only needed for really old browsers)
  BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
  BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0[678] no-gzip
  BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
  Header append Vary User-Agent
&lt;/IfModule&gt;
&#35; END Gzip compression htaccess
&#35; BEGIN Connection keep-alive
&lt;ifModule mod_headers.c&gt;
Header set Connection keep-alive
&lt;/ifModule&gt;
&#35; END Connection keep-alive

Notice the list is all text formats: markup, styles, scripts, fonts, SVG. That’s on purpose. JPEGs, PNGs, WebP, and most video are already compressed, so running them through gzip burns CPU for no gain. Leave them off the list. The keep-alive block lets several requests reuse one connection, which shaves a little latency on top.

Step 3: Test Your Website

Don’t trust it because you saved the file. Confirm it. Run your URL through GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights, or check the Content-Encoding response header in your browser’s Network tab. If it says gzip, you’re compressing.

One honest caveat: gzip is the safe, universal option, but it isn’t the fastest anymore. If your host or CDN offers Brotli, it usually squeezes text 15 to 20 percent smaller and most browsers support it. Use it when you can. And whichever you pick, run only one, don’t stack gzip behind a CDN that’s already compressing, or you pay twice for the same job.