diff --git a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
index 6d85b7e97..8f57f4e12 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ type Elasticsearch struct {
 	EnableSniffer       bool
 	Timeout             config.Duration
 	HealthCheckInterval config.Duration
+	EnableGzip          bool
 	ManageTemplate      bool
 	TemplateName        string
 	OverwriteTemplate   bool
@@ -50,6 +51,8 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   ## Set to true to ask Elasticsearch a list of all cluster nodes,
   ## thus it is not necessary to list all nodes in the urls config option.
   enable_sniffer = false
+  ## Set to true to enable gzip compression
+  enable_gzip = false
   ## Set the interval to check if the Elasticsearch nodes are available
   ## Setting to "0s" will disable the health check (not recommended in production)
   health_check_interval = "10s"
@@ -197,6 +200,7 @@ func (a *Elasticsearch) Connect() error {
 		elastic.SetSniff(a.EnableSniffer),
 		elastic.SetURL(a.URLs...),
 		elastic.SetHealthcheckInterval(time.Duration(a.HealthCheckInterval)),
+		elastic.SetGzip(a.EnableGzip),
 	)
 
 	if a.Username != "" && a.Password != "" {
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
index baf6e3162..7ad1e632c 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/elasticsearch/elasticsearch_test.go
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ package elasticsearch
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -22,6 +24,7 @@ func TestConnectAndWriteIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 		URLs:                urls,
 		IndexName:           "test-%Y.%m.%d",
 		Timeout:             config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:          true,
 		ManageTemplate:      true,
 		TemplateName:        "telegraf",
 		OverwriteTemplate:   false,
@@ -50,6 +53,7 @@ func TestTemplateManagementEmptyTemplateIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 		URLs:              urls,
 		IndexName:         "test-%Y.%m.%d",
 		Timeout:           config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:        true,
 		ManageTemplate:    true,
 		TemplateName:      "",
 		OverwriteTemplate: true,
@@ -70,6 +74,7 @@ func TestTemplateManagementIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 		URLs:              urls,
 		IndexName:         "test-%Y.%m.%d",
 		Timeout:           config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:        true,
 		ManageTemplate:    true,
 		TemplateName:      "telegraf",
 		OverwriteTemplate: true,
@@ -96,6 +101,7 @@ func TestTemplateInvalidIndexPatternIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 		URLs:              urls,
 		IndexName:         "{{host}}-%Y.%m.%d",
 		Timeout:           config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:        true,
 		ManageTemplate:    true,
 		TemplateName:      "telegraf",
 		OverwriteTemplate: true,
@@ -254,3 +260,70 @@ func TestGetIndexName(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+func TestRequestHeaderWhenGzipIsEnabled(t *testing.T) {
+	ts := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		switch r.URL.Path {
+		case "/_bulk":
+			require.Equal(t, "gzip", r.Header.Get("Content-Encoding"))
+			require.Equal(t, "gzip", r.Header.Get("Accept-Encoding"))
+			_, err := w.Write([]byte("{}"))
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			return
+		default:
+			_, err := w.Write([]byte(`{"version": {"number": "7.8"}}`))
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			return
+		}
+	}))
+	defer ts.Close()
+
+	urls := []string{"http://" + ts.Listener.Addr().String()}
+
+	e := &Elasticsearch{
+		URLs:           urls,
+		IndexName:      "{{host}}-%Y.%m.%d",
+		Timeout:        config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:     true,
+		ManageTemplate: false,
+	}
+
+	err := e.Connect()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	err = e.Write(testutil.MockMetrics())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+}
+
+func TestRequestHeaderWhenGzipIsDisabled(t *testing.T) {
+	ts := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		switch r.URL.Path {
+		case "/_bulk":
+			require.NotEqual(t, "gzip", r.Header.Get("Content-Encoding"))
+			_, err := w.Write([]byte("{}"))
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			return
+		default:
+			_, err := w.Write([]byte(`{"version": {"number": "7.8"}}`))
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			return
+		}
+	}))
+	defer ts.Close()
+
+	urls := []string{"http://" + ts.Listener.Addr().String()}
+
+	e := &Elasticsearch{
+		URLs:           urls,
+		IndexName:      "{{host}}-%Y.%m.%d",
+		Timeout:        config.Duration(time.Second * 5),
+		EnableGzip:     false,
+		ManageTemplate: false,
+	}
+
+	err := e.Connect()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	err = e.Write(testutil.MockMetrics())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+}