diff --git a/plugin/build.gradle b/plugin/build.gradle
index 8ea9e9b..54255d4 100644
--- a/plugin/build.gradle
+++ b/plugin/build.gradle
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ dependencies {
     implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:26.22.0')
     implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-pubsub'
     implementation 'io.airlift:stats:235'
+    implementation 'io.airlift:aircompressor:0.25'
     testImplementation 'org.hamcrest:hamcrest-core:2.2'
 }
 
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoder.java b/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoder.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c0b89e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoder.java
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+package dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener;
+
+import com.google.protobuf.Message;
+import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.Encoder.MessageEncoder;
+import io.airlift.compress.zstd.ZstdOutputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.util.Objects;
+
+public class CompressingMessageEncoder implements MessageEncoder {
+
+    private final MessageEncoder delegate;
+
+    public CompressingMessageEncoder(MessageEncoder delegate) {
+        this.delegate = Objects.requireNonNull(delegate);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public byte[] encode(Message value) throws Exception {
+        var uncompressedBytes = delegate.encode(value);
+        try (var in = new ByteArrayInputStream(uncompressedBytes);
+                var bao = new ByteArrayOutputStream()) {
+            // ZstdOutputStream compress and flushes on close,
+            // so we wrap it on its own try with resources
+            try (var zout = new ZstdOutputStream(bao)) {
+                in.transferTo(zout);
+            }
+            return bao.toByteArray();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/pubsub/PubSubPublisher.java b/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/pubsub/PubSubPublisher.java
index 8efc9ed..e30e638 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/pubsub/PubSubPublisher.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/pubsub/PubSubPublisher.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 import com.google.protobuf.Message;
 import com.google.pubsub.v1.PubsubMessage;
 import com.google.pubsub.v1.TopicName;
+import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.CompressingMessageEncoder;
 import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.Encoder;
 import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.Encoder.Encoding;
 import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.Encoder.MessageEncoder;
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@ public static PubSubPublisher create(
                         .setBatchingSettings(batchingSettings)
                         .build();
 
-        var encoder = MessageEncoder.create(encoding);
+        var encoder = new CompressingMessageEncoder(MessageEncoder.create(encoding));
         return new PubSubPublisher(publisher, encoder);
     }
 
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoderTest.java b/plugin/src/test/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c15e07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/src/test/java/dev/regadas/trino/pubsub/listener/CompressingMessageEncoderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+package dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener;
+
+import static java.util.stream.Collectors.joining;
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.lessThan;
+
+import com.google.protobuf.Message;
+import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.Encoder.MessageEncoder;
+import dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.proto.Test.TestMessage;
+import io.airlift.compress.zstd.ZstdInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.stream.Stream;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+class CompressingMessageEncoderTest {
+
+    private static final String TEXT = Stream.generate(() -> "a").limit(1000).collect(joining());
+    private static final TestMessage MESSAGE = TestMessage.newBuilder().setText(TEXT).build();
+    private static final ProtoMessageEncoder DELEGATE = new ProtoMessageEncoder();
+    private CompressingMessageEncoder encoder;
+
+    @BeforeEach
+    void setUp() {
+        encoder = new CompressingMessageEncoder(DELEGATE);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testEncodeActuallyCompress() throws Exception {
+        byte[] uncompressed = DELEGATE.encode(MESSAGE);
+
+        byte[] compressed = encoder.encode(MESSAGE);
+
+        assertThat(compressed.length, lessThan(uncompressed.length));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testEncodeCompressionRoundTrip() throws Exception {
+        byte[] compressed = encoder.encode(MESSAGE);
+
+        byte[] decompressed = decompress(compressed);
+        assertThat(TestMessage.parseFrom(decompressed), equalTo(MESSAGE));
+    }
+
+    public static byte[] decompress(byte[] uncompressedBytes) throws IOException {
+        try (var zin = new ZstdInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(uncompressedBytes));
+                var bao = new ByteArrayOutputStream()) {
+            zin.transferTo(bao);
+            return bao.toByteArray();
+        }
+    }
+
+    static class ProtoMessageEncoder implements MessageEncoder {
+
+        @Override
+        public byte[] encode(Message value) {
+            return value.toByteArray();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/proto/test.proto b/plugin/src/test/proto/test.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8bbf52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/src/test/proto/test.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+package dev.regadas.trino.pubsub.listener.proto;
+
+message TestMessage {
+  string text = 1;
+}