---
id: starlette-cramjam
version: "0.7.0"
license: MIT License Copyright (c) 2021 Development Seed Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# starlette-cramjam — Cramjam integration for Starlette ASGI framework.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 212.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

starlette-cramjam is a Starlette ASGI middleware that automatically compresses HTTP responses using one or more compression algorithms (Brotli, GZip, Deflate, ZSTD). It inspects the client's Accept-Encoding header and applies the appropriate algorithm, handling both standard and streaming responses transparently. The middleware is built on top of cramjam, which provides Rust-backed compression bindings for performance.

You configure it by specifying which compression algorithms to support, the compression level (0–11), a minimum response size threshold to avoid compressing small payloads, and optional path or media-type exclusions. It integrates directly into Starlette's middleware stack with minimal setup and requires only Python 3.11 or later.

Use it for:

- Reduce bandwidth and improve response times for text-heavy APIs by automatically compressing JSON or HTML responses.
- Support multiple compression standards (Brotli, GZip, Deflate, ZSTD) to accommodate diverse client preferences without manual negotiation.
- Exclude specific routes or media types (e.g., already-compressed images) from compression to avoid overhead.
- Tune compression level per deployment environment to balance CPU cost and bandwidth savings.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Middleware for Starlette that compresses HTTP responses using Brotli, GZip, Deflate, or ZSTD algorithms based on client Accept-Encoding headers.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and solves a common Starlette use case with a clean API. Install it if you need HTTP compression middleware for a Starlette application and want support for multiple algorithms beyond the standard library.

## Install

pip install starlette-cramjam
uv add starlette-cramjam
poetry add starlette-cramjam

## Installing starlette-cramjam

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two runtime dependencies (cramjam and starlette). Actively maintained with a recent release and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: MIT License permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal obligations—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install starlette-cramjam

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.middleware import Middleware
from starlette_cramjam.middleware import CompressionMiddleware

app = Starlette(
    middleware=[Middleware(CompressionMiddleware)]
)

Requires Python 3.11 or later.

## Package facts

- License: MIT License Copyright (c) 2021 Development Seed Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 212.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

starlette compression middleware, brotli gzip deflate zstd compression, asgi response compression, http content encoding middleware, starlette middleware compression, asgi-middleware, compression

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