How do I enable compression for Nginx?

Question

How do I enable compression for nginx?

Answer

gzip is not enabled by default in the nginx configuration. To enable it, modify the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file directly and add this line:

gzip on;

By default, nginx compresses responses only with MIME type text/html. To compress responses with other MIME types, include the gzip_types directive and list the additional types (for additional mime types, see this page):

gzip_types text/plain application/xml;

The overall configuration of gzip compression might look like this:

server {
    gzip on;
    gzip_types      text/plain application/xml;
    gzip_proxied    no-cache no-store private expired auth;
    gzip_min_length 1000;
    ...
}

Note: Your configuration requirements may differ, and the above is a general example. For additional information, review the official nginx documentation.