diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index 2229dde53..3af744419 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -456,6 +456,7 @@ The following keywords are supported in the "global" section :
    - maxconn
    - maxconnrate
    - maxcomprate
+   - maxcompcpuusage
    - maxpipes
    - maxsslconn
    - noepoll
@@ -697,6 +698,16 @@ maxcomprate <number>
   tune.comp.maxlevel.  A value of zero means there is no limit, this is the
   default value.
 
+maxcompcpuusage <number>
+  Sets the maximum CPU usage HAProxy can reach before stopping the compression
+  for new requests or decreasing the compression level of current requests.
+  It works like 'maxcomprate' but measures CPU usage instead of incoming data
+  bandwidth. The value is expressed in percent of the CPU used by haproxy. In
+  case of multiple processes (nbproc > 1), each process manages its individual
+  usage. A value of 100 disable the limit. The default value is 100. Setting
+  a lower value will prevent the compression work from slowing the whole
+  process down and from introducing high latencies.
+
 maxpipes <number>
   Sets the maximum per-process number of pipes to <number>. Currently, pipes
   are only used by kernel-based tcp splicing. Since a pipe contains two file
@@ -722,7 +733,6 @@ maxzlibmem <number>
   with "show info" on the line "MaxZlibMemUsage", the memory used by zlib is
   "ZlibMemUsage" in bytes.
 
-
 noepoll
   Disables the use of the "epoll" event polling system on Linux. It is
   equivalent to the command-line argument "-de". The next polling system
diff --git a/include/proto/compression.h b/include/proto/compression.h
index 0eaa21604..a2e80b801 100644
--- a/include/proto/compression.h
+++ b/include/proto/compression.h
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
 
 #include <types/compression.h>
 
+extern unsigned int compress_min_idle;
+
 int comp_append_type(struct comp *comp, const char *type);
 int comp_append_algo(struct comp *comp, const char *algo);
 
@@ -40,6 +42,7 @@ int identity_reset(struct comp_ctx *comp_ctx);
 int identity_end(struct comp_ctx **comp_ctx);
 
 
+
 #ifdef USE_ZLIB
 extern long zlib_used_memory;
 
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index 1fe270894..d173e65fa 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -887,6 +887,20 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 		}
 		global.maxzlibmem = atol(args[1]) * 1024L * 1024L;
 	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "maxcompcpuusage")) {
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument between 0 and 100.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		compress_min_idle = 100 - atoi(args[1]);
+		if (compress_min_idle < 0 || compress_min_idle > 100) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument between 0 and 100.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+}
+
 	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "ulimit-n")) {
 		if (global.rlimit_nofile != 0) {
 			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
diff --git a/src/compression.c b/src/compression.c
index 2dc893aa5..0459aa301 100644
--- a/src/compression.c
+++ b/src/compression.c
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ long zlib_used_memory = 0;
 
 #endif
 
+unsigned int compress_min_idle = 0;
 static struct pool_head *pool_comp_ctx = NULL;
 
 
@@ -560,21 +561,19 @@ int deflate_flush(struct comp_ctx *comp_ctx, struct buffer *out, int flag)
 	out_len = (out->size - buffer_len(out)) - strm->avail_out;
 	out->i += out_len;
 
-	/* compression rate limit */
-	if (global.comp_rate_lim > 0) {
-
-		if (read_freq_ctr(&global.comp_bps_out) > global.comp_rate_lim) {
-			/* decrease level */
-			if (comp_ctx->cur_lvl > 0) {
-				comp_ctx->cur_lvl--;
-				deflateParams(&comp_ctx->strm, comp_ctx->cur_lvl, Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
-			}
-
-		} else if (comp_ctx->cur_lvl < global.tune.comp_maxlevel) {
-			/* increase level */
-			comp_ctx->cur_lvl++ ;
+	/* compression limit */
+	if ((global.comp_rate_lim > 0 && (read_freq_ctr(&global.comp_bps_out) > global.comp_rate_lim)) ||    /* rate */
+	   (idle_pct < compress_min_idle)) {                                                                     /* idle */
+		/* decrease level */
+		if (comp_ctx->cur_lvl > 0) {
+			comp_ctx->cur_lvl--;
 			deflateParams(&comp_ctx->strm, comp_ctx->cur_lvl, Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
 		}
+
+	} else if (comp_ctx->cur_lvl < global.tune.comp_maxlevel) {
+		/* increase level */
+		comp_ctx->cur_lvl++ ;
+		deflateParams(&comp_ctx->strm, comp_ctx->cur_lvl, Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
 	}
 
 	return out_len;
diff --git a/src/proto_http.c b/src/proto_http.c
index 8588b50e5..e5b0fb613 100644
--- a/src/proto_http.c
+++ b/src/proto_http.c
@@ -2099,6 +2099,10 @@ int select_compression_response_header(struct session *s, struct buffer *res)
 		if (read_freq_ctr(&global.comp_bps_in) > global.comp_rate_lim)
 			goto fail;
 
+	/* limit cpu usage */
+	if (idle_pct < compress_min_idle)
+		goto fail;
+
 	/* initialize compression */
 	if (s->comp_algo->init(&s->comp_ctx, global.tune.comp_maxlevel) < 0)
 		goto fail;