diff --git a/docs/documentation/build.md b/docs/documentation/build.md
index d4d63bbd757b..c56fed7bc48d 100644
--- a/docs/documentation/build.md
+++ b/docs/documentation/build.md
@@ -93,4 +93,6 @@ or `ng serve --prod` will also make use of uglifying and tree-shaking functional
 
 `--extract-css` (`-ec`) extract css from global styles onto css files instead of js ones
 
+`--compress` use gzip compression in production mode
+
 `--output-hashing` define the output filename cache-busting hashing mode
diff --git a/docs/documentation/serve.md b/docs/documentation/serve.md
index d1b836c0c186..de1b1658e58d 100644
--- a/docs/documentation/serve.md
+++ b/docs/documentation/serve.md
@@ -58,4 +58,6 @@
 
 `--extract-css` (`-ec`) extract css from global styles onto css files instead of js ones
 
+`--compress` use gzip compression in production mode
+
 `--output-hashing` define the output filename cache-busting hashing mode
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/commands/build.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/commands/build.ts
index caaa241f3649..b4bce77514a5 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/commands/build.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/commands/build.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ export const baseBuildCommandOptions: any = [
   { name: 'i18n-format', type: String },
   { name: 'locale', type: String },
   { name: 'extract-css', type: Boolean, aliases: ['ec'] },
+  {
+    name: 'compress',
+    type: Boolean,
+    default: true,
+    description: 'use gzip compression in production mode'
+  },
   {
     name: 'output-hashing',
     type: String,
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/models/build-options.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/models/build-options.ts
index 786f1dcdf963..5dbb10ee5e4c 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/models/build-options.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/models/build-options.ts
@@ -13,5 +13,6 @@ export interface BuildOptions {
   i18nFormat?: string;
   locale?: string;
   extractCss?: boolean;
+  compress?: boolean;
   outputHashing?: string;
 }
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-config.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-config.ts
index 5bd771fe1e41..ef200efb60f6 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-config.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-config.ts
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ export class NgCliWebpackConfig {
         outputHashing: 'all',
         sourcemap: false,
         extractCss: true,
+        compress: true,
         aot: true
       }
     };
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/production.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/production.ts
index 055f0bdc345d..ef61cb5c1b04 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/production.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/production.ts
@@ -76,12 +76,13 @@ export const getProdConfig = function (wco: WebpackConfigOptions) {
         compress: { screw_ie8: true, warnings: buildOptions.verbose },
         sourceMap: buildOptions.sourcemap
       }),
-      new CompressionPlugin({
-        asset: '[path].gz[query]',
-        algorithm: 'gzip',
-        test: /\.js$|\.html$|\.css$/,
-        threshold: 10240
-      })
+      buildOptions.compress ?
+        new CompressionPlugin({
+          asset: '[path].gz[query]',
+          algorithm: 'gzip',
+          test: /\.js$|\.html$|\.css$/,
+          threshold: 10240
+        }) : (): void => null
     ].concat(extraPlugins)
   };
 };
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.ts
index 287d237596cb..ba1499e554c8 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/tasks/serve.ts
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ export default Task.extend({
       stats: statsConfig,
       inline: true,
       proxy: proxyConfig,
-      compress: serveTaskOptions.target === 'production',
+      compress: serveTaskOptions.target === 'production' && serveTaskOptions.compress,
       watchOptions: {
         poll: projectConfig.defaults && projectConfig.defaults.poll
       },