diff --git a/cmd/thanos/query_frontend.go b/cmd/thanos/query_frontend.go
index 683736fd8d..afd0a9d294 100644
--- a/cmd/thanos/query_frontend.go
+++ b/cmd/thanos/query_frontend.go
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/NYTimes/gziphandler"
-	cortexfrontend "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/frontend"
+	cortexfrontend "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/frontend"
+	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/frontend/transport"
+	cortexfrontendv1 "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/frontend/v1"
 	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/queryrange"
 	cortexvalidation "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/util/validation"
 	"github.com/go-kit/kit/log"
@@ -45,7 +47,9 @@ func registerQueryFrontend(app *extkingpin.App) {
 	cfg := &queryFrontendConfig{
 		Config: queryfrontend.Config{
 			// Max body size is 10 MiB.
-			CortexFrontendConfig: &cortexfrontend.Config{MaxBodySize: 10 * 1024 * 1024},
+			CortexHandlerConfig: &transport.HandlerConfig{
+				MaxBodySize: 10 * 1024 * 1024,
+			},
 			QueryRangeConfig: queryfrontend.QueryRangeConfig{
 				Limits:             &cortexvalidation.Limits{},
 				ResultsCacheConfig: &queryrange.ResultsCacheConfig{},
@@ -108,13 +112,13 @@ func registerQueryFrontend(app *extkingpin.App) {
 		Default("").StringVar(&cfg.CacheCompression)
 
 	cmd.Flag("query-frontend.downstream-url", "URL of downstream Prometheus Query compatible API.").
-		Default("http://localhost:9090").StringVar(&cfg.CortexFrontendConfig.DownstreamURL)
+		Default("http://localhost:9090").StringVar(&cfg.DownstreamURL)
 
 	cmd.Flag("query-frontend.compress-responses", "Compress HTTP responses.").
-		Default("false").BoolVar(&cfg.CortexFrontendConfig.CompressResponses)
+		Default("false").BoolVar(&cfg.CompressResponses)
 
 	cmd.Flag("query-frontend.log-queries-longer-than", "Log queries that are slower than the specified duration. "+
-		"Set to 0 to disable. Set to < 0 to enable on all queries.").Default("0").DurationVar(&cfg.CortexFrontendConfig.LogQueriesLongerThan)
+		"Set to 0 to disable. Set to < 0 to enable on all queries.").Default("0").DurationVar(&cfg.CortexHandlerConfig.LogQueriesLongerThan)
 
 	cmd.Flag("query-frontend.org-id-header", "Request header names used to identify the source of slow queries (repeated flag). "+
 		"The values of the header will be added to the org id field in the slow query log. "+
@@ -170,7 +174,7 @@ func runQueryFrontend(
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "error validating the config")
 	}
 
-	fe, err := cortexfrontend.New(*cfg.CortexFrontendConfig, nil, logger, reg)
+	fe, err := cortexfrontendv1.New(cortexfrontendv1.Config{}, nil, logger, reg)
 	if err != nil {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "setup query frontend")
 	}
@@ -181,7 +185,20 @@ func runQueryFrontend(
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "setup tripperwares")
 	}
 
-	fe.Wrap(tripperWare)
+	// Create a downstream roundtripper.
+	roundTripper, err := cortexfrontend.NewDownstreamRoundTripper(cfg.DownstreamURL)
+	if err != nil {
+		return errors.Wrap(err, "setup downstream roundtripper")
+	}
+
+	// Wrap the downstream RoundTripper into query frontend Tripperware.
+	roundTripper = tripperWare(roundTripper)
+
+	// Create the query frontend transport.
+	handler := transport.NewHandler(*cfg.CortexHandlerConfig, roundTripper, logger)
+	if cfg.CompressResponses {
+		handler = gziphandler.GzipHandler(handler)
+	}
 
 	httpProbe := prober.NewHTTP()
 	statusProber := prober.Combine(
@@ -224,7 +241,7 @@ func runQueryFrontend(
 			})
 			return hf
 		}
-		srv.Handle("/", instr(fe.Handler().ServeHTTP))
+		srv.Handle("/", instr(handler.ServeHTTP))
 
 		g.Add(func() error {
 			statusProber.Healthy()
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 4e631219a8..368ee03725 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/cespare/xxhash v1.1.0
 	github.com/chromedp/cdproto v0.0.0-20200424080200-0de008e41fa0
 	github.com/chromedp/chromedp v0.5.3
-	github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.4.1-0.20201030080541-83ad6df2abea
+	github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.5.1-0.20201111110551-ba512881b076
 	github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1
 	github.com/facette/natsort v0.0.0-20181210072756-2cd4dd1e2dcb
 	github.com/fatih/structtag v1.1.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 2caed65326..fda6431134 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -226,6 +226,8 @@ github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.2.1-0.20200805064754-d8edc95e2c91/go.mod h1:P
 github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.3.1-0.20200923145333-8587ea61fe17/go.mod h1:dJ9gpW7dzQ7z09cKtNN9PfebumgyO4dtNdFQ6eQEed0=
 github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.4.1-0.20201030080541-83ad6df2abea h1:AT8j9cojU1ena5hSyjdgAShH4Ut3JY7HLMKurR7RHm4=
 github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.4.1-0.20201030080541-83ad6df2abea/go.mod h1:kXo5F3jlF7Ky3+I31jt/bXTzOlQjl2X/vGDpy0RY1gU=
+github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.5.1-0.20201111110551-ba512881b076 h1:SxwQL+Tdo2RlSOZUJVvR5jXuprDRglABtjbHnNA8y9M=
+github.com/cortexproject/cortex v1.5.1-0.20201111110551-ba512881b076/go.mod h1:zFBGVsvRBfVp6ARXZ7pmiLaGlbjda5ZnA4Y6qSJyrQg=
 github.com/cpuguy83/go-md2man/v2 v2.0.0-20190314233015-f79a8a8ca69d/go.mod h1:maD7wRr/U5Z6m/iR4s+kqSMx2CaBsrgA7czyZG/E6dU=
 github.com/creack/pty v1.1.7/go.mod h1:lj5s0c3V2DBrqTV7llrYr5NG6My20zk30Fl46Y7DoTY=
 github.com/cznic/b v0.0.0-20180115125044-35e9bbe41f07/go.mod h1:URriBxXwVq5ijiJ12C7iIZqlA69nTlI+LgI6/pwftG8=
@@ -1065,6 +1067,7 @@ github.com/thanos-io/thanos v0.8.1-0.20200109203923-552ffa4c1a0d/go.mod h1:usT/T
 github.com/thanos-io/thanos v0.13.1-0.20200731083140-69b87607decf/go.mod h1:G8caR6G7pSDreRDvFm9wFuyjEBztmr8Ag3kBYpa/fEc=
 github.com/thanos-io/thanos v0.13.1-0.20200807203500-9b578afb4763/go.mod h1:KyW0a93tsh7v4hXAwo2CVAIRYuZT1Kkf4e04gisQjAg=
 github.com/thanos-io/thanos v0.13.1-0.20201019130456-f41940581d9a/go.mod h1:A3qUEEbsVkplJnxyDLwuIuvTDaJPByTH+hMdTl9ujAA=
+github.com/thanos-io/thanos v0.13.1-0.20201030101306-47f9a225cc52/go.mod h1:OqqX4x21cg5N5MMHd/yGQAc/V3wg8a7Do4Jk8HfaFZQ=
 github.com/themihai/gomemcache v0.0.0-20180902122335-24332e2d58ab h1:7ZR3hmisBWw77ZpO1/o86g+JV3VKlk3d48jopJxzTjU=
 github.com/themihai/gomemcache v0.0.0-20180902122335-24332e2d58ab/go.mod h1:eheTFp954zcWZXCU8d0AT76ftsQOTo4DTqkN/h3k1MY=
 github.com/tidwall/pretty v0.0.0-20180105212114-65a9db5fad51/go.mod h1:XNkn88O1ChpSDQmQeStsy+sBenx6DDtFZJxhVysOjyk=
diff --git a/pkg/queryfrontend/config.go b/pkg/queryfrontend/config.go
index 19db2c8b4c..5656cdbcaf 100644
--- a/pkg/queryfrontend/config.go
+++ b/pkg/queryfrontend/config.go
@@ -8,13 +8,13 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	cortexcache "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/chunk/cache"
+	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/frontend/transport"
 	"github.com/go-kit/kit/log"
 	"github.com/go-kit/kit/log/level"
 	"github.com/thanos-io/thanos/pkg/cacheutil"
 	"github.com/thanos-io/thanos/pkg/extflag"
 	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 
-	cortexfrontend "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/frontend"
 	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/queryrange"
 	cortexvalidation "github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/util/validation"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
@@ -145,9 +145,11 @@ type Config struct {
 	QueryRangeConfig
 	LabelsConfig
 
-	CortexFrontendConfig   *cortexfrontend.Config
+	CortexHandlerConfig    *transport.HandlerConfig
+	CompressResponses      bool
 	CacheCompression       string
 	RequestLoggingDecision string
+	DownstreamURL          string
 }
 
 // QueryRangeConfig holds the config for query range tripperware.
@@ -205,7 +207,7 @@ func (cfg *Config) Validate() error {
 		return errors.New("labels.default-time-range cannot be set to 0")
 	}
 
-	if len(cfg.CortexFrontendConfig.DownstreamURL) == 0 {
+	if len(cfg.DownstreamURL) == 0 {
 		return errors.New("downstream URL should be configured")
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/queryfrontend/roundtrip.go b/pkg/queryfrontend/roundtrip.go
index e31ae98846..835842ff47 100644
--- a/pkg/queryfrontend/roundtrip.go
+++ b/pkg/queryfrontend/roundtrip.go
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/frontend"
 	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/querier/queryrange"
 	"github.com/cortexproject/cortex/pkg/util/validation"
 
@@ -29,7 +28,7 @@ const (
 )
 
 // NewTripperware returns a Tripperware which sends requests to different sub tripperwares based on the query type.
-func NewTripperware(config Config, reg prometheus.Registerer, logger log.Logger) (frontend.Tripperware, error) {
+func NewTripperware(config Config, reg prometheus.Registerer, logger log.Logger) (queryrange.Tripperware, error) {
 	var (
 		queryRangeLimits, labelsLimits queryrange.Limits
 		err                            error
@@ -139,8 +138,8 @@ func newQueryRangeTripperware(
 	codec *queryRangeCodec,
 	reg prometheus.Registerer,
 	logger log.Logger,
-) (frontend.Tripperware, error) {
-	queryRangeMiddleware := []queryrange.Middleware{queryrange.LimitsMiddleware(limits)}
+) (queryrange.Tripperware, error) {
+	queryRangeMiddleware := []queryrange.Middleware{queryrange.NewLimitsMiddleware(limits)}
 	m := queryrange.NewInstrumentMiddlewareMetrics(reg)
 
 	// step align middleware.
@@ -197,7 +196,7 @@ func newQueryRangeTripperware(
 
 	return func(next http.RoundTripper) http.RoundTripper {
 		rt := queryrange.NewRoundTripper(next, codec, queryRangeMiddleware...)
-		return frontend.RoundTripFunc(func(r *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
+		return queryrange.RoundTripFunc(func(r *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 			return rt.RoundTrip(r)
 		})
 	}, nil
@@ -211,7 +210,7 @@ func newLabelsTripperware(
 	codec *labelsCodec,
 	reg prometheus.Registerer,
 	logger log.Logger,
-) (frontend.Tripperware, error) {
+) (queryrange.Tripperware, error) {
 	labelsMiddleware := []queryrange.Middleware{}
 	m := queryrange.NewInstrumentMiddlewareMetrics(reg)
 
@@ -259,7 +258,7 @@ func newLabelsTripperware(
 	}
 	return func(next http.RoundTripper) http.RoundTripper {
 		rt := queryrange.NewRoundTripper(next, codec, labelsMiddleware...)
-		return frontend.RoundTripFunc(func(r *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
+		return queryrange.RoundTripFunc(func(r *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 			return rt.RoundTrip(r)
 		})
 	}, nil