title: Why is GZIP Compression of a Request Body during a POST method uncommon?
body: <p>I was playing around with GZIP compression recently and the way I understand the following:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Client requests some files or data from a Web Server. Client also sends a header that says "Accept-Encoding,gzip"</li>
  <li>Web Server retrieves the files or data, compresses them, and sends them back GZIP compressed to the client. The Web Server also sends a header saying "Content-Encoded,gzip" to note to the Client that the data is compressed.</li>
  <li>The Client then de-compresses the data/files and loads them for the user.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I understand that this is common practice, and it makes a ton of sense when you need to load a page that requires a ton of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which can be relatively large, and add to your browser's loading time.</p>
  
  <p>However, I was trying to look further into this and why is it not common to GZIP compress a request body when doing a POST call? Is it because usually request bodies are small so the time it takes to decompress the file on the web server is longer than it takes to simply send the request? Is there some sort of document or reference I can have about this? </p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>