diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index bc63fcf4..90378ad4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@
 - Remove sieve to enable hardlink deduplication in LMTP
   ([#343](https://github.com/deltachat/chatmail/pull/343))
 
+- dovecot: enable gzip compression on disk
+  ([#341](https://github.com/deltachat/chatmail/pull/341))
 
 ## 1.3.0 - 2024-06-06
 
diff --git a/cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/dovecot/dovecot.conf.j2 b/cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/dovecot/dovecot.conf.j2
index 8b380c56..171300ba 100644
--- a/cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/dovecot/dovecot.conf.j2
+++ b/cmdeploy/src/cmdeploy/dovecot/dovecot.conf.j2
@@ -38,7 +38,14 @@ service imap {
 mail_server_admin = mailto:root@{{ config.mail_domain }}
 mail_server_comment = Chatmail server
 
-mail_plugins = quota
+# `zlib` enables compressing messages stored in the maildir.
+# See
+# <https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/zlib_plugin/>
+# for documentation.
+#
+# quota plugin documentation:
+# <https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/quota_plugin/>
+mail_plugins = zlib quota
 
 # these are the capabilities Delta Chat cares about actually 
 # so let's keep the network overhead per login small
@@ -96,7 +103,7 @@ mail_privileged_group = vmail
 # Pass all IMAP METADATA requests to the server implementing Dovecot's dict protocol.
 mail_attribute_dict = proxy:/run/chatmail-metadata/metadata.socket:metadata
 
-# Enable IMAP COMPRESS (RFC 4978).
+# `imap_zlib` enables IMAP COMPRESS (RFC 4978).
 # <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4978.html>
 protocol imap {
   mail_plugins = $mail_plugins imap_zlib imap_quota
@@ -104,9 +111,6 @@ protocol imap {
 }
 
 protocol lmtp {
-  # quota plugin documentation:
-  # <https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/quota_plugin/>
-  #
   # notify plugin is a dependency of push_notification plugin:
   # <https://doc.dovecot.org/settings/plugin/notify-plugin/>
   #
@@ -115,7 +119,11 @@ protocol lmtp {
   #
   # mail_lua and push_notification_lua are needed for Lua push notification handler.
   # <https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/push_notification/#configuration>
-  mail_plugins = $mail_plugins quota mail_lua notify push_notification push_notification_lua
+  mail_plugins = $mail_plugins mail_lua notify push_notification push_notification_lua
+}
+
+plugin {
+  zlib_save = gz
 }
 
 plugin {