diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3f6128e..9b355bf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ include/*
 dummy_project/*
 .cache/
 .tox/
+messages
diff --git a/django_mailbox/models.py b/django_mailbox/models.py
index d5fb3da..116c0de 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/models.py
+++ b/django_mailbox/models.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 """
 Models declaration for application ``django_mailbox``.
 """
-
+import gzip
 from email.encoders import encode_base64
 from email.message import Message as EmailMessage
 from email.utils import formatdate, parseaddr
@@ -16,13 +16,14 @@ import mimetypes
 import os.path
 import sys
 import uuid
+from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 
 import six
 from six.moves.urllib.parse import parse_qs, unquote, urlparse
 
 import django
 from django.conf import settings as django_settings
-from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
+from django.core.files.base import ContentFile, File
 from django.core.mail.message import make_msgid
 from django.db import models
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
@@ -345,11 +346,7 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
         settings = utils.get_settings()
 
         if settings['store_original_message']:
-            msg.eml.save(
-                '%s.eml' % uuid.uuid4(),
-                ContentFile(message.as_string()),
-                save=False
-            )
+            self._process_save_original_message(message, msg)
         msg.mailbox = self
         if 'subject' in message:
             msg.subject = (
@@ -385,6 +382,25 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
         msg.save()
         return msg
 
+    def _process_save_original_message(self, message, msg):
+        settings = utils.get_settings()
+        if settings['compress_original_message']:
+            with NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".eml.gz") as fp_tmp:
+                with gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=fp_tmp, mode="w") as fp:
+                    fp.write(message.as_string().encode('utf-8'))
+                msg.eml.save(
+                    "%s.eml.gz" % (uuid.uuid4(), ),
+                    File(fp_tmp),
+                    save=False
+                )
+
+        else:
+            msg.eml.save(
+                '%s.eml' % uuid.uuid4(),
+                ContentFile(message.as_string()),
+                save=False
+            )
+
     def get_new_mail(self, condition=None):
         """Connect to this transport and fetch new messages."""
         new_mail = []
@@ -692,8 +708,12 @@ class Message(models.Model):
 
         """
         if self.eml:
-            self.eml.open()
-            body = self.eml.file.read()
+            if self.eml.name.endswith('.gz'):
+                body = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=self.eml).read()
+            else:
+                self.eml.open()
+                body = self.eml.file.read()
+                self.eml.close()
         else:
             body = self.get_body()
         if six.PY3:
diff --git a/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py b/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
index de123c2..0284754 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
+++ b/django_mailbox/tests/test_process_email.py
@@ -1,16 +1,18 @@
+import gzip
 import os.path
 import sys
 
+import copy
 import mock
 import six
 
 from django_mailbox.models import Mailbox, Message
 from django_mailbox.utils import convert_header_to_unicode
+from django_mailbox import utils
 from django_mailbox.tests.base import EmailMessageTestCase
 from django.utils.encoding import force_text
 from django.core.mail import EmailMessage
 
-
 __all__ = ['TestProcessEmail']
 
 
@@ -410,3 +412,60 @@ class TestProcessEmail(EmailMessageTestCase):
 
         self.assertEqual(size,
                          len(force_text(msg.get_email_object().as_string())))
+
+    def test_message_saved(self):
+        message = self._get_email_object('generic_message.eml')
+
+        default_settings = utils.get_settings()
+
+        with mock.patch('django_mailbox.utils.get_settings') as get_settings:
+            altered = copy.deepcopy(default_settings)
+            altered['store_original_message'] = True
+            get_settings.return_value = altered
+
+            msg = self.mailbox.process_incoming_message(message)
+
+        actual_email_object = msg.get_email_object()
+
+        self.assertNotEquals(msg.eml, None)
+
+        self.assertTrue(msg.eml.name.endswith('.eml'))
+
+        with open(msg.eml.name, 'rb') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(),
+                             self._get_email_as_text('generic_message.eml'))
+
+    def test_message_saving_ignored(self):
+        message = self._get_email_object('generic_message.eml')
+
+        default_settings = utils.get_settings()
+
+        with mock.patch('django_mailbox.utils.get_settings') as get_settings:
+            altered = copy.deepcopy(default_settings)
+            altered['store_original_message'] = False
+            get_settings.return_value = altered
+
+            msg = self.mailbox.process_incoming_message(message)
+
+        self.assertEquals(msg.eml, None)
+
+    def test_message_compressed(self):
+        message = self._get_email_object('generic_message.eml')
+
+        default_settings = utils.get_settings()
+
+        with mock.patch('django_mailbox.utils.get_settings') as get_settings:
+            altered = copy.deepcopy(default_settings)
+            altered['compress_original_message'] = True
+            altered['store_original_message'] = True
+            get_settings.return_value = altered
+
+            msg = self.mailbox.process_incoming_message(message)
+
+        actual_email_object = msg.get_email_object()
+        print(msg.eml.name)
+        self.assertTrue(msg.eml.name.endswith('.eml.gz'))
+
+        with gzip.open(msg.eml.name, 'rb') as f:
+            self.assertEqual(f.read(),
+                             self._get_email_as_text('generic_message.eml'))
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/django_mailbox/utils.py b/django_mailbox/utils.py
index 17a4b37..f33f3bb 100644
--- a/django_mailbox/utils.py
+++ b/django_mailbox/utils.py
@@ -54,6 +54,16 @@ def get_settings():
             'DJANGO_MAILBOX_STORE_ORIGINAL_MESSAGE',
             False
         ),
+        'compress_original_message': getattr(
+            settings,
+            'DJANGO_MAILBOX_COMPRESS_ORIGINAL_MESSAGE',
+            False
+        ),
+        'original_message_compression': getattr(
+            settings,
+            'DJANGO_MAILBOX_ORIGINAL_MESSAGE_COMPRESSION',
+            6
+        ),
         'default_charset': getattr(
             settings,
             'DJANGO_MAILBOX_default_charset',