diff --git a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
index d6875cc5c2b..6b4ef7f0305 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/1.0.0...master[Check the HEAD diff]
 *Topbeat*
 
 *Filebeat*
+- Add exclude_files configuration option {pull}563[563]
 
 *Winlogbeat*
 
diff --git a/filebeat/config/config.go b/filebeat/config/config.go
index 5174d8f793e..db45ea305b2 100644
--- a/filebeat/config/config.go
+++ b/filebeat/config/config.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"regexp"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/libbeat/cfgfile"
@@ -49,6 +50,8 @@ type ProspectorConfig struct {
 	ScanFrequency         string `yaml:"scan_frequency"`
 	ScanFrequencyDuration time.Duration
 	Harvester             HarvesterConfig `yaml:",inline"`
+	ExcludeFiles          []string        `yaml:"exclude_files"`
+	ExcludeFilesRegexp    []*regexp.Regexp
 }
 
 type HarvesterConfig struct {
diff --git a/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go b/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
index b92eae18995..dfadc0d3f43 100644
--- a/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
+++ b/filebeat/crawler/prospector.go
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ func (p *Prospector) setupProspectorConfig() error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	config.ExcludeFilesRegexp, err = harvester.InitRegexps(config.ExcludeFiles)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 
 	// Init File Stat list
 	p.prospectorList = make(map[string]harvester.FileStat)
@@ -219,11 +223,26 @@ func (p *Prospector) stdinRun(spoolChan chan *input.FileEvent) {
 	}
 }
 
+func (p *Prospector) isFileExcluded(file string) bool {
+
+	config := &p.ProspectorConfig
+
+	if len(config.ExcludeFilesRegexp) > 0 {
+
+		if harvester.MatchAnyRegexps(config.ExcludeFilesRegexp, file) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+
+	return false
+}
+
 // Scans the specific path which can be a glob (/**/**/*.log)
 // For all found files it is checked if a harvester should be started
 func (p *Prospector) scan(path string, output chan *input.FileEvent) {
 
 	logp.Debug("prospector", "scan path %s", path)
+	logp.Debug("prospector", "exclude_files: %s", p.ProspectorConfig.ExcludeFiles)
 	// Evaluate the path as a wildcards/shell glob
 	matches, err := filepath.Glob(path)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -237,6 +256,12 @@ func (p *Prospector) scan(path string, output chan *input.FileEvent) {
 	for _, file := range matches {
 		logp.Debug("prospector", "Check file for harvesting: %s", file)
 
+		// check if the file is in the exclude_files list
+		if p.isFileExcluded(file) {
+			logp.Debug("prospector", "Exclude file: %s", file)
+			continue
+		}
+
 		// Stat the file, following any symlinks.
 		fileinfo, err := os.Stat(file)
 
diff --git a/filebeat/crawler/prospector_test.go b/filebeat/crawler/prospector_test.go
index e186908b5e0..8ffe9a733f7 100644
--- a/filebeat/crawler/prospector_test.go
+++ b/filebeat/crawler/prospector_test.go
@@ -171,3 +171,23 @@ func TestProspectorInitInputTypeWrong(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Nil(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, "log", prospector.ProspectorConfig.Harvester.InputType)
 }
+
+func TestProspectorFileExclude(t *testing.T) {
+
+	prospectorConfig := config.ProspectorConfig{
+		ExcludeFiles: []string{"\\.gz$"},
+		Harvester: config.HarvesterConfig{
+			BufferSize: 0,
+		},
+	}
+
+	prospector := Prospector{
+		ProspectorConfig: prospectorConfig,
+	}
+
+	prospector.Init()
+
+	assert.True(t, prospector.isFileExcluded("/tmp/log/logw.gz"))
+	assert.False(t, prospector.isFileExcluded("/tmp/log/logw.log"))
+
+}
diff --git a/filebeat/docs/configuration.asciidoc b/filebeat/docs/configuration.asciidoc
index 6ee7c7b1156..521e1debe25 100644
--- a/filebeat/docs/configuration.asciidoc
+++ b/filebeat/docs/configuration.asciidoc
@@ -91,6 +91,16 @@ If both `include_lines` and `exclude_lines` are defined, then include_lines is c
  exclude_lines: ["^DBG"]
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+===== exclude_files
+
+A list of regular expressions to match the files to be ignored. By default no file is excluded. 
+
+[source,yaml]
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  exclude_files: [".gz$"]
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+To ignore all the files with the `gz` extension.
+
 [[configuration-fields]]
 ===== fields
 
diff --git a/filebeat/etc/beat.yml b/filebeat/etc/beat.yml
index de8de4cedc6..64821d7da29 100644
--- a/filebeat/etc/beat.yml
+++ b/filebeat/etc/beat.yml
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ filebeat:
       # exclude_lines. By default, all the lines are exported.
       # include_lines: ["^ERR", "^WARN"]
 
+      # Exclude files. A list of regular expressions to match. Filebeat drops the files that
+      # are matching any regular expression from the list. By default, no files are dropped.
+      # exclude_files: [".gz$"]
+
       # Optional additional fields. These field can be freely picked
       # to add additional information to the crawled log files for filtering
       #fields:
diff --git a/filebeat/etc/filebeat.yml b/filebeat/etc/filebeat.yml
index 8139278c161..34c3dc5e824 100644
--- a/filebeat/etc/filebeat.yml
+++ b/filebeat/etc/filebeat.yml
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ filebeat:
       # exclude_lines. By default, all the lines are exported.
       # include_lines: ["^ERR", "^WARN"]
 
+      # Exclude files. A list of regular expressions to match. Filebeat drops the files that
+      # are matching any regular expression from the list. By default, no files are dropped.
+      # exclude_files: [".gz$"]
+
       # Optional additional fields. These field can be freely picked
       # to add additional information to the crawled log files for filtering
       #fields:
diff --git a/filebeat/harvester/log.go b/filebeat/harvester/log.go
index ab1699eddca..e7efa22a3e4 100644
--- a/filebeat/harvester/log.go
+++ b/filebeat/harvester/log.go
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
-	"regexp"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/filebeat/config"
@@ -332,35 +331,6 @@ func (h *Harvester) handleReadlineError(lastTimeRead time.Time, err error) error
 func (h *Harvester) Stop() {
 }
 
-func InitRegexps(exprs []string) ([]*regexp.Regexp, error) {
-
-	result := []*regexp.Regexp{}
-
-	for _, exp := range exprs {
-
-		rexp, err := regexp.CompilePOSIX(exp)
-		if err != nil {
-			logp.Err("Fail to compile the regexp %s: %s", exp, err)
-			return nil, err
-		}
-		result = append(result, rexp)
-	}
-	return result, nil
-}
-
-func MatchAnyRegexps(regexps []*regexp.Regexp, text string) bool {
-
-	for _, rexp := range regexps {
-		if rexp.MatchString(text) {
-			// drop line
-			return true
-
-		}
-	}
-
-	return false
-}
-
 const maxConsecutiveEmptyReads = 100
 
 // timedReader keeps track of last time bytes have been read from underlying
diff --git a/filebeat/harvester/util.go b/filebeat/harvester/util.go
index 54b0c871588..2bc9d137f48 100644
--- a/filebeat/harvester/util.go
+++ b/filebeat/harvester/util.go
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 package harvester
 
 import (
+	"regexp"
+	"time"
+
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/filebeat/harvester/encoding"
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/libbeat/logp"
-	"time"
 )
 
 // isLine checks if the given byte array is a line, means has a line ending \n
@@ -60,3 +62,32 @@ func readlineString(bytes []byte, size int) (string, int, error) {
 	s := string(bytes)[:len(bytes)-lineEndingChars(bytes)]
 	return s, size, nil
 }
+
+// InitRegexps initializes a list of compiled regular expressions.
+func InitRegexps(exprs []string) ([]*regexp.Regexp, error) {
+
+	result := []*regexp.Regexp{}
+
+	for _, exp := range exprs {
+
+		rexp, err := regexp.CompilePOSIX(exp)
+		if err != nil {
+			logp.Err("Fail to compile the regexp %s: %s", exp, err)
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		result = append(result, rexp)
+	}
+	return result, nil
+}
+
+// MatchAnyRegexps checks if the text matches any of the regular expressions
+func MatchAnyRegexps(regexps []*regexp.Regexp, text string) bool {
+
+	for _, rexp := range regexps {
+		if rexp.MatchString(text) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+
+	return false
+}
diff --git a/filebeat/harvester/util_test.go b/filebeat/harvester/util_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..00364531db9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/filebeat/harvester/util_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+package harvester
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestMatchAnyRegexps(t *testing.T) {
+
+	patterns := []string{"\\.gz$"}
+
+	regexps, err := InitRegexps(patterns)
+
+	assert.Nil(t, err)
+
+	assert.Equal(t, MatchAnyRegexps(regexps, "/var/log/log.gz"), true)
+
+}
diff --git a/filebeat/tests/system/config/filebeat.yml.j2 b/filebeat/tests/system/config/filebeat.yml.j2
index f1df92b6b3f..69ea994aa65 100644
--- a/filebeat/tests/system/config/filebeat.yml.j2
+++ b/filebeat/tests/system/config/filebeat.yml.j2
@@ -29,7 +29,10 @@ filebeat:
       {% if exclude_lines %}
       exclude_lines: {{exclude_lines}}
       {% endif %}
-      
+      {% if exclude_files %}
+      exclude_files: {{exclude_files}}
+      {% endif %}
+     
   spool_size:
   idle_timeout: 0.1s
   registry_file: {{ fb.working_dir + '/' }}{{ registryFile|default(".filebeat")}}
diff --git a/filebeat/tests/system/test_prospector.py b/filebeat/tests/system/test_prospector.py
index dbdbfe6305e..efd862b649d 100644
--- a/filebeat/tests/system/test_prospector.py
+++ b/filebeat/tests/system/test_prospector.py
@@ -105,7 +105,6 @@ def test_stdin(self):
             lambda: self.output_has(lines=iterations1+iterations2),
             max_timeout=15)
 
-
         proc.kill_and_wait()
 
         objs = self.read_output()
@@ -140,3 +139,38 @@ def test_rotating_ignore_older_larger_write_rate(self):
             max_timeout=15)
 
         proc.kill_and_wait()
+
+    def test_exclude_files(self):
+
+        self.render_config_template(
+            path=os.path.abspath(self.working_dir) + "/log/*",
+            exclude_files=[".gz$"]
+        )
+        os.mkdir(self.working_dir + "/log/")
+
+        testfile = self.working_dir + "/log/test.gz"
+        file = open(testfile, 'w')
+        file.write("line in gz file\n")
+        file.close()
+
+        testfile = self.working_dir + "/log/test.log"
+        file = open(testfile, 'w')
+        file.write("line in log file\n")
+        file.close()
+
+        filebeat = self.start_filebeat()
+
+        self.wait_until(
+            lambda: self.output_has(lines=1),
+            max_timeout=15)
+
+        # TODO: Find better solution when filebeat did crawl the file
+        # Idea: Special flag to filebeat so that filebeat is only doing and
+        # crawl and then finishes
+        filebeat.kill_and_wait()
+
+        output = self.read_output()
+
+        # Check that output file has the same number of lines as the log file
+        assert 1 == len(output)
+        assert output[0]["message"] == "line in log file"