diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/monitoring/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/exporter/http/HttpExportBulk.java b/x-pack/plugin/monitoring/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/exporter/http/HttpExportBulk.java
index 3468a49423dff..9410f4f67aedb 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/monitoring/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/exporter/http/HttpExportBulk.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/monitoring/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/monitoring/exporter/http/HttpExportBulk.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.client.ResponseListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.CompressorFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.time.DateFormatter;
@@ -28,7 +29,9 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.monitoring.exporter.ExportBulk;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.monitoring.exporter.ExportException;
 
+import java.io.FilterOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -56,10 +59,15 @@ class HttpExportBulk extends ExportBulk {
     private final DateFormatter formatter;
 
     /**
-     * The bytes payload that represents the bulk body is created via {@link #doAdd(Collection)}.
+     * The compressed bytes payload that represents the bulk body is created via {@link #doAdd(Collection)}.
      */
     private BytesReference payload = null;
 
+    /**
+     * Uncompressed length of {@link #payload} contents.
+     */
+    private long payloadLength = -1L;
+
     HttpExportBulk(final String name, final RestClient client, final Map<String, String> parameters,
                    final DateFormatter dateTimeFormatter, final ThreadContext threadContext) {
         super(name, threadContext);
@@ -73,14 +81,17 @@ class HttpExportBulk extends ExportBulk {
     public void doAdd(Collection<MonitoringDoc> docs) throws ExportException {
         try {
             if (docs != null && docs.isEmpty() == false) {
-                try (BytesStreamOutput payload = new BytesStreamOutput()) {
+                final BytesStreamOutput scratch = new BytesStreamOutput();
+                final CountingOutputStream countingStream;
+                try (StreamOutput payload = CompressorFactory.COMPRESSOR.streamOutput(scratch)) {
+                    countingStream = new CountingOutputStream(payload);
                     for (MonitoringDoc monitoringDoc : docs) {
-                        writeDocument(monitoringDoc, payload);
+                        writeDocument(monitoringDoc, countingStream);
                     }
-
-                    // store the payload until we flush
-                    this.payload = payload.bytes();
                 }
+                payloadLength = countingStream.bytesWritten;
+                // store the payload until we flush
+                this.payload = scratch.bytes();
             }
         } catch (Exception e) {
             throw new ExportException("failed to add documents to export bulk [{}]", e, name);
@@ -97,7 +108,8 @@ public void doFlush(ActionListener<Void> listener) throws ExportException {
                 request.addParameter(param.getKey(), param.getValue());
             }
             try {
-                request.setEntity(new InputStreamEntity(payload.streamInput(), payload.length(), ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON));
+                request.setEntity(new InputStreamEntity(
+                        CompressorFactory.COMPRESSOR.streamInput(payload.streamInput()), payloadLength, ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON));
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 listener.onFailure(e);
                 return;
@@ -127,7 +139,7 @@ public void onFailure(Exception exception) {
         }
     }
 
-    private void writeDocument(MonitoringDoc doc, StreamOutput out) throws IOException {
+    private void writeDocument(MonitoringDoc doc, OutputStream out) throws IOException {
         final XContentType xContentType = XContentType.JSON;
         final XContent xContent = xContentType.xContent();
 
@@ -166,4 +178,39 @@ private void writeDocument(MonitoringDoc doc, StreamOutput out) throws IOExcepti
             name, index, id, doc.getType()
         );
     }
+
+    // Counting input stream used to record the uncompressed size of the bulk payload when writing it to a compressed stream
+    private static final class CountingOutputStream extends FilterOutputStream {
+        private long bytesWritten = 0;
+
+        CountingOutputStream(final OutputStream out) {
+            super(out);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void write(final int b) throws IOException {
+            out.write(b);
+            count(1);
+        }
+        @Override
+        public void write(final byte[] b) throws IOException {
+            write(b, 0, b.length);
+        }
+        @Override
+        public void write(final byte[] b, final int off, final int len) throws IOException {
+            out.write(b, off, len);
+            count(len);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void close() {
+            // don't close nested stream
+        }
+
+        protected void count(final long written) {
+            if (written != -1) {
+                bytesWritten += written;
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }