diff --git a/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body.go b/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body.go
index 69e99dc5..31bba8c5 100644
--- a/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body.go
+++ b/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body.go
@@ -2,8 +2,15 @@ package httputil
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"compress/gzip"
+	"compress/zlib"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net/http"
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -11,7 +18,9 @@ const (
 	requestBodyReadMaxInitCap = 1 << 20
 )
 
-// ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc reads request body with preallocated buffer based on content length.
+// ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc reads request body with preallocated buffer based
+// on content length, transparently decoding any Content-Encoding the upstream
+// client used to compress the body (zstd, gzip, deflate).
 func ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req *http.Request) ([]byte, error) {
 	if req == nil || req.Body == nil {
 		return nil, nil
@@ -33,5 +42,49 @@ func ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req *http.Request) ([]byte, error) {
 	if _, err := io.Copy(buf, req.Body); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	return buf.Bytes(), nil
+	raw := buf.Bytes()
+
+	enc := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(req.Header.Get("Content-Encoding")))
+	if enc == "" || enc == "identity" {
+		return raw, nil
+	}
+
+	decoded, err := decompressRequestBody(enc, raw)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("decode Content-Encoding %q: %w", enc, err)
+	}
+
+	req.Header.Del("Content-Encoding")
+	req.Header.Del("Content-Length")
+	req.ContentLength = int64(len(decoded))
+
+	return decoded, nil
+}
+
+func decompressRequestBody(encoding string, raw []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	switch encoding {
+	case "zstd":
+		dec, err := zstd.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(raw))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		defer dec.Close()
+		return io.ReadAll(dec)
+	case "gzip", "x-gzip":
+		gr, err := gzip.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(raw))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		defer gr.Close()
+		return io.ReadAll(gr)
+	case "deflate":
+		zr, err := zlib.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(raw))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		defer zr.Close()
+		return io.ReadAll(zr)
+	default:
+		return nil, errors.New("unsupported Content-Encoding")
+	}
 }
diff --git a/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body_test.go b/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ed8355d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/internal/pkg/httputil/body_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+package httputil
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"compress/gzip"
+	"compress/zlib"
+	"net/http"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
+)
+
+const samplePayload = `{"model":"gpt-5.5","input":"hi","stream":false}`
+
+func newRequestWithBody(t *testing.T, body []byte, encoding string) *http.Request {
+	t.Helper()
+	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/v1/responses", bytes.NewReader(body))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewRequest: %v", err)
+	}
+	if encoding != "" {
+		req.Header.Set("Content-Encoding", encoding)
+	}
+	req.ContentLength = int64(len(body))
+	return req
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_PassesThroughIdentity(t *testing.T) {
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, []byte(samplePayload), "")
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(got) != samplePayload {
+		t.Fatalf("body mismatch: got %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_DecodesZstd(t *testing.T) {
+	enc, _ := zstd.NewWriter(nil)
+	compressed := enc.EncodeAll([]byte(samplePayload), nil)
+	_ = enc.Close()
+
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, compressed, "zstd")
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(got) != samplePayload {
+		t.Fatalf("body mismatch: got %q", got)
+	}
+	if req.Header.Get("Content-Encoding") != "" {
+		t.Fatalf("Content-Encoding should be cleared after decoding")
+	}
+	if req.ContentLength != int64(len(samplePayload)) {
+		t.Fatalf("ContentLength not updated: %d", req.ContentLength)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_DecodesGzip(t *testing.T) {
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	gw := gzip.NewWriter(&buf)
+	if _, err := gw.Write([]byte(samplePayload)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("gzip write: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := gw.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("gzip close: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, buf.Bytes(), "gzip")
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(got) != samplePayload {
+		t.Fatalf("body mismatch: got %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_DecodesDeflate(t *testing.T) {
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	zw := zlib.NewWriter(&buf)
+	if _, err := zw.Write([]byte(samplePayload)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("zlib write: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := zw.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("zlib close: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, buf.Bytes(), "deflate")
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(got) != samplePayload {
+		t.Fatalf("body mismatch: got %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_RejectsUnsupportedEncoding(t *testing.T) {
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, []byte(samplePayload), "br")
+	_, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected error for unsupported encoding, got nil")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "br") {
+		t.Fatalf("error should mention encoding, got %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_RejectsCorruptZstd(t *testing.T) {
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, []byte("not actually zstd"), "zstd")
+	_, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected error for corrupt zstd body, got nil")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_NilBody(t *testing.T) {
+	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, "/v1/responses", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewRequest: %v", err)
+	}
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if got != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("expected nil body, got %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc_RespectsIdentityEncoding(t *testing.T) {
+	req := newRequestWithBody(t, []byte(samplePayload), "identity")
+	got, err := ReadRequestBodyWithPrealloc(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if string(got) != samplePayload {
+		t.Fatalf("body mismatch: got %q", got)
+	}
+}