diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 05bd80213..1ef39db61 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3268,6 +3268,15 @@ version = "0.4.22"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "a7a70ba024b9dc04c27ea2f0c0548feb474ec5c54bba33a7f72f873a39d07b24"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "lz4_flex"
+version = "0.11.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "75761162ae2b0e580d7e7c390558127e5f01b4194debd6221fd8c207fc80e3f5"
+dependencies = [
+ "twox-hash",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "lzma-rs"
 version = "0.3.0"
@@ -3526,6 +3535,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "json-depth-checker",
  "levenshtein_automata",
  "liquid",
+ "lz4_flex",
  "maplit",
  "md5",
  "meili-snap",
@@ -5618,6 +5628,16 @@ version = "0.2.5"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "e421abadd41a4225275504ea4d6566923418b7f05506fbc9c0fe86ba7396114b"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "twox-hash"
+version = "1.6.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "97fee6b57c6a41524a810daee9286c02d7752c4253064d0b05472833a438f675"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+ "static_assertions",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "typenum"
 version = "1.17.0"
diff --git a/milli/Cargo.toml b/milli/Cargo.toml
index 64f0116d3..a670e43b1 100644
--- a/milli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/milli/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ heed = { version = "0.20.3", default-features = false, features = [
 indexmap = { version = "2.2.6", features = ["serde"] }
 json-depth-checker = { path = "../json-depth-checker" }
 levenshtein_automata = { version = "0.2.1", features = ["fst_automaton"] }
+lz4_flex = "0.11.3"
 memmap2 = "0.9.4"
 obkv = "0.2.2"
 once_cell = "1.19.0"
diff --git a/milli/src/heed_codec/compressed_obkv_codec.rs b/milli/src/heed_codec/compressed_obkv_codec.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0fddc40d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/milli/src/heed_codec/compressed_obkv_codec.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+use std::borrow::Cow;
+
+use heed::BoxedError;
+use obkv::KvReaderU16;
+
+pub struct ObkvCompressedCodec;
+
+impl<'a> heed::BytesDecode<'a> for ObkvCompressedCodec {
+    type DItem = CompressedKvReaderU16<'a>;
+
+    fn bytes_decode(bytes: &'a [u8]) -> Result<Self::DItem, BoxedError> {
+        Ok(CompressedKvReaderU16(bytes))
+    }
+}
+
+impl heed::BytesEncode<'_> for ObkvCompressedCodec {
+    type EItem = CompressedKvWriterU16;
+
+    fn bytes_encode(item: &Self::EItem) -> Result<Cow<[u8]>, BoxedError> {
+        Ok(Cow::Borrowed(&item.0))
+    }
+}
+
+pub struct CompressedKvReaderU16<'a>(&'a [u8]);
+
+impl<'a> CompressedKvReaderU16<'a> {
+    pub fn decompress_with<'b>(
+        &self,
+        buffer: &'b mut Vec<u8>,
+        dictionnary: &[u8],
+    ) -> Result<KvReaderU16<'b>, lz4_flex::block::DecompressError> {
+        let max_size = lz4_flex::block::get_maximum_output_size(self.0.len());
+        buffer.resize(max_size, 0);
+        let size = lz4_flex::block::decompress_into_with_dict(
+            self.0,
+            &mut buffer[..max_size],
+            dictionnary,
+        )?;
+        Ok(KvReaderU16::new(&buffer[..size]))
+    }
+}
+
+pub struct CompressedKvWriterU16(Vec<u8>);
+
+impl CompressedKvWriterU16 {
+    // TODO ask for a KvReaderU16 here
+    pub fn new_with_dictionnary(writer: &[u8], dictionnary: &[u8]) -> Self {
+        CompressedKvWriterU16(lz4_flex::block::compress_with_dict(writer, dictionnary))
+    }
+}
diff --git a/milli/src/heed_codec/mod.rs b/milli/src/heed_codec/mod.rs
index 449d1955c..908a86a29 100644
--- a/milli/src/heed_codec/mod.rs
+++ b/milli/src/heed_codec/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 mod beu16_str_codec;
 mod beu32_str_codec;
 mod byte_slice_ref;
+mod compressed_obkv_codec;
 pub mod facet;
 mod field_id_word_count_codec;
 mod fst_set_codec;