diff --git a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/BUILD.bazel b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/BUILD.bazel
index ea42517f932..683e1b2a3bd 100644
--- a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/BUILD.bazel
@@ -69,8 +69,10 @@ go_library(
         "//internal/types",
         "//internal/updatecheck",
         "//lib/errors",
+        "//lib/limitedgzip",
         "//lib/pointers",
         "//schema",
+        "@com_github_alecthomas_units//:units",
         "@com_github_derision_test_glock//:glock",
         "@com_github_gorilla_mux//:mux",
         "@com_github_graph_gophers_graphql_go//:graphql-go",
diff --git a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/graphql.go b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/graphql.go
index 35ff08390b8..b2326f799e8 100644
--- a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/graphql.go
+++ b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/graphql.go
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package httpapi
 
 import (
-	"compress/gzip"
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"net/http"
@@ -9,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/alecthomas/units"
 	"github.com/graph-gophers/graphql-go"
 	gqlerrors "github.com/graph-gophers/graphql-go/errors"
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
@@ -22,12 +22,16 @@ import (
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/audit"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/conf"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/cookie"
+	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/env"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/trace"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/lib/errors"
+	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/lib/limitedgzip"
 )
 
 const costEstimationMetricActorTypeLabel = "actor_type"
 
+var gzipFileSizeLimit = env.MustGetInt("HTTAPI_GZIP_FILE_SIZE_LIMIT", 500*int(units.Megabyte), "Maximum size of gzipped request bodies to read")
+
 var (
 	costHistogram = promauto.NewHistogramVec(prometheus.HistogramOpts{
 		Name:    "src_graphql_cost_distribution",
@@ -85,14 +89,12 @@ func serveGraphQL(logger log.Logger, schema *graphql.Schema, rlw graphqlbackend.
 		r = r.WithContext(trace.WithRequestSource(r.Context(), requestSource))
 
 		if r.Header.Get("Content-Encoding") == "gzip" {
-			gzipReader, err := gzip.NewReader(r.Body)
+			r.Body, err = limitedgzip.WithReader(r.Body, int64(gzipFileSizeLimit))
 			if err != nil {
 				return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to decompress request body")
 			}
 
-			r.Body = gzipReader
-
-			defer gzipReader.Close()
+			defer r.Body.Close()
 		}
 
 		var params graphQLQueryParams
diff --git a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/opencodegraph.go b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/opencodegraph.go
index b232e3d02da..4582f7884b7 100644
--- a/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/opencodegraph.go
+++ b/cmd/frontend/internal/httpapi/opencodegraph.go
@@ -1,16 +1,17 @@
 package httpapi
 
 import (
-	"compress/gzip"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"net/http"
 
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/log"
+
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/cmd/frontend/internal/search"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/featureflag"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/opencodegraph"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/internal/trace"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/lib/errors"
+	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/lib/limitedgzip"
 	"github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/schema"
 )
 
@@ -39,12 +40,12 @@ func serveOpenCodeGraph(logger log.Logger) func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.R
 		r = r.WithContext(trace.WithRequestSource(r.Context(), requestSource))
 
 		if r.Header.Get("Content-Encoding") == "gzip" {
-			gzipReader, err := gzip.NewReader(r.Body)
+			r.Body, err = limitedgzip.WithReader(r.Body, int64(gzipFileSizeLimit))
 			if err != nil {
 				return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to decompress request body")
 			}
-			r.Body = gzipReader
-			defer gzipReader.Close()
+
+			defer r.Body.Close()
 		}
 
 		method, cap, ann, err := opencodegraph.DecodeRequestMessage(json.NewDecoder(r.Body))
diff --git a/lib/limitedgzip/BUILD.bazel b/lib/limitedgzip/BUILD.bazel
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..aceaffbc02d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/limitedgzip/BUILD.bazel
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library")
+
+go_library(
+    name = "limitedgzip",
+    srcs = ["gzip.go"],
+    importpath = "github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/lib/limitedgzip",
+    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
+)
diff --git a/lib/limitedgzip/gzip.go b/lib/limitedgzip/gzip.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cea46cdeedc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/limitedgzip/gzip.go
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+package limitedgzip
+
+import (
+	"compress/gzip"
+	"io"
+)
+
+// WithReader returns a new io.ReadCloser that reads and decompresses the body
+// it reads until io.EOF or the specified limit is reached.
+func WithReader(body io.ReadCloser, limit int64) (io.ReadCloser, error) {
+	gzipReader, err := gzip.NewReader(body)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	body = struct {
+		io.Reader
+		io.Closer
+	}{
+		Reader: io.LimitReader(gzipReader, limit),
+		Closer: gzipReader,
+	}
+
+	return body, nil
+}