diff --git a/roles/emit-ara-html/README.rst b/roles/emit-ara-html/README.rst
index 75f667af7..389c63b06 100644
--- a/roles/emit-ara-html/README.rst
+++ b/roles/emit-ara-html/README.rst
@@ -1 +1,14 @@
-Have ara generate html logs if ara and ara data are both present.
+Have ARA generate html logs if ARA and ARA data are both present.
+
+**Role Variables**
+
+.. zuul:rolevar:: ara_compress_html
+
+   Whether to compress the ARA HTML output or not.
+   Defaults to ``true``.
+
+.. tip::
+   Make sure the web server is configured to set the required mimetypes_ in
+   order to serve gzipped content properly.
+
+.. _mimetypes: https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack-infra/puppet-openstackci/tree/templates/logs.vhost.erb?id=5fe1f3d2d5e40c2458721e7dcf8631d62ea2525f#n24
diff --git a/roles/emit-ara-html/defaults/main.yaml b/roles/emit-ara-html/defaults/main.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..29dedca2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/emit-ara-html/defaults/main.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Whether to compress the ARA HTML output or not
+ara_compress_html: true
diff --git a/roles/emit-ara-html/tasks/main.yaml b/roles/emit-ara-html/tasks/main.yaml
index eca3f7267..58ec43cd6 100644
--- a/roles/emit-ara-html/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/emit-ara-html/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -1,14 +1,19 @@
-- name: Check for ara db
+- name: Check for ARA db
   stat:
     path: "{{ zuul.executor.work_root }}/.ara/ansible.sqlite"
   register: ara_db_stat
 
-- name: Check for ara install
+- name: Check for ARA install
   command: which ara
   ignore_errors: yes
   register: ara_command_type
   when: ara_db_stat.stat.exists
 
-- name: Generate ara html output
+- name: Generate ARA html output
   command: "ara generate html {{ zuul.executor.log_root }}/ara"
   when: ara_command_type|succeeded and not ara_command_type|skipped
+
+- name: Compress ARA html output
+  archive:
+    path: "{{ zuul.executor.log_root }}/ara"
+  when: ara_compress_html | bool