diff --git a/apps_script/Code.gs b/apps_script/Code.gs
index 51e508a..411295a 100644
--- a/apps_script/Code.gs
+++ b/apps_script/Code.gs
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ const SKIP_HEADERS = {
   "x-forwarded-port": 1, "x-real-ip": 1, "forwarded": 1, "via": 1,
   // Internal relay hop-count header — must not be forwarded to target sites.
   "x-mhr-hop": 1,
+  // UrlFetchApp does not decompress gzip/br/deflate responses — stripping
+  // accept-encoding forces targets to reply with plain (uncompressed) bodies
+  // so the relay never has to handle compressed content it cannot decode.
+  "accept-encoding": 1,
 };
 
 // Pattern that matches any Google Apps Script execution endpoint.
diff --git a/apps_script/cloudflare_worker.js b/apps_script/cloudflare_worker.js
index 58c10c5..cf9d9ea 100644
--- a/apps_script/cloudflare_worker.js
+++ b/apps_script/cloudflare_worker.js
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ const STRIP_HEADERS = new Set([
   "via",
   // Internal relay hop header — must not propagate to the final target.
   "x-mhr-hop",
+  // Workers cannot decompress gzip/br/deflate — stripping accept-encoding
+  // forces targets to reply with plain bodies the Worker can forward as-is.
+  "accept-encoding",
 ]);
 
 function decodeBase64ToBytes(input) {
diff --git a/apps_script/vps_exit_node.py b/apps_script/vps_exit_node.py
index f6edf5b..6f74cfc 100644
--- a/apps_script/vps_exit_node.py
+++ b/apps_script/vps_exit_node.py
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@ _STRIP_HEADERS = frozenset(
         "x-real-ip",
         "forwarded",
         "via",
+        # urllib.request cannot decompress gzip/br/deflate — stripping this
+        # forces targets to reply with plain bodies the server can forward.
+        "accept-encoding",
     ]
 )
 
diff --git a/src/relay/domain_fronter.py b/src/relay/domain_fronter.py
index 03440a6..d48c37c 100644
--- a/src/relay/domain_fronter.py
+++ b/src/relay/domain_fronter.py
@@ -1202,9 +1202,18 @@ class DomainFronter:
         body of the outer Apps Script relay call, so Apps Script POSTs it to
         the exit node URL on our behalf.
         """
-        # Build inner payload: what the exit node will execute
+        # Build inner payload: what the exit node will execute.
+        # Strip accept-encoding from the inner headers so the target site
+        # returns an uncompressed body.  Exit nodes (CF Worker, VPS) make
+        # plain Python/JS fetch() calls that don't auto-decompress, so a
+        # compressed response body would be forwarded as garbled bytes.
         inner = dict(payload)
         inner["k"] = self._exit_node_psk
+        if isinstance(inner.get("h"), dict):
+            inner["h"] = {
+                k: v for k, v in inner["h"].items()
+                if k.lower() != "accept-encoding"
+            }
         inner_json = json.dumps(inner).encode()
 
         # Build outer payload: what Apps Script will fetch
diff --git a/src/relay/relay_response.py b/src/relay/relay_response.py
index 8248267..1260fe6 100644
--- a/src/relay/relay_response.py
+++ b/src/relay/relay_response.py
@@ -22,9 +22,11 @@ classify_relay_error(raw) -> str
 
 import base64
 import codecs
+import gzip
 import json
 import logging
 import re
+import zlib
 
 log = logging.getLogger("Fronter")
 
@@ -230,6 +232,39 @@ def parse_relay_json(data: dict, max_body_bytes: int) -> bytes:
     status = data.get("s", 200)
     resp_headers = data.get("h", {})
     resp_body = base64.b64decode(data.get("b", ""))
+
+    # ── Decompress if the target sent a compressed body ─────────────────────────
+    # UrlFetchApp does NOT auto-decompress gzip/deflate responses, so if the
+    # client's Accept-Encoding header was forwarded and the server compressed
+    # its reply, we receive raw compressed bytes.  We decompress here so the
+    # browser always gets plain content (and we can safely drop the header).
+    _ce = ""
+    for _k, _v in resp_headers.items():
+        if _k.lower() == "content-encoding":
+            _ce = str(_v).lower().strip()
+            break
+    if _ce == "gzip":
+        try:
+            resp_body = gzip.decompress(resp_body)
+        except Exception as _exc:
+            log.debug("gzip decompress skipped (%s) — body may already be plain", _exc)
+    elif _ce in ("deflate", "zlib"):
+        try:
+            # Try zlib wrapper first, then raw deflate
+            resp_body = zlib.decompress(resp_body)
+        except Exception:
+            try:
+                resp_body = zlib.decompress(resp_body, -15)
+            except Exception as _exc:
+                log.debug("deflate decompress skipped (%s)", _exc)
+    elif _ce == "br":
+        # Brotli is uncommon in this relay path but log if seen so it is visible
+        log.debug("brotli-encoded response from target — install 'brotli' package for support")
+        try:
+            import brotli  # type: ignore
+            resp_body = brotli.decompress(resp_body)
+        except Exception:
+            pass  # leave body as-is; browser will likely fail gracefully
     if len(resp_body) > max_body_bytes:
         return error_response(
             502,