diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/handlers/responsewriters/writers.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/handlers/responsewriters/writers.go
index acb08800e11..4824235d140 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/handlers/responsewriters/writers.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/handlers/responsewriters/writers.go
@@ -144,8 +144,10 @@ var gzipPool = &sync.Pool{
 }
 
 const (
-	// defaultGzipContentEncodingLevel is set to 4 which uses less CPU than the default level
-	defaultGzipContentEncodingLevel = 4
+	// defaultGzipContentEncodingLevel is set to 1 which uses least CPU compared to higher levels, yet offers
+	// similar compression ratios (off by at most 1.5x, but typically within 1.1x-1.3x). For further details see -
+	// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/112296
+	defaultGzipContentEncodingLevel = 1
 	// defaultGzipThresholdBytes is compared to the size of the first write from the stream
 	// (usually the entire object), and if the size is smaller no gzipping will be performed
 	// if the client requests it.