diff --git a/config.sample.js b/config.sample.js
index a46c411..593b073 100644
--- a/config.sample.js
+++ b/config.sample.js
@@ -121,11 +121,18 @@ module.exports = {
     },
 
     /*
-      Allows users to download a .zip file of all files in an album.
+      Allows users to download a ZIP file of all files in an album.
       The file is generated when the user clicks the download button in the view
-      and is re-used if the album has not changed between download requests
+      and is re-used if the album has not changed between download requests.
+      If "maxTotalSize" is set (needs to be in MB), generating ZIP file will be disabled
+      if the total size of all the files in the album exceeds the set limit.
+      If you have CloudFlare properly caching the zipping API route, it's recommended to
+      set this to '512MB' as CloudFlare will not cache files bigger than that.
     */
-    generateZips: true
+    generateZips: {
+      enabled: true,
+      maxTotalSize: null
+    }
   },
 
   // Folder where to store logs
diff --git a/controllers/albumsController.js b/controllers/albumsController.js
index a74a323..42d535e 100644
--- a/controllers/albumsController.js
+++ b/controllers/albumsController.js
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ albumsController.generateZip = async (req, res, next) => {
     })
   }
 
-  if (!config.uploads.generateZips) {
+  if (!config.uploads.generateZips || !config.uploads.generateZips.enabled) {
     return res.status(401).json({
       success: false,
       description: 'Zip generation disabled.'
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ albumsController.generateZip = async (req, res, next) => {
   } else {
     console.log(`Generating zip for album identifier: ${identifier}`)
     const files = await db.table('files')
-      .select('name')
+      .select('name', 'size')
       .where('albumid', album.id)
     if (files.length === 0) {
       return res.json({
@@ -247,6 +247,17 @@ albumsController.generateZip = async (req, res, next) => {
       })
     }
 
+    if (config.uploads.generateZips.maxTotalSize) {
+      const maxTotalSizeBytes = parseInt(config.uploads.generateZips.maxTotalSize) * 1000000
+      const totalSizeBytes = files.reduce((accumulator, file) => accumulator + parseInt(file.size), 0)
+      if (totalSizeBytes > maxTotalSizeBytes) {
+        return res.json({
+          success: false,
+          description: `Total size of all the files in the album exceeds the limit set by the administrator (${config.uploads.generateZips.maxTotalSize}).`
+        })
+      }
+    }
+
     const zipPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', config.uploads.folder, 'zips', `${album.identifier}.zip`)
     const archive = new Zip()
 
@@ -262,7 +273,11 @@ albumsController.generateZip = async (req, res, next) => {
     archive
       .generateNodeStream({
         type: 'nodebuffer',
-        streamFiles: true
+        streamFiles: true,
+        compression: 'DEFLATE',
+        compressionOptions: {
+          level: 1
+        }
       })
       .pipe(fs.createWriteStream(zipPath))
       .on('finish', async () => {
diff --git a/routes/album.js b/routes/album.js
index 3197c82..76de1df 100644
--- a/routes/album.js
+++ b/routes/album.js
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ routes.get('/a/:identifier', async (req, res, next) => {
     thumb,
     files,
     identifier,
-    enableDownload: Boolean(config.uploads.generateZips),
+    enableDownload: Boolean(config.uploads.generateZips && config.uploads.generateZips.enabled),
     editedAt: album.editedAt,
     url: `${homeDomain}/a/${album.identifier}`
   })