diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ee7494a3d6c..d81b0dac67e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 - [#7099](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7099): Implement text/csv content encoding for the response writer.
 - [#6992](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/6992): Support tools for running async queries.
 - [#7136](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7136): Update jwt-go dependency to version 3.
+- [#7154](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7154): Add msgpack handler for smart JSON encoding.
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
diff --git a/Godeps b/Godeps
index f5604307196..60bceb0a558 100644
--- a/Godeps
+++ b/Godeps
@@ -15,4 +15,5 @@ github.com/paulbellamy/ratecounter 5a11f585a31379765c190c033b6ad39956584447
 github.com/peterh/liner 8975875355a81d612fafb9f5a6037bdcc2d9b073
 github.com/rakyll/statik 274df120e9065bdd08eb1120e0375e3dc1ae8465
 github.com/retailnext/hllpp 38a7bb71b483e855d35010808143beaf05b67f9d
+github.com/ugorji/go 4a1cb5252a6951f715a85d0e4be334c2a2dbf2a2
 golang.org/x/crypto c197bcf24cde29d3f73c7b4ac6fd41f4384e8af6
diff --git a/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md b/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
index 14bbfa9535f..d23b31951f0 100644
--- a/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
+++ b/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 - github.com/peterh/liner [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/peterh/liner/blob/master/COPYING)
 - github.com/rakyll/statik [APACHE LICENSE](https://github.com/rakyll/statik/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - github.com/retailnext/hllpp [BSD LICENSE](https://github.com/retailnext/hllpp/blob/master/LICENSE)
+- github.com/ugorji/go/codec [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/ugorji/go/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - glyphicons [LICENSE](http://glyphicons.com/license/)
 - golang.org/x/crypto [BSD LICENSE](https://github.com/golang/crypto/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - jquery 2.1.4 [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
diff --git a/influxql/result.go b/influxql/result.go
index 0069208fb85..b745fe3b869 100644
--- a/influxql/result.go
+++ b/influxql/result.go
@@ -58,10 +58,10 @@ func ReadOnlyWarning(stmt string) *Message {
 type Result struct {
 	// StatementID is just the statement's position in the query. It's used
 	// to combine statement results if they're being buffered in memory.
-	StatementID int `json:"-"`
-	Series      models.Rows
-	Messages    []*Message
-	Err         error
+	StatementID int         `json:"-"`
+	Series      models.Rows `codec:"series,omitempty"`
+	Messages    []*Message  `codec:"messages,omitempty"`
+	Err         error       `codec:"error,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // MarshalJSON encodes the result into JSON.
diff --git a/services/httpd/handler.go b/services/httpd/handler.go
index 2a1be276745..64b69f9c56b 100644
--- a/services/httpd/handler.go
+++ b/services/httpd/handler.go
@@ -1106,8 +1106,8 @@ func (h *Handler) recovery(inner http.Handler, name string) http.Handler {
 
 // Response represents a list of statement results.
 type Response struct {
-	Results []*influxql.Result
-	Err     error
+	Results []*influxql.Result `codec:"results,omitempty"`
+	Err     error              `codec:"error,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // MarshalJSON encodes a Response struct into JSON.
diff --git a/services/httpd/response_writer.go b/services/httpd/response_writer.go
index 9778571874c..683e4b5eb86 100644
--- a/services/httpd/response_writer.go
+++ b/services/httpd/response_writer.go
@@ -1,14 +1,18 @@
 package httpd
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"encoding/csv"
 	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net/http"
+	"reflect"
 	"strconv"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
+	"github.com/ugorji/go/codec"
 )
 
 // ResponseWriter is an interface for writing a response.
@@ -28,6 +32,9 @@ func NewResponseWriter(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) ResponseWriter {
 	case "application/csv", "text/csv":
 		w.Header().Add("Content-Type", "text/csv")
 		rw.formatter = &csvFormatter{statementID: -1, Writer: w}
+	case "application/x-msgpack":
+		w.Header().Add("Content-Type", "application/x-msgpack")
+		rw.formatter = newMsgpackFormatter(w)
 	case "application/json":
 		fallthrough
 	default:
@@ -102,7 +109,8 @@ type csvFormatter struct {
 }
 
 func (w *csvFormatter) WriteResponse(resp Response) (n int, err error) {
-	csv := csv.NewWriter(w)
+	csv := csv.NewWriter(writer{Writer: w, n: &n})
+	defer csv.Flush()
 	for _, result := range resp.Results {
 		if result.StatementID != w.statementID {
 			// If there are no series in the result, skip past this result.
@@ -172,3 +180,73 @@ func (w *csvFormatter) WriteResponse(resp Response) (n int, err error) {
 	}
 	return n, nil
 }
+
+type msgpackTimeExt struct {
+	enc *codec.Encoder
+	buf bytes.Buffer
+}
+
+func newMsgpackTimeExt(h *codec.MsgpackHandle) *msgpackTimeExt {
+	ext := &msgpackTimeExt{}
+	ext.enc = codec.NewEncoder(&ext.buf, h)
+	return ext
+}
+
+func (x *msgpackTimeExt) WriteExt(v interface{}) (data []byte) {
+	var t time.Time
+	switch v := v.(type) {
+	case time.Time:
+		t = v
+	case *time.Time:
+		t = *v
+	default:
+		panic(fmt.Sprintf("unsupported format for time conversion: expecting time.Time, got %T", v))
+	}
+
+	// The codec library does not expose encoding to a byte string directly so
+	// we use our own encoder to encode an int. We reuse the internal buffer to
+	// reduce the number of allocations. This makes this extension
+	// non-threadsafe, but we make a new extension writer every time we create
+	// an encoder so this shouldn't matter.
+	x.buf.Reset()
+	x.enc.MustEncode(t.UnixNano())
+	return x.buf.Bytes()
+}
+
+func (x *msgpackTimeExt) ReadExt(dst interface{}, src []byte) { panic("unsupported") }
+
+type msgpackFormatter struct {
+	io.Writer
+	enc *codec.Encoder
+	w   bytes.Buffer
+}
+
+func newMsgpackFormatter(w io.Writer) *msgpackFormatter {
+	var mh codec.MsgpackHandle
+	mh.WriteExt = true
+	mh.SetBytesExt(reflect.TypeOf(time.Time{}), 1, newMsgpackTimeExt(&mh))
+
+	mf := &msgpackFormatter{Writer: w}
+	mf.enc = codec.NewEncoder(&mf.w, &mh)
+	return mf
+}
+
+func (w *msgpackFormatter) WriteResponse(resp Response) (n int, err error) {
+	if err := w.enc.Encode(resp); err != nil {
+		return 0, err
+	}
+	n, err = w.Writer.Write(w.w.Bytes())
+	w.w.Reset()
+	return
+}
+
+type writer struct {
+	io.Writer
+	n *int
+}
+
+func (w writer) Write(data []byte) (n int, err error) {
+	n, err = w.Writer.Write(data)
+	*w.n += n
+	return n, err
+}
diff --git a/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go b/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..06f8b3b7042
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+package httpd_test
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/influxql"
+	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
+	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/services/httpd"
+)
+
+// discard is an http.ResponseWriter that discards all output.
+type discard struct{}
+
+func (discard) Header() http.Header            { return http.Header{} }
+func (discard) WriteHeader(int)                {}
+func (discard) Write(data []byte) (int, error) { return len(data), nil }
+
+func BenchmarkJSONResponseWriter_1K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/json", 10, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkJSONResponseWriter_100K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/json", 1000, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkJSONResponseWriter_1M(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/json", 10000, 100)
+}
+
+func BenchmarkMsgpackResponseWriter_1K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/x-msgpack", 10, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkMsgpackResponseWriter_100K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/x-msgpack", 1000, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkMsgpackResponseWriter_1M(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "application/x-msgpack", 10000, 100)
+}
+
+func BenchmarkCSVResponseWriter_1K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "text/csv", 10, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkCSVResponseWriter_100K(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "text/csv", 1000, 100)
+}
+func BenchmarkCSVResponseWriter_1M(b *testing.B) {
+	benchmarkResponseWriter(b, "text/csv", 10000, 100)
+}
+
+func benchmarkResponseWriter(b *testing.B, contentType string, seriesN, pointsPerSeriesN int) {
+	r, err := http.NewRequest("POST", "/query", nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		b.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	r.Header.Set("Accept", contentType)
+
+	// Generate a sample result.
+	rows := make(models.Rows, 0, seriesN)
+	for i := 0; i < seriesN; i++ {
+		row := &models.Row{
+			Name: "cpu",
+			Tags: map[string]string{
+				"host": fmt.Sprintf("server-%d", i),
+			},
+			Columns: []string{"time", "value"},
+			Values:  make([][]interface{}, 0, b.N),
+		}
+
+		for j := 0; j < pointsPerSeriesN; j++ {
+			row.Values = append(row.Values, []interface{}{
+				time.Unix(int64(10*j), 0),
+				float64(100),
+			})
+		}
+		rows = append(rows, row)
+	}
+	result := &influxql.Result{Series: rows}
+
+	// Create new ResponseWriter with the underlying ResponseWriter
+	// being the discard writer so we only benchmark the marshaling.
+	w := httpd.NewResponseWriter(discard{}, r)
+
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		w.WriteResponse(httpd.Response{
+			Results: []*influxql.Result{result},
+		})
+	}
+}