diff --git a/google-cloud-storage/acceptance/storage/headers_test.rb b/google-cloud-storage/acceptance/storage/headers_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2fd1b95b5f1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/google-cloud-storage/acceptance/storage/headers_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Copyright 2026 Google LLC
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+require_relative "../storage_helper"
+require 'pry'
+
+describe "Accept-Encoding" do
+  # Inject an array into the middleware instead of using class-level state
+  class HeaderRecorder < Faraday::Middleware
+    def initialize(app, captured_headers)
+      super(app)
+      @captured_headers = captured_headers
+    end
+
+    def call(env)
+      @captured_headers << env.request_headers
+      @app.call(env)
+    end
+  end
+
+  let(:storage) { Google::Cloud::Storage.new }
+  let(:captured_headers) { [] }
+  let(:client) { storage.service.service.client }
+
+  before do
+    # Pass our local captured_headers array to the middleware
+    client.builder.insert_before(0, HeaderRecorder, captured_headers)
+  end
+
+  after do
+    client.builder.delete(HeaderRecorder) rescue nil
+  end
+
+  it "does not include Accept-Encoding header on metadata calls" do
+    storage.buckets(max: 1)
+
+    refute_empty captured_headers
+    
+    # Assert none of the requests included the header
+    assert captured_headers.none? { |headers| headers.key?("Accept-Encoding") }
+  end
+
+  it "includes Accept-Encoding gzip header on media calls (upload/download)" do
+    bucket_name = "gcloud-test-ae-#{Time.now.to_i}-#{SecureRandom.hex(4)}"
+    bucket = storage.create_bucket(bucket_name)
+
+    begin
+      # Reset our local array instead of calling a class method
+      captured_headers.clear
+
+      # Test Upload
+      file = bucket.create_file(StringIO.new("hello world"), "test.txt")
+      assert_includes captured_headers.map { |h| h["Accept-Encoding"] }, "gzip"
+
+      captured_headers.clear
+
+      # Test Download
+      file.download
+      assert_includes captured_headers.map { |h| h["Accept-Encoding"] }, "gzip"
+    ensure
+      # Cleanup
+      safe_gcs_execute { file&.delete }
+      safe_gcs_execute { bucket&.delete }
+    end
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/google-cloud-storage/lib/google/cloud/storage/service.rb b/google-cloud-storage/lib/google/cloud/storage/service.rb
index d721509aa08d..6b389072d8c7 100644
--- a/google-cloud-storage/lib/google/cloud/storage/service.rb
+++ b/google-cloud-storage/lib/google/cloud/storage/service.rb
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ def initialize project, credentials, retries: nil,
           @service.request_options.header ||= {}
           @service.request_options.header["x-goog-api-client"] =
             "gl-ruby/#{RUBY_VERSION} gccl/#{Google::Cloud::Storage::VERSION}"
-          @service.request_options.header["Accept-Encoding"] = "gzip"
           @service.request_options.quota_project = quota_project if quota_project
           @service.request_options.max_elapsed_time = max_elapsed_time if max_elapsed_time
           @service.request_options.base_interval = base_interval if base_interval
diff --git a/google-cloud-storage/test/google/cloud/storage/project_test.rb b/google-cloud-storage/test/google/cloud/storage/project_test.rb
index c07bff384157..831bb26144ea 100644
--- a/google-cloud-storage/test/google/cloud/storage/project_test.rb
+++ b/google-cloud-storage/test/google/cloud/storage/project_test.rb
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ def creds.is_a? target
     _(project.universe_domain).must_equal "googleapis.com"
   end
 
+  it "does not set Accept-Encoding gzip header by default" do
+    service = Google::Cloud::Storage::Service.new "my-project", default_credentials
+    _(service.service.request_options.header["Accept-Encoding"]).must_be :nil?
+  end
+
   it "supports setting a universe domain argument" do
     service = Google::Cloud::Storage::Service.new "my-project", default_credentials, universe_domain: "mydomain1.com"
     _(service.universe_domain).must_equal "mydomain1.com"