diff --git a/chromadb/api/fastapi.py b/chromadb/api/fastapi.py
index d3d1a8a4e7e..c8e89a84c9a 100644
--- a/chromadb/api/fastapi.py
+++ b/chromadb/api/fastapi.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import json
+import orjson as json
 import logging
 from typing import Optional, cast, Tuple
 from typing import Sequence
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ def heartbeat(self) -> int:
         """Returns the current server time in nanoseconds to check if the server is alive"""
         resp = self._session.get(self._api_url)
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return int(resp.json()["nanosecond heartbeat"])
+        return int(json.loads(resp.text)["nanosecond heartbeat"])
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI.create_database", OpenTelemetryGranularity.OPERATION)
     @override
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ def get_database(
             params={"tenant": tenant},
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        resp_json = resp.json()
+        resp_json = json.loads(resp.text)
         return Database(
             id=resp_json["id"], name=resp_json["name"], tenant=resp_json["tenant"]
         )
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ def get_tenant(self, name: str) -> Tenant:
             self._api_url + "/tenants/" + name,
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        resp_json = resp.json()
+        resp_json = json.loads(resp.text)
         return Tenant(name=resp_json["name"])
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI.list_collections", OpenTelemetryGranularity.OPERATION)
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ def list_collections(
             },
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        json_collections = resp.json()
+        json_collections = json.loads(resp.text)
         collections = []
         for json_collection in json_collections:
             collections.append(Collection(self, **json_collection))
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ def count_collections(
             params={"tenant": tenant, "database": database},
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return cast(int, resp.json())
+        return cast(int, json.loads(resp.text))
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI.create_collection", OpenTelemetryGranularity.OPERATION)
     @override
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ def create_collection(
             params={"tenant": tenant, "database": database},
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        resp_json = resp.json()
+        resp_json = json.loads(resp.text)
         return Collection(
             client=self,
             id=resp_json["id"],
@@ -300,7 +300,7 @@ def get_collection(
             self._api_url + "/collections/" + name if name else str(id), params=_params
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        resp_json = resp.json()
+        resp_json = json.loads(resp.text)
         return Collection(
             client=self,
             name=resp_json["name"],
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ def _count(
             self._api_url + "/collections/" + str(collection_id) + "/count"
         )
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return cast(int, resp.json())
+        return cast(int, json.loads(resp.text))
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI._peek", OpenTelemetryGranularity.OPERATION)
     @override
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ def _get(
         )
 
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        body = resp.json()
+        body = json.loads(resp.text)
         return GetResult(
             ids=body["ids"],
             embeddings=body.get("embeddings", None),
@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@ def _delete(
         )
 
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return cast(IDs, resp.json())
+        return cast(IDs, json.loads(resp.text))
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI._submit_batch", OpenTelemetryGranularity.ALL)
     def _submit_batch(
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@ def _query(
         )
 
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        body = resp.json()
+        body = json.loads(resp.text)
 
         return QueryResult(
             ids=body["ids"],
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ def reset(self) -> bool:
         """Resets the database"""
         resp = self._session.post(self._api_url + "/reset")
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return cast(bool, resp.json())
+        return cast(bool, json.loads(resp.text))
 
     @trace_method("FastAPI.get_version", OpenTelemetryGranularity.OPERATION)
     @override
@@ -610,7 +610,7 @@ def get_version(self) -> str:
         """Returns the version of the server"""
         resp = self._session.get(self._api_url + "/version")
         raise_chroma_error(resp)
-        return cast(str, resp.json())
+        return cast(str, json.loads(resp.text))
 
     @override
     def get_settings(self) -> Settings:
@@ -624,7 +624,7 @@ def max_batch_size(self) -> int:
         if self._max_batch_size == -1:
             resp = self._session.get(self._api_url + "/pre-flight-checks")
             raise_chroma_error(resp)
-            self._max_batch_size = cast(int, resp.json()["max_batch_size"])
+            self._max_batch_size = cast(int, json.loads(resp.text)["max_batch_size"])
         return self._max_batch_size
 
 
@@ -635,7 +635,7 @@ def raise_chroma_error(resp: requests.Response) -> None:
 
     chroma_error = None
     try:
-        body = resp.json()
+        body = json.loads(resp.text)
         if "error" in body:
             if body["error"] in errors.error_types:
                 chroma_error = errors.error_types[body["error"]](body["message"])
diff --git a/clients/python/pyproject.toml b/clients/python/pyproject.toml
index b62c002d095..edd0c00d7cf 100644
--- a/clients/python/pyproject.toml
+++ b/clients/python/pyproject.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ dependencies = [
   'typing_extensions >= 4.5.0',
   'tenacity>=8.2.3',
   'PyYAML>=6.0.0',
+  'orjson>=3.9.12',
 ]
 
 [tool.black]
diff --git a/clients/python/requirements.txt b/clients/python/requirements.txt
index 1242bf7d7e0..b977b03f064 100644
--- a/clients/python/requirements.txt
+++ b/clients/python/requirements.txt
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ PyYAML>=6.0.0
 requests >= 2.28
 tenacity>=8.2.3
 typing_extensions >= 4.5.0
+orjson>=3.9.12