diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 72f24a51e5b..cfbff217938 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 - [#8853](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/8853): Reduce allocations, improve `readEntries` performance by simplifying loop
 - [#8830](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/8830): Separate importer log statements to stdout and stderr.
 - [#8857](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/8857): Improve performance of Bloom Filter in TSI index.
+- [#8897](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/8897): Add message pack format for query responses.
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
diff --git a/Godeps b/Godeps
index f4eaf4be234..84196b0e652 100644
--- a/Godeps
+++ b/Godeps
@@ -14,8 +14,10 @@ github.com/influxdata/usage-client 6d3895376368aa52a3a81d2a16e90f0f52371967
 github.com/jwilder/encoding 27894731927e49b0a9023f00312be26733744815
 github.com/paulbellamy/ratecounter 5a11f585a31379765c190c033b6ad39956584447
 github.com/peterh/liner 88609521dc4b6c858fd4c98b628147da928ce4ac
+github.com/philhofer/fwd 1612a298117663d7bc9a760ae20d383413859798
 github.com/retailnext/hllpp 38a7bb71b483e855d35010808143beaf05b67f9d
 github.com/spaolacci/murmur3 0d12bf811670bf6a1a63828dfbd003eded177fce
+github.com/tinylib/msgp ad0ff2e232ad2e37faf67087fb24bf8d04a8ce20
 github.com/uber-go/atomic 74ca5ec650841aee9f289dce76e928313a37cbc6
 github.com/uber-go/zap fbae0281ffd546fa6d1959fec6075ac5da7fb577
 golang.org/x/crypto 9477e0b78b9ac3d0b03822fd95422e2fe07627cd
diff --git a/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md b/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
index 8f3b434377f..da4ff1d04a8 100644
--- a/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
+++ b/LICENSE_OF_DEPENDENCIES.md
@@ -15,8 +15,10 @@
 - github.com/google/go-cmp [BSD LICENSE](https://github.com/google/go-cmp/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - github.com/influxdata/usage-client [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/influxdata/usage-client/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
 - github.com/jwilder/encoding [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/jwilder/encoding/blob/master/LICENSE)
+- github.com/philhofer/fwd [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/philhofer/fwd/blob/master/LICENSE.md)
 - github.com/paulbellamy/ratecounter [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/paulbellamy/ratecounter/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - github.com/peterh/liner [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/peterh/liner/blob/master/COPYING)
+- github.com/tinylib/msgp [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/tinylib/msgp/blob/master/LICENSE)
 - 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/uber-go/atomic [MIT LICENSE](https://github.com/uber-go/atomic/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
diff --git a/services/httpd/response_writer.go b/services/httpd/response_writer.go
index c59535d57f5..4e6239df8eb 100644
--- a/services/httpd/response_writer.go
+++ b/services/httpd/response_writer.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
+	"github.com/tinylib/msgp/msgp"
 )
 
 // ResponseWriter is an interface for writing a response.
@@ -28,6 +29,9 @@ 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 = &msgpackFormatter{Writer: w}
 	case "application/json":
 		fallthrough
 	default:
@@ -188,3 +192,105 @@ func (w *csvFormatter) WriteResponse(resp Response) (n int, err error) {
 	}
 	return n, nil
 }
+
+type msgpackFormatter struct {
+	io.Writer
+}
+
+func (f *msgpackFormatter) ContentType() string {
+	return "application/x-msgpack"
+}
+
+func (f *msgpackFormatter) WriteResponse(resp Response) (n int, err error) {
+	enc := msgp.NewWriter(f.Writer)
+	defer enc.Flush()
+
+	enc.WriteMapHeader(1)
+	if resp.Err != nil {
+		enc.WriteString("error")
+		enc.WriteString(err.Error())
+		return 0, nil
+	} else {
+		enc.WriteString("results")
+		enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(resp.Results)))
+		for _, result := range resp.Results {
+			if result.Err != nil {
+				enc.WriteMapHeader(1)
+				enc.WriteString("error")
+				enc.WriteString(result.Err.Error())
+				continue
+			}
+
+			sz := 2
+			if len(result.Messages) > 0 {
+				sz++
+			}
+			if result.Partial {
+				sz++
+			}
+			enc.WriteMapHeader(uint32(sz))
+			enc.WriteString("statement_id")
+			enc.WriteInt(result.StatementID)
+			if len(result.Messages) > 0 {
+				enc.WriteString("messages")
+				enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(result.Messages)))
+				for _, msg := range result.Messages {
+					enc.WriteMapHeader(2)
+					enc.WriteString("level")
+					enc.WriteString(msg.Level)
+					enc.WriteString("text")
+					enc.WriteString(msg.Text)
+				}
+			}
+			enc.WriteString("series")
+			enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(result.Series)))
+			for _, series := range result.Series {
+				sz := 2
+				if series.Name != "" {
+					sz++
+				}
+				if len(series.Tags) > 0 {
+					sz++
+				}
+				if series.Partial {
+					sz++
+				}
+				enc.WriteMapHeader(uint32(sz))
+				if series.Name != "" {
+					enc.WriteString("name")
+					enc.WriteString(series.Name)
+				}
+				if len(series.Tags) > 0 {
+					enc.WriteString("tags")
+					enc.WriteMapHeader(uint32(len(series.Tags)))
+					for k, v := range series.Tags {
+						enc.WriteString(k)
+						enc.WriteString(v)
+					}
+				}
+				enc.WriteString("columns")
+				enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(series.Columns)))
+				for _, col := range series.Columns {
+					enc.WriteString(col)
+				}
+				enc.WriteString("values")
+				enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(series.Values)))
+				for _, values := range series.Values {
+					enc.WriteArrayHeader(uint32(len(values)))
+					for _, v := range values {
+						enc.WriteIntf(v)
+					}
+				}
+				if series.Partial {
+					enc.WriteString("partial")
+					enc.WriteBool(series.Partial)
+				}
+			}
+			if result.Partial {
+				enc.WriteString("partial")
+				enc.WriteBool(true)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return 0, nil
+}
diff --git a/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go b/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go
index e74781b0bb3..08b262a9145 100644
--- a/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go
+++ b/services/httpd/response_writer_test.go
@@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
 package httpd_test
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
 	"math"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
 	"net/url"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/query"
 	"github.com/influxdata/influxdb/services/httpd"
+	"github.com/tinylib/msgp/msgp"
 )
 
 func TestResponseWriter_CSV(t *testing.T) {
@@ -62,3 +67,65 @@ cpu,"host=server01,region=uswest",70,9223372036854775808
 		t.Errorf("unexpected output:\n\ngot=%v\nwant=%s", got, want)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestResponseWriter_MessagePack(t *testing.T) {
+	header := make(http.Header)
+	header.Set("Accept", "application/x-msgpack")
+	r := &http.Request{
+		Header: header,
+		URL:    &url.URL{},
+	}
+	w := httptest.NewRecorder()
+
+	writer := httpd.NewResponseWriter(w, r)
+	writer.WriteResponse(httpd.Response{
+		Results: []*query.Result{
+			{
+				StatementID: 0,
+				Series: []*models.Row{
+					{
+						Name: "cpu",
+						Tags: map[string]string{
+							"host": "server01",
+						},
+						Columns: []string{"time", "value"},
+						Values: [][]interface{}{
+							{time.Unix(0, 10), float64(2.5)},
+							{time.Unix(0, 20), int64(5)},
+							{time.Unix(0, 30), nil},
+							{time.Unix(0, 40), "foobar"},
+							{time.Unix(0, 50), true},
+							{time.Unix(0, 60), false},
+							{time.Unix(0, 70), uint64(math.MaxInt64 + 1)},
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	})
+
+	// The reader always reads times as time.Local so encode the expected response
+	// as JSON and insert it into the expected values.
+	values, err := json.Marshal([][]interface{}{
+		{time.Unix(0, 10).Local(), float64(2.5)},
+		{time.Unix(0, 20).Local(), int64(5)},
+		{time.Unix(0, 30).Local(), nil},
+		{time.Unix(0, 40).Local(), "foobar"},
+		{time.Unix(0, 50).Local(), true},
+		{time.Unix(0, 60).Local(), false},
+		{time.Unix(0, 70).Local(), uint64(math.MaxInt64 + 1)},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	reader := msgp.NewReader(w.Body)
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	if _, err := reader.WriteToJSON(&buf); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %s", err)
+	}
+	want := fmt.Sprintf(`{"results":[{"statement_id":0,"series":[{"name":"cpu","tags":{"host":"server01"},"columns":["time","value"],"values":%s}]}]}`, string(values))
+	if have := strings.TrimSpace(buf.String()); have != want {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected output: %s != %s", have, want)
+	}
+}