diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/apicast-policy.json b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/apicast-policy.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9b26e5ea7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/apicast-policy.json
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "http://apicast.io/policy-v1/schema#manifest#",
+  "name": "Request Unbuffered",
+  "summary": "Disable request buffering",
+  "description": [
+      "Disable request buffering. This is useful when proxying big payloads with HTTP/1.1 chunked encoding"
+  ],
+  "version": "builtin",
+  "configuration": {
+    "type": "object",
+    "properties": {}
+  }
+}
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/init.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/init.lua
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b5a678161
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/init.lua
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+return require('request_unbuffered')
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/request_unbuffered.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/request_unbuffered.lua
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a3113dcce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/request_unbuffered/request_unbuffered.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+-- Request Unbuffered policy
+-- This policy will disable request buffering
+
+local policy = require('apicast.policy')
+local _M = policy.new('request_unbuffered')
+
+local new = _M.new
+
+--- Initialize a buffering
+-- @tparam[opt] table config Policy configuration.
+function _M.new(config)
+  local self = new(config)
+  return self
+end
+
+function _M:export()
+  return {
+    request_unbuffered = true,
+  }
+end
+
+return _M
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/upstream.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/upstream.lua
index 23bbb2716..0aff47359 100644
--- a/gateway/src/apicast/upstream.lua
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/upstream.lua
@@ -210,6 +210,15 @@ function _M:set_keepalive_key(context)
   end
 end
 
+local function get_upstream_location_name(context)
+    if context.upstream_location_name then
+        return context.upstream_location_name
+    end
+    if context.request_unbuffered then
+        return "@upstream_request_unbuffered"
+    end
+end
+
 --- Execute the upstream.
 --- @tparam table context any table (policy context, ngx.ctx) to store the upstream for later use by balancer
 function _M:call(context)
@@ -242,9 +251,9 @@ function _M:call(context)
 
     self:set_keepalive_key(context or {})
     if not self.servers then self:resolve() end
-    if context.upstream_location_name then
-        self.location_name = context.upstream_location_name
-    end
+
+    local upstream_location_name = get_upstream_location_name(context)
+    self:update_location(upstream_location_name)
     context[self.upstream_name] = self
 
     return exec(self)
diff --git a/spec/upstream_spec.lua b/spec/upstream_spec.lua
index 343f4bceb..6ab12e432 100644
--- a/spec/upstream_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/upstream_spec.lua
@@ -217,6 +217,22 @@ describe('Upstream', function()
             assert.spy(ngx.exec).was_called_with(upstream.location_name)
         end)
 
+        it('executes the upstream location when request_unbuffered provided in the context', function()
+            local contexts = {
+                ["buffered_request"] = {ctx={}, upstream_location="@upstream"},
+                ["unbuffered_request"] = {ctx={request_unbuffered=true}, upstream_location="@upstream_request_unbuffered"},
+                ["upstream_location and buffered_request"] = {ctx={upstream_location_name="@grpc", request_unbuffered=true}, upstream_location="@grpc"},
+                ["upstream_location and unbuffered_request"] = {ctx={upstream_location_name="@grpc"}, upstream_location="@grpc"},
+            }
+
+            for _, value in pairs(contexts) do
+                local upstream = Upstream.new('http://localhost')
+                upstream:call(value.ctx)
+
+                assert.spy(ngx.exec).was_called_with(value.upstream_location)
+            end
+        end)
+
         it('skips executing the upstream location when missing', function()
             local upstream = Upstream.new('http://localhost')
             upstream.location_name = nil
diff --git a/t/apicast-policy-request-unbuffered.t b/t/apicast-policy-request-unbuffered.t
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..64d05ff9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/apicast-policy-request-unbuffered.t
@@ -0,0 +1,210 @@
+use lib 't';
+use Test::APIcast::Blackbox 'no_plan';
+
+sub large_body {
+  my $res = "";
+  for (my $i=0; $i <= 1024; $i++) {
+    $res = $res . "1111111 1111111 1111111 1111111\n";
+  }
+  return $res;
+}
+
+$ENV{'LARGE_BODY'} = large_body();
+
+require("policies.pl");
+
+run_tests();
+
+__DATA__
+
+=== TEST 1: request_unbuffered policy with big file
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "backend_version":  1,
+      "proxy": {
+        "api_backend": "http://test-upstream.lvh.me:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/",
+        "proxy_rules": [
+          { "pattern": "/", "http_method": "POST", "metric_system_name": "hits", "delta": 2 }
+        ],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "request_unbuffered",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "apicast",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- backend
+location /transactions/authrep.xml {
+  content_by_lua_block {
+    ngx.exit(200)
+  }
+}
+--- upstream
+server_name test-upstream.lvh.me;
+  location / {
+    echo_read_request_body;
+    echo_request_body;
+  }
+--- request eval
+"POST /?user_key= \n" . $ENV{LARGE_BODY}
+--- response_body eval chomp
+$ENV{LARGE_BODY}
+--- error_code: 200
+--- grep_error_log
+a client request body is buffered to a temporary file
+--- grep_error_log_out
+--- no_error_log
+[error]
+
+
+
+=== TEST 2: with small chunked request
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "backend_version":  1,
+      "proxy": {
+        "api_backend": "http://test-upstream.lvh.me:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/",
+        "proxy_rules": [
+          { "pattern": "/", "http_method": "POST", "metric_system_name": "hits", "delta": 2 }
+        ],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "request_unbuffered",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "apicast",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- backend
+location /transactions/authrep.xml {
+  content_by_lua_block {
+    ngx.exit(200)
+  }
+}
+--- upstream
+server_name test-upstream.lvh.me;
+  location / {
+    access_by_lua_block {
+      assert = require('luassert')
+      ngx.say("yay, api backend")
+
+      -- Nginx will read the entire body in one chunk, the upstream request will not be chunked
+      -- and Content-Length header will be added.
+      local content_length = ngx.req.get_headers()["Content-Length"]
+      local encoding = ngx.req.get_headers()["Transfer-Encoding"]
+      assert.equal('12', content_length)
+      assert.falsy(encoding, "chunked")
+    }
+  }
+--- more_headers
+Transfer-Encoding: chunked
+--- request eval
+"POST /test?user_key=value
+7\r
+hello, \r
+5\r
+world\r
+0\r
+\r
+"
+--- error_code: 200
+--- no_error_log
+[error]
+
+
+
+=== TEST 3: With big chunked request
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "backend_version":  1,
+      "proxy": {
+        "api_backend": "http://test-upstream.lvh.me:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/",
+        "proxy_rules": [
+          { "pattern": "/", "http_method": "POST", "metric_system_name": "hits", "delta": 2 }
+        ],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "request_unbuffered",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "apicast",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- backend
+location /transactions/authrep.xml {
+  content_by_lua_block {
+    ngx.exit(200)
+  }
+}
+--- upstream
+server_name test-upstream.lvh.me;
+  location / {
+    access_by_lua_block {
+      assert = require('luassert')
+      local content_length = ngx.req.get_headers()["Content-Length"]
+      local encoding = ngx.req.get_headers()["Transfer-Encoding"]
+      assert.equal('chunked', encoding)
+      assert.falsy(content_length)
+    }
+    echo_read_request_body;
+    echo_request_body;
+  }
+--- more_headers
+Transfer-Encoding: chunked
+--- request eval
+$::data = '';
+for (my $i = 0; $i < 16384; $i++) {
+    my $c = chr int rand 128;
+    $::data .= $c;
+}
+my $s = "POST https://localhost/test?user_key=value
+".
+sprintf("%x\r\n", length $::data).
+$::data
+."\r
+0\r
+\r
+";
+open my $out, '>/tmp/out.txt' or die $!;
+print $out $s;
+close $out;
+$s
+--- response_body eval
+$::data
+--- error_code: 200
+--- grep_error_log
+a client request body is buffered to a temporary file
+--- grep_error_log_out
+--- no_error_log
+[error]