diff --git a/paperless.conf.example b/paperless.conf.example
index b9c9d4e6c..2bd2c08bc 100644
--- a/paperless.conf.example
+++ b/paperless.conf.example
@@ -158,7 +158,12 @@ PAPERLESS_CONSUMPTION_DIR="../consume"
 
 # When the consumer detects a duplicate document, it will not touch the
 # original document. This default behavior can be changed here.
-#PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES="false"
+#PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES=false
+
+# Use optipng to optimize thumbnails. This usually reduces the sice of
+# thumbnails by about 20%, but uses considerable compute time during
+# consumption.
+#PAPERLESS_OPTIMIZE_THUMBNAILS=true
 
 # After a document is consumed, Paperless can trigger an arbitrary script if
 # you like.  This script will be passed a number of arguments for you to work
diff --git a/src/documents/parsers.py b/src/documents/parsers.py
index 2fab6bc44..496efa188 100644
--- a/src/documents/parsers.py
+++ b/src/documents/parsers.py
@@ -122,16 +122,19 @@ class DocumentParser(LoggingMixin):
 
     def optimise_thumbnail(self, in_path):
 
-        out_path = os.path.join(self.tempdir, "optipng.png")
+        if settings.OPTIMIZE_THUMBNAILS:
+            out_path = os.path.join(self.tempdir, "optipng.png")
 
-        args = (settings.OPTIPNG_BINARY, "-silent", "-o5", in_path, "-out", out_path)
+            args = (settings.OPTIPNG_BINARY, "-silent", "-o5", in_path, "-out", out_path)
 
-        self.log('debug', 'Execute: ' + " ".join(args))
+            self.log('debug', 'Execute: ' + " ".join(args))
 
-        if not subprocess.Popen(args).wait() == 0:
-            raise ParseError("Optipng failed at {}".format(args))
+            if not subprocess.Popen(args).wait() == 0:
+                raise ParseError("Optipng failed at {}".format(args))
 
-        return out_path
+            return out_path
+        else:
+            return in_path
 
     def get_optimised_thumbnail(self):
         return self.optimise_thumbnail(self.get_thumbnail())
diff --git a/src/paperless/settings.py b/src/paperless/settings.py
index 3661c3d02..2713e2b5e 100644
--- a/src/paperless/settings.py
+++ b/src/paperless/settings.py
@@ -320,6 +320,8 @@ CONSUMER_POLLING = int(os.getenv("PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_POLLING", 0))
 
 CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES = __get_boolean("PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_DELETE_DUPLICATES")
 
+OPTIMIZE_THUMBNAILS = __get_boolean("PAPERLESS_OPTIMIZE_THUMBNAILS", "true")
+
 # The default language that tesseract will attempt to use when parsing
 # documents.  It should be a 3-letter language code consistent with ISO 639.
 OCR_LANGUAGE = os.getenv("PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE", "eng")