diff --git a/gotham/Cargo.toml b/gotham/Cargo.toml
index 4ecc8cd8..734040f0 100644
--- a/gotham/Cargo.toml
+++ b/gotham/Cargo.toml
@@ -55,8 +55,15 @@ tokio-rustls = { version = "0.23", optional = true }
 uuid = { version = "1.0", features = ["v4"] }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
+criterion = { version = "0.5.1", features = ["cargo_bench_support", "plotters", "rayon", "async_futures", "async_tokio"] }
 futures-executor = "0.3.14"
+reqwest = "0.12.2"
+tempfile = "3.10.1"
 tokio = { version = "1.11.0", features = ["macros", "test-util"] }
 
 [package.metadata.docs.rs]
 all-features = true
+
+[[bench]]
+name = "file_handler"
+harness = false
diff --git a/gotham/benches/file_handler.rs b/gotham/benches/file_handler.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..41aba248
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gotham/benches/file_handler.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+use std::{
+    collections::HashMap,
+    fs::File,
+    io::{BufWriter, Write},
+    net::{SocketAddr, ToSocketAddrs},
+    sync::atomic::{AtomicU64, Ordering::Relaxed},
+    time::{Duration, SystemTime},
+};
+
+use criterion::{criterion_group, criterion_main, BenchmarkId, Criterion, Throughput};
+use futures_util::future;
+use gotham::{
+    bind_server,
+    handler::FileOptions,
+    router::{
+        build_simple_router,
+        builder::{DefineSingleRoute, DrawRoutes},
+    },
+};
+use tempfile::TempDir;
+use tokio::{
+    net::TcpListener,
+    runtime::{self, Runtime},
+};
+
+struct BenchServer {
+    runtime: Runtime,
+    addr: SocketAddr,
+    #[allow(dead_code)]
+    tmp: TempDir,
+    // sizes of test files
+    sizes: Vec<u64>,
+    buf_paths: HashMap<String, Option<usize>>,
+}
+
+impl BenchServer {
+    fn new() -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
+        let tmp = TempDir::new()?;
+        // temporary datafiles
+        let sizes = [10, 17, 24]
+            .iter()
+            .filter_map(|sz| {
+                let size = 1 << sz;
+                mk_tmp(&tmp, size).ok()
+            })
+            .collect();
+        let buf_paths = HashMap::from([
+            ("default".to_string(), None),
+            ("128k".to_string(), Some(1 << 17)),
+        ]);
+
+        let router = build_simple_router(|route| {
+            for (path, sz) in &buf_paths {
+                let mut opts = FileOptions::from(tmp.path().to_owned());
+                if let Some(size) = sz {
+                    opts.with_buffer_size(*size);
+                }
+                route
+                    .get(format!("/{path}/*").as_str())
+                    .to_dir(opts.to_owned())
+            }
+        });
+        let runtime = runtime::Builder::new_multi_thread()
+            .worker_threads(num_cpus::get())
+            .thread_name("file_handler-bench")
+            .enable_all()
+            .build()
+            .unwrap();
+        // build server manually so that we can capture the actual port instead of 0
+        let addr: std::net::SocketAddr = "127.0.0.1:0".to_socket_addrs().unwrap().next().unwrap();
+        let listener = runtime.block_on(TcpListener::bind(addr)).unwrap();
+        // use any free port
+        let addr = listener.local_addr().unwrap();
+        let _ = runtime.spawn(async move {
+            bind_server(listener, router, future::ok).await;
+        });
+        std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(100));
+        Ok(Self {
+            runtime,
+            addr,
+            tmp,
+            sizes,
+            buf_paths,
+        })
+    }
+}
+
+fn mk_tmp(tmp: &TempDir, size: u64) -> anyhow::Result<u64> {
+    let filename = tmp.path().join(format!("{size}"));
+    let file = File::create(filename)?;
+    let mut w = BufWriter::with_capacity(2 << 16, file);
+    // pseudo random data: time stamp as bytes
+    let ts_data = SystemTime::now()
+        .duration_since(SystemTime::UNIX_EPOCH)
+        .unwrap()
+        .as_nanos()
+        .to_le_bytes();
+    for _ in (0..size).step_by(ts_data.len()) {
+        w.write_all(&ts_data)?;
+    }
+    Ok(size)
+}
+
+pub fn filehandler_benchmark(c: &mut Criterion) {
+    let server = BenchServer::new().unwrap();
+
+    let runtime = server.runtime;
+    let client = reqwest::Client::builder().build().unwrap();
+    let counter = AtomicU64::new(0);
+    let failed = AtomicU64::new(0);
+
+    for file_size in server.sizes {
+        let mut group = c.benchmark_group("server_bench");
+        group.throughput(Throughput::Bytes(file_size));
+        for (path, buf_size) in &server.buf_paths {
+            let url = format!("http://{}/{path}/{file_size}", server.addr);
+            let req = client.get(url).build().unwrap();
+            group.bench_with_input(
+                BenchmarkId::new(
+                    "test_file_handler",
+                    format!("filesize: {file_size}, bufsize: {buf_size:?}"),
+                ),
+                &req,
+                |b, req| {
+                    b.to_async(&runtime).iter(|| async {
+                        let r = client.execute(req.try_clone().unwrap()).await;
+                        counter.fetch_add(1, Relaxed);
+                        match r {
+                            Err(_) => {
+                                failed.fetch_add(1, Relaxed);
+                            }
+                            Ok(res) => {
+                                // sanity check: did we get what was expected?
+                                assert_eq!(res.content_length().unwrap(), file_size);
+                                let _ = res.bytes().await.unwrap();
+                            }
+                        }
+                    });
+                },
+            );
+        }
+    }
+    println!("Errors {}/{}", failed.load(Relaxed), counter.load(Relaxed));
+}
+
+criterion_group! {
+    name = file_handler;
+    config = Criterion::default().measurement_time(Duration::from_millis(10_000)).warm_up_time(Duration::from_millis(10));
+    targets = filehandler_benchmark
+}
+
+criterion_main!(file_handler);
diff --git a/gotham/src/handler/assets/mod.rs b/gotham/src/handler/assets/mod.rs
index 018f273a..e20293df 100644
--- a/gotham/src/handler/assets/mod.rs
+++ b/gotham/src/handler/assets/mod.rs
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ pub struct FileOptions {
     cache_control: String,
     gzip: bool,
     brotli: bool,
+    buffer_size: Option<usize>,
 }
 
 impl FileOptions {
@@ -88,6 +89,7 @@ impl FileOptions {
             cache_control: "public".to_string(),
             gzip: false,
             brotli: false,
+            buffer_size: None,
         }
     }
 
@@ -111,6 +113,13 @@ impl FileOptions {
         self
     }
 
+    /// Sets the maximum buffer size to be used when serving the file.
+    /// If unset, the default maximum buffer size corresponding to file system block size will be used.
+    pub fn with_buffer_size(&mut self, buf_sz: usize) -> &mut Self {
+        self.buffer_size = Some(buf_sz);
+        self
+    }
+
     /// Clones `self` to return an owned value for passing to a handler.
     pub fn build(&mut self) -> Self {
         self.clone()
@@ -215,7 +224,9 @@ fn create_file_response(options: FileOptions, state: State) -> Pin<Box<HandlerFu
                 .body(Body::empty())
                 .unwrap());
         }
-        let buf_size = optimal_buf_size(&meta);
+        let buf_size = options
+            .buffer_size
+            .unwrap_or_else(|| optimal_buf_size(&meta));
         let (len, range_start) = match resolve_range(meta.len(), &headers) {
             Ok((len, range_start)) => (len, range_start),
             Err(e) => {
@@ -229,7 +240,7 @@ fn create_file_response(options: FileOptions, state: State) -> Pin<Box<HandlerFu
             file.seek(SeekFrom::Start(seek_to)).await?;
         };
 
-        let stream = file_stream(file, buf_size, len);
+        let stream = file_stream(file, cmp::min(buf_size, len as usize), len);
         let body = Body::wrap_stream(stream.into_stream());
         let mut response = hyper::Response::builder()
             .status(StatusCode::OK)