<b>Brotli level 11 vs 5: 4KB saved, 80ms server cost</b>

<b>Brotli level 11 vs 5: 4KB saved, 80ms server cost</b>
Compression level trades CPU time for bytes; the sweet spot depends on cache.
— HTML at Brotli 11: 22KB, compress time 85ms per request (dynamic, uncached)
— Brotli 5: 26KB, compress time 6ms
— For uncached dynamic HTML, level 5 won: the 80ms TTFB penalty cost more than 4KB on the wire at p75 bandwidth
— For static assets (compress once, serve many): level 11 always — cost amortizes to zero
Takeaway: Brotli 11 for static, 4-5 for dynamic HTML — TTFB beats 4KB.