diff --git a/influxdb/client.py b/influxdb/client.py
index 8ac557d3..c5bc2cf4 100644
--- a/influxdb/client.py
+++ b/influxdb/client.py
@@ -6,11 +6,14 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
-import time
-import random
-
+import datetime
 import json
+import random
 import socket
+import struct
+import time
+
+import msgpack
 import requests
 import requests.exceptions
 from six.moves import xrange
@@ -128,7 +131,7 @@ def __init__(self,
 
         self._headers = {
             'Content-Type': 'application/json',
-            'Accept': 'text/plain'
+            'Accept': 'application/x-msgpack'
         }
 
     @property
@@ -277,13 +280,30 @@ def request(self, url, method='GET', params=None, data=None,
                     time.sleep((2 ** _try) * random.random() / 100.0)
                 if not retry:
                     raise
+
+        type_header = response.headers and response.headers.get("Content-Type")
+        if type_header == "application/x-msgpack" and response.content:
+            response._msgpack = msgpack.unpackb(
+                packed=response.content,
+                ext_hook=_msgpack_parse_hook,
+                raw=False)
+        else:
+            response._msgpack = None
+
+        def reformat_error(response):
+            if response._msgpack:
+                return json.dumps(response._msgpack, separators=(',', ':'))
+            else:
+                return response.content
+
         # if there's not an error, there must have been a successful response
         if 500 <= response.status_code < 600:
-            raise InfluxDBServerError(response.content)
+            raise InfluxDBServerError(reformat_error(response))
         elif response.status_code == expected_response_code:
             return response
         else:
-            raise InfluxDBClientError(response.content, response.status_code)
+            err_msg = reformat_error(response)
+            raise InfluxDBClientError(err_msg, response.status_code)
 
     def write(self, data, params=None, expected_response_code=204,
               protocol='json'):
@@ -434,10 +454,11 @@ def query(self,
             expected_response_code=expected_response_code
         )
 
-        if chunked:
-            return self._read_chunked_response(response)
-
-        data = response.json()
+        data = response._msgpack
+        if not data:
+            if chunked:
+                return self._read_chunked_response(response)
+            data = response.json()
 
         results = [
             ResultSet(result, raise_errors=raise_errors)
@@ -1103,3 +1124,12 @@ def _parse_netloc(netloc):
             'password': info.password or None,
             'host': info.hostname or 'localhost',
             'port': info.port or 8086}
+
+
+def _msgpack_parse_hook(code, data):
+    if code == 5:
+        (epoch_s, epoch_ns) = struct.unpack(">QI", data)
+        timestamp = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(epoch_s)
+        timestamp += datetime.timedelta(microseconds=(epoch_ns / 1000))
+        return timestamp.isoformat() + 'Z'
+    return msgpack.ExtType(code, data)
diff --git a/influxdb/tests/client_test.py b/influxdb/tests/client_test.py
index e4cc7e11..3b89a03d 100644
--- a/influxdb/tests/client_test.py
+++ b/influxdb/tests/client_test.py
@@ -465,6 +465,29 @@ def test_query(self):
                 [{'value': 0.64, 'time': '2009-11-10T23:00:00Z'}]
             )
 
+    def test_query_msgpack(self):
+        """Test query method with a messagepack response."""
+        example_response = bytes(bytearray.fromhex(
+            "81a7726573756c74739182ac73746174656d656e745f696400a673657269"
+            "65739183a46e616d65a161a7636f6c756d6e7392a474696d65a176a67661"
+            "6c7565739192c70c05000000005d26178a019096c8cb3ff0000000000000"
+        ))
+
+        with requests_mock.Mocker() as m:
+            m.register_uri(
+                requests_mock.GET,
+                "http://localhost:8086/query",
+                request_headers={"Accept": "application/x-msgpack"},
+                headers={"Content-Type": "application/x-msgpack"},
+                content=example_response
+            )
+            rs = self.cli.query('select * from a')
+
+            self.assertListEqual(
+                list(rs.get_points()),
+                [{'v': 1.0, 'time': '2019-07-10T16:51:22.026253Z'}]
+            )
+
     def test_select_into_post(self):
         """Test SELECT.*INTO is POSTed."""
         example_response = (
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index db5f6f85..77d7306f 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ python-dateutil>=2.6.0
 pytz
 requests>=2.17.0
 six>=1.10.0
+msgpack==0.6.1