diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 2717bfd313..edd8bcd853 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ install_requires =
     matterhook==0.2
     meilisearch==0.28.3
     OpenTimelineIO==0.15.0
+    orjson==3.9.7
     pillow==10.0.1
     psutil==5.9.5
     psycopg[binary]==3.1.11
diff --git a/zou/app/__init__.py b/zou/app/__init__.py
index 3a832411e4..2dd2852471 100644
--- a/zou/app/__init__.py
+++ b/zou/app/__init__.py
@@ -29,10 +29,11 @@
 
 from zou.app.utils import cache, fs, logs
 from zou.app.utils.sentry import init_sentry
-from zou.app.utils.user_agent import ParsedUserAgent
+from zou.app.utils.flask import ParsedUserAgent, ORJSONProvider
 
 init_sentry()
 app = Flask(__name__)
+app.json = ORJSONProvider(app)
 app.request_class.user_agent_class = ParsedUserAgent
 app.config.from_object(config)
 
diff --git a/zou/app/utils/user_agent.py b/zou/app/utils/flask.py
similarity index 57%
rename from zou/app/utils/user_agent.py
rename to zou/app/utils/flask.py
index c4891c4bc0..6261d7d5e4 100644
--- a/zou/app/utils/user_agent.py
+++ b/zou/app/utils/flask.py
@@ -1,6 +1,23 @@
 from ua_parser import user_agent_parser
 from werkzeug.user_agent import UserAgent
 from werkzeug.utils import cached_property
+from flask.json.provider import JSONProvider
+import orjson
+
+
+class ORJSONProvider(JSONProvider):
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        self.options = kwargs
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+    def loads(self, s, **kwargs):
+        return orjson.loads(s)
+
+    def dumps(self, obj, **kwargs):
+        # decode back to str, as orjson returns bytes
+        return orjson.dumps(obj, option=orjson.OPT_NON_STR_KEYS).decode(
+            "utf-8"
+        )
 
 
 class ParsedUserAgent(UserAgent):
diff --git a/zou/event_stream.py b/zou/event_stream.py
index a53e5e17a4..b0d7cc3edf 100644
--- a/zou/event_stream.py
+++ b/zou/event_stream.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 from zou.app import config
 from zou.app.stores import auth_tokens_store
 from zou.app.utils.sentry import init_sentry
+from zou.app.utils.flask import ORJSONProvider
 
 server_stats = {"nb_connections": 0}
 rooms_data = {}
@@ -216,6 +217,7 @@ def create_app():
     )
     init_sentry()
     app = Flask(__name__)
+    app.json = ORJSONProvider(app)
     app.config.from_object(config)
     set_info_routes(socketio, app)
     set_application_routes(socketio, app)