diff --git a/sieval/datasets/downloaders/url.py b/sieval/datasets/downloaders/url.py
index 8764fd4d..db1b40a1 100644
--- a/sieval/datasets/downloaders/url.py
+++ b/sieval/datasets/downloaders/url.py
@@ -35,16 +35,19 @@ def download(
             with httpx.stream("GET", url, timeout=_TIMEOUT, follow_redirects=True) as r:
                 r.raise_for_status()
                 # Catches 2xx responses that dropped the connection mid-stream.
+                # Compare against on-the-wire bytes, not bytes written: when the
+                # server sends Content-Encoding (e.g. gzip), Content-Length is the
+                # compressed size while iter_bytes() yields the larger decompressed
+                # body, so comparing written bytes would falsely flag truncation.
                 expected = _parse_content_length(r.headers.get("content-length"))
-                written = 0
                 with tmp.open("wb") as f:
                     for chunk in r.iter_bytes(chunk_size=1 << 16):
                         f.write(chunk)
-                        written += len(chunk)
-                if expected is not None and written != expected:
+                received = r.num_bytes_downloaded
+                if expected is not None and received != expected:
                     raise RuntimeError(
-                        f"truncated download from {url}: "
-                        f"Content-Length={expected} but wrote {written} bytes"
+                        f"size mismatch on download from {url}: "
+                        f"Content-Length={expected} but received {received} bytes"
                     )
             tmp.replace(target)
         except BaseException:
diff --git a/tests/unit/datasets/downloaders/test_url.py b/tests/unit/datasets/downloaders/test_url.py
index 1bcdd3f1..3593b47b 100644
--- a/tests/unit/datasets/downloaders/test_url.py
+++ b/tests/unit/datasets/downloaders/test_url.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ def test_download_uses_per_phase_timeout(tmp_path):
         mock_resp = MagicMock()
         mock_resp.iter_bytes.return_value = [b"x"]
         mock_resp.raise_for_status.return_value = None
+        mock_resp.num_bytes_downloaded = 1
         mock_stream.return_value.__enter__.return_value = mock_resp
         h.download("url:https://example.com/foo.csv", tmp_path, "foo", force=False)
     timeout_arg = mock_stream.call_args.kwargs.get("timeout")
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ def test_download_writes_file_at_basename(tmp_path):
         mock_resp.iter_bytes.return_value = [b"hello"]
         mock_resp.raise_for_status.return_value = None
         mock_resp.headers = {"content-length": "5"}
+        mock_resp.num_bytes_downloaded = 5
         mock_stream.return_value.__enter__.return_value = mock_resp
         h.download(
             "url:https://example.com/foo.csv",
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ def test_download_force_redownloads(tmp_path):
         mock_resp.iter_bytes.return_value = [b"fresh"]
         mock_resp.raise_for_status.return_value = None
         mock_resp.headers = {"content-length": "5"}
+        mock_resp.num_bytes_downloaded = 5
         mock_stream.return_value.__enter__.return_value = mock_resp
         h.download(
             "url:https://example.com/foo.csv",
@@ -103,8 +106,9 @@ def test_download_rejects_truncated_stream(tmp_path):
         mock_resp.iter_bytes.return_value = [b"abc"]
         mock_resp.raise_for_status.return_value = None
         mock_resp.headers = {"content-length": "100"}
+        mock_resp.num_bytes_downloaded = 3  # connection died after 3 raw bytes
         mock_stream.return_value.__enter__.return_value = mock_resp
-        with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="truncated download"):
+        with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="size mismatch"):
             h.download(
                 "url:https://example.com/foo.csv",
                 dest_root=tmp_path,
@@ -116,6 +120,34 @@ def test_download_rejects_truncated_stream(tmp_path):
     assert not (tmp_path / "foo" / "foo.csv.partial").exists()
 
 
+def test_download_accepts_compressed_response(tmp_path):
+    """Server sends Content-Encoding (e.g. gzip): Content-Length is the
+    compressed size while iter_bytes() yields the larger decompressed body.
+    The check must compare on-the-wire bytes (num_bytes_downloaded) against
+    Content-Length, not the decompressed bytes written — otherwise every
+    compressed download falsely trips the truncation guard.
+
+    Regression: RULER's SQuAD source (dev-v2.0.json) is gzip-served;
+    Content-Length=800683 but the decoded body is ~4.4MB, which the old
+    written-bytes check rejected."""
+    h = URLHandler()
+    with patch("sieval.datasets.downloaders.url.httpx.stream") as mock_stream:
+        mock_resp = MagicMock()
+        # Decompressed body is far larger than the compressed Content-Length.
+        mock_resp.iter_bytes.return_value = [b"x" * 42, b"y" * 42]
+        mock_resp.raise_for_status.return_value = None
+        mock_resp.headers = {"content-length": "9", "content-encoding": "gzip"}
+        mock_resp.num_bytes_downloaded = 9  # raw compressed bytes on the wire
+        mock_stream.return_value.__enter__.return_value = mock_resp
+        h.download(
+            "url:https://example.com/foo.json",
+            dest_root=tmp_path,
+            dataset_name="foo",
+            force=False,
+        )
+    assert (tmp_path / "foo" / "foo.json").read_bytes() == b"x" * 42 + b"y" * 42
+
+
 def test_download_accepts_missing_content_length(tmp_path):
     """Chunked transfer-encoded responses often omit Content-Length. The
     truncation check must degrade gracefully rather than reject every