diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index be3a90c..ca90ce6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -59,10 +59,10 @@ jobs:
     steps:
     - name: Install optional tools macOS
       if: runner.os == 'macOS' && matrix.optional-deps
-      run: brew install pigz pbzip2 isa-l zstd
+      run: brew install pigz pbzip2 isa-l zstd lz4
     - name: Install optional tools Linux
       if: runner.os == 'Linux' && matrix.optional-deps
-      run: sudo apt-get install pigz pbzip2 isal zstd
+      run: sudo apt-get install pigz pbzip2 isal zstd lz4
     - name: Remove xz
       if: runner.os == 'Linux' && !matrix.optional-deps
       run: while which xz; do sudo rm $(which xz); done
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index b1039f0..1a9dc24 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ Supported compression formats are:
 - gzip (``.gz``)
 - bzip2 (``.bz2``)
 - xz (``.xz``)
+- lz4 (``.lz4``)
 - Zstandard (``.zst``) (optional)
 
 ``xopen`` is compatible with Python versions 3.8 and later.
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@ The function opens the file using a function suitable for the detected
 file format and returns an open file-like object.
 
 When writing, the file format is chosen based on the file name extension:
-``.gz``, ``.bz2``, ``.xz``, ``.zst``. This can be overriden with ``format``.
+``.gz``, ``.bz2``, ``.xz``, ``.zst``, ``.lz4``. This can be overriden with ``format``.
 If the extension is not recognized, no compression is used.
 
 When reading and a file name extension is available, the format is detected
@@ -101,13 +102,13 @@ preferred locale encoding.
 **compresslevel**:
 The compression level for writing to gzip, xz and Zstandard files.
 If set to None, a default depending on the format is used:
-gzip: 1, xz: 6, Zstandard: 3.
+gzip: 1, xz: 6, Zstandard: 3, lz4: 1.
 
 This parameter is ignored for other compression formats.
 
 **format**:
 Override the autodetection of the input or output format.
-Possible values are: ``"gz"``, ``"xz"``, ``"bz2"``, ``"zst"``.
+Possible values are: ``"gz"``, ``"xz"``, ``"bz2"``, ``"zst"``, ``"lz4"``.
 
 **threads**:
 Set the number of additional threads spawned for compression or decompression.
@@ -140,6 +141,9 @@ built-in support for multithreaded compression.
 
 For bz2 files, `pbzip2 (parallel bzip2) <http://compression.great-site.net/pbzip2/>`_ is used.
 
+For lz4 files, [python lz4](https://python-lz4.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html)
+package is used.
+
 ``xopen`` falls back to Python’s built-in functions
 (``gzip.open``, ``lzma.open``, ``bz2.open``)
 if none of the other methods can be used.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 5522cd7..42b281b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ requires-python = ">=3.8"
 dynamic = ["version"]
 dependencies = [
     'isal>=1.6.1; platform.machine == "x86_64" or platform.machine == "AMD64" or platform.machine == "aarch64"',
-    'zlib-ng>=0.4.1; platform.machine == "x86_64" or platform.machine == "AMD64" or platform.machine == "aarch64"'
+    'zlib-ng>=0.4.1; platform.machine == "x86_64" or platform.machine == "AMD64" or platform.machine == "aarch64"',
+    'lz4>4.3.1'
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
diff --git a/src/xopen/__init__.py b/src/xopen/__init__.py
index 89f5137..472e1b1 100644
--- a/src/xopen/__init__.py
+++ b/src/xopen/__init__.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 XOPEN_DEFAULT_BZ2_COMPRESSION = 9
 XOPEN_DEFAULT_XZ_COMPRESSION = 6
 XOPEN_DEFAULT_ZST_COMPRESSION = 3
+XOPEN_DEFAULT_LZ4_COMPRESSION = 0
 
 igzip: Optional[ModuleType]
 isal_zlib: Optional[ModuleType]
@@ -70,6 +71,11 @@
 except ImportError:
     zstandard = None  # type: ignore
 
+try:
+    import lz4.frame  # type: ignore
+except ImportError:
+    lz4 = None
+
 try:
     import fcntl
 
@@ -120,6 +126,7 @@ class _ProgramSettings:
     "zstd": _ProgramSettings(("zstd",), tuple(range(1, 20)), "-T"),
     "pigz": _ProgramSettings(("pigz", "--no-name"), tuple(range(0, 10)) + (11,), "-p"),
     "gzip": _ProgramSettings(("gzip", "--no-name"), tuple(range(1, 10))),
+    "lz4": _ProgramSettings(("lz4",), tuple(range(0, 17))),
 }
 
 
@@ -551,6 +558,36 @@ def _open_zst(
     return io.BufferedWriter(f)  # mode "ab" and "wb"
 
 
+def _open_lz4(
+    filename: FileOrPath,
+    mode: str,
+    compresslevel: Optional[int],
+    threads: Optional[int],
+):
+    assert mode in ("rb", "ab", "wb")
+    if compresslevel is None:
+        compresslevel = XOPEN_DEFAULT_LZ4_COMPRESSION
+
+    if threads != 0:
+        try:
+            return _PipedCompressionProgram(
+                filename,
+                mode,
+                compresslevel,
+                threads,
+                program_settings=_PROGRAM_SETTINGS["lz4"],
+            )
+        except OSError:
+            if lz4 is None:
+                # No fallback available
+                raise
+
+    if lz4 is None:
+        raise ImportError("lz4 module not available")
+    f = lz4.frame.LZ4FrameFile(filename, mode, compression_level=compresslevel)
+    return f
+
+
 def _open_gz(
     filename: FileOrPath,
     mode: str,
@@ -683,6 +720,10 @@ def _detect_format_from_content(filename: FileOrPath) -> Optional[str]:
         elif bs[:4] == b"\x28\xb5\x2f\xfd":
             # https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8478#section-3.1.1
             return "zst"
+        elif bs[:4] == b"\x04\x22\x4d\x18":
+            # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ4_(compression_algorithm)
+            return "lz4"
+
         return None
     finally:
         if closefd:
@@ -694,7 +735,7 @@ def _detect_format_from_extension(filename: Union[str, bytes]) -> Optional[str]:
     Attempt to detect file format from the filename extension.
     Return None if no format could be detected.
     """
-    for ext in ("bz2", "xz", "gz", "zst"):
+    for ext in ("bz2", "xz", "gz", "zst", "lz4"):
         if isinstance(filename, bytes):
             if filename.endswith(b"." + ext.encode()):
                 return ext
@@ -717,7 +758,7 @@ def _file_or_path_to_binary_stream(
         # object is not binary, this will crash at a later point.
         return file_or_path, False  # type: ignore
     raise TypeError(
-        f"Unsupported type for {file_or_path}, " f"{file_or_path.__class__.__name__}."
+        f"Unsupported type for {file_or_path}, {file_or_path.__class__.__name__}."
     )
 
 
@@ -797,6 +838,7 @@ def xopen(  # noqa: C901
     - .bz2 uses bzip2 compression
     - .xz uses xz/lzma compression
     - .zst uses zstandard compression
+    - .lz4 uses lz4 compression
     - otherwise, no compression is used
 
     When reading, if a file name extension is available, the format is detected
@@ -808,7 +850,7 @@ def xopen(  # noqa: C901
     compresslevel is the compression level for writing to gzip, xz and zst files.
     This parameter is ignored for the other compression formats.
     If set to None, a default depending on the format is used:
-    gzip: 6, xz: 6, zstd: 3.
+    gzip: 6, xz: 6, zstd: 3, lz4: 0.
 
     When threads is None (the default), compressed file formats are read or written
     using a pipe to a subprocess running an external tool such as,
@@ -828,7 +870,7 @@ def xopen(  # noqa: C901
 
     format overrides the autodetection of input and output formats. This can be
     useful when compressed output needs to be written to a file without an
-    extension. Possible values are "gz", "xz", "bz2", "zst".
+    extension. Possible values are "gz", "xz", "bz2", "zst", "lz4".
     """
     if mode in ("r", "w", "a"):
         mode += "t"  # type: ignore
@@ -844,10 +886,10 @@ def xopen(  # noqa: C901
     elif _file_is_a_socket_or_pipe(filename):
         filename = open(filename, binary_mode)  # type: ignore
 
-    if format not in (None, "gz", "xz", "bz2", "zst"):
+    if format not in (None, "gz", "xz", "bz2", "zst", "lz4"):
         raise ValueError(
             f"Format not supported: {format}. "
-            f"Choose one of: 'gz', 'xz', 'bz2', 'zst'"
+            f"Choose one of: 'gz', 'xz', 'bz2', 'zst', 'lz4'."
         )
     detected_format = format or _detect_format_from_extension(filepath)
     if detected_format is None and "r" in mode:
@@ -861,6 +903,8 @@ def xopen(  # noqa: C901
         opened_file = _open_bz2(filename, binary_mode, compresslevel, threads)
     elif detected_format == "zst":
         opened_file = _open_zst(filename, binary_mode, compresslevel, threads)
+    elif detected_format == "lz4":
+        opened_file = _open_lz4(filename, binary_mode, compresslevel, threads)
     else:
         opened_file, _ = _file_or_path_to_binary_stream(filename, binary_mode)
 
diff --git a/tests/file.txt.lz4 b/tests/file.txt.lz4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b2ed80
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/file.txt.lz4 differ
diff --git a/tests/test_piped.py b/tests/test_piped.py
index 9f8afbe..eba903f 100644
--- a/tests/test_piped.py
+++ b/tests/test_piped.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     _ProgramSettings,
 )
 
-extensions = ["", ".gz", ".bz2", ".xz", ".zst"]
+extensions = ["", ".gz", ".bz2", ".xz", ".zst", ".lz4"]
 
 try:
     import fcntl
@@ -57,16 +57,24 @@ def available_zstd_programs():
     return []
 
 
+def available_lz4_programs():
+    if shutil.which("lz4"):
+        return [_PROGRAM_SETTINGS["lz4"]]
+    return []
+
+
 PIPED_GZIP_PROGRAMS = available_gzip_programs()
 PIPED_BZIP2_PROGRAMS = available_bzip2_programs()
 PIPED_XZ_PROGRAMS = available_xz_programs()
 PIPED_ZST_PROGRAMS = available_zstd_programs()
+PIPED_LZ4_PROGRAMS = available_lz4_programs()
 
 ALL_PROGRAMS_WITH_EXTENSION = (
     list(zip(PIPED_GZIP_PROGRAMS, cycle([".gz"])))
     + list(zip(PIPED_BZIP2_PROGRAMS, cycle([".bz2"])))
     + list(zip(PIPED_XZ_PROGRAMS, cycle([".xz"])))
     + list(zip(PIPED_ZST_PROGRAMS, cycle([".zst"])))
+    + list(zip(PIPED_LZ4_PROGRAMS, cycle([".lz4"])))
 )
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_xopen.py b/tests/test_xopen.py
index 86234bc..31562df 100644
--- a/tests/test_xopen.py
+++ b/tests/test_xopen.py
@@ -2,33 +2,33 @@
 Tests for the xopen.xopen function
 """
 import bz2
-import subprocess
-import sys
-import tempfile
-from contextlib import contextmanager
 import functools
 import gzip
 import io
 import lzma
 import os
-from pathlib import Path
 import shutil
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+from contextlib import contextmanager
+from pathlib import Path
 
+import lz4.frame
 import pytest
 
-from xopen import xopen, _detect_format_from_content
+from xopen import _detect_format_from_content, xopen
 
 try:
     import zstandard
 except ImportError:
     zstandard = None
 
-
 # TODO this is duplicated in test_piped.py
 TEST_DIR = Path(__file__).parent
 CONTENT_LINES = ["Testing, testing ...\n", "The second line.\n"]
 CONTENT = "".join(CONTENT_LINES)
-extensions = ["", ".gz", ".bz2", ".xz"]
+extensions = ["", ".gz", ".bz2", ".xz", ".lz4"]
 if shutil.which("zstd") or zstandard:
     extensions += [".zst"]
 base = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "file.txt")
@@ -351,6 +351,7 @@ def test_read_no_threads(ext):
         ".gz": gzip.GzipFile,
         ".xz": lzma.LZMAFile,
         ".zst": io.BufferedReader,
+        ".lz4": lz4.frame.LZ4FrameFile,
         "": io.BufferedReader,
     }
     if ext == ".zst" and zstandard is None:
@@ -381,6 +382,7 @@ def test_write_no_threads(tmp_path, ext):
         ".bz2": bz2.BZ2File,
         ".gz": gzip.GzipFile,
         ".xz": lzma.LZMAFile,
+        ".lz4": lz4.frame.LZ4FrameFile,
         "": io.BufferedWriter,
     }
     if ext == ".zst":
@@ -599,7 +601,6 @@ def test_xopen_zst_long_window_size(threads):
 def test_pass_file_object_for_reading(ext, threads):
     if ext == ".zst" and zstandard is None:
         return
-
     with open(TEST_DIR / f"file.txt{ext}", "rb") as fh:
         with xopen(fh, mode="rb", threads=threads) as f:
             assert f.readline() == CONTENT_LINES[0].encode("utf-8")