diff --git a/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/mod.rs b/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/mod.rs
index 438c740..fb47957 100644
--- a/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/mod.rs
+++ b/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/mod.rs
@@ -25,14 +25,16 @@ pub enum Compression {
 	/// as specified in RFC 1951. Note that this format (unlike the "zlib
 	/// format" in RFC 1950) does not have a checksum.
 	Deflate {
-		/// Deflate compression level to use
+		/// Deflate compression level to use (1-9 or
+		/// [`CompressionLevel::default()`])
 		level: CompressionLevel,
 	},
 	#[cfg(feature = "bzip2")]
 	/// The `BZip2` codec uses [BZip2](https://sourceware.org/bzip2/)
 	/// compression library.
 	Bzip2 {
-		/// BZip2 compression level to use
+		/// BZip2 compression level to use (1-9 or
+		/// [`CompressionLevel::default()`])
 		level: CompressionLevel,
 	},
 	#[cfg(feature = "snappy")]
@@ -44,14 +46,16 @@ pub enum Compression {
 	/// The `Xz` codec uses [Xz utils](https://tukaani.org/xz/)
 	/// compression library.
 	Xz {
-		/// Xz compression level to use
+		/// Xz compression level to use (1-9 or
+		/// [`CompressionLevel::default()`])
 		level: CompressionLevel,
 	},
 	#[cfg(feature = "zstandard")]
 	/// The `zstandard` codec uses Facebook’s [Zstandard](https://facebook.github.io/zstd/)
 	/// compression library
 	Zstandard {
-		/// Zstandard compression level to use
+		/// Zstandard compression level to use (1-22 or
+		/// [`CompressionLevel::default()`])
 		level: CompressionLevel,
 	},
 }
@@ -68,15 +72,36 @@ impl CompressionLevel {
 	/// Specifies the compression level that will be used for the compression
 	/// algorithms
 	///
+	/// # Default value
+	/// All algorithms have a default compression level configured
+	/// that may be used by instantiating [`CompressionLevel::default()`].
+	///
+	/// Use [`CompressionLevel::new`] if you want to specify a specific
+	/// compression level.
+	///
+	/// # Clipping
+	/// Depending on the algorithm that will be used, `level` may get clipped
+	/// into the appropriate range (e.g. set to `9` if higher than `9`).
+	///
+	/// This is done to ensure that the compression level is always within the
+	/// valid range for the algorithm.
+	///
+	/// See the [`Compression`] enum for the effective ranges for each
+	/// algorithm.
+	///
 	/// # Panics
-	/// If `level` is lower than `1` or greater than `9`
+	/// If `level` is lower than `1`
 	///
-	/// This is because all algorithms expect compression levels between `1`
-	/// ("fast compression") and `9` ("take as long as you'd like").
-	pub const fn new(level: u8) -> Self {
+	/// This is because compression level 0 means "actually don't compress" for
+	/// most algorithms, and in that case one should just use
+	/// [`Compression::Null`] instead.
+	pub const fn new(mut level: u8) -> Self {
+		if level == u8::MAX {
+			level -= 1;
+		}
 		match NonZeroU8::new(level) {
-			Some(n) if n.get() < 10 => Self { repr: n },
-			_ => panic!("Compression level must be between 1 and 9"),
+			Some(n) => Self { repr: n },
+			None => panic!("Compression level must be greater than 0"),
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -90,6 +115,18 @@ impl CompressionLevel {
 		}
 	}
 
+	#[allow(unused)]
+	/// may be unused depending on which compression codecs features are enabled
+	fn clip(mut self, high: u8) -> Self {
+		if self.repr.get() != u8::MAX {
+			self.repr = self.repr.min(NonZeroU8::new(high).expect(
+				"Highest compression level for \
+					algorithm should be greater than zero",
+			))
+		}
+		self
+	}
+
 	#[allow(unused)]
 	/// may be unused depending on which compression codecs features are enabled
 	fn instantiate<T: Default, C: From<u8>, F: FnOnce(C) -> T>(self, f: F) -> T {
diff --git a/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/writer/compression.rs b/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/writer/compression.rs
index c076022..9941348 100644
--- a/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/writer/compression.rs
+++ b/serde_avro_fast/src/object_container_file_encoding/writer/compression.rs
@@ -14,22 +14,33 @@ impl CompressionCodecState {
 				#[cfg(feature = "deflate")]
 				Compression::Deflate { level } => Kind::Deflate {
 					compress: flate2::Compress::new(
-						level.instantiate(flate2::Compression::new),
+						level.clip(9).instantiate(flate2::Compression::new),
 						false,
 					),
 				},
 				#[cfg(feature = "bzip2")]
-				Compression::Bzip2 { level } => Kind::Bzip2 { len: 0, level },
+				Compression::Bzip2 { level } => Kind::Bzip2 {
+					len: 0,
+					level: level.clip(9),
+				},
 				#[cfg(feature = "snappy")]
 				Compression::Snappy => Kind::Snappy {
 					encoder: snap::raw::Encoder::new(),
 				},
 				#[cfg(feature = "xz")]
-				Compression::Xz { level } => Kind::Xz { len: 0, level },
+				Compression::Xz { level } => Kind::Xz {
+					len: 0,
+					level: level.clip(9),
+				},
 				#[cfg(feature = "zstandard")]
 				Compression::Zstandard { level } => Kind::Zstandard {
 					compressor: None,
-					level,
+					level: level.clip(
+						(*zstd::compression_level_range().end())
+							.max(0)
+							.try_into()
+							.unwrap_or(u8::MAX - 1),
+					),
 				},
 			},
 		}