diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 3e7bf2f4e3d..5f38b82e566 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/ethersphere/go-price-oracle-abi v0.1.0
 	github.com/ethersphere/go-storage-incentives-abi v0.6.0
 	github.com/ethersphere/go-sw3-abi v0.4.0
+	github.com/ethersphere/langos v1.0.0
 	github.com/go-playground/validator/v10 v10.11.1
 	github.com/gogo/protobuf v1.3.2
 	github.com/google/go-cmp v0.5.9
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index c08d1ef71bb..0afd81c3918 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -244,6 +244,8 @@ github.com/ethersphere/go-storage-incentives-abi v0.6.0 h1:lfGViU/wJg/CyXlntNvTQ
 github.com/ethersphere/go-storage-incentives-abi v0.6.0/go.mod h1:SXvJVtM4sEsaSKD0jc1ClpDLw8ErPoROZDme4Wrc/Nc=
 github.com/ethersphere/go-sw3-abi v0.4.0 h1:T3ANY+ktWrPAwe2U0tZi+DILpkHzto5ym/XwV/Bbz8g=
 github.com/ethersphere/go-sw3-abi v0.4.0/go.mod h1:BmpsvJ8idQZdYEtWnvxA8POYQ8Rl/NhyCdF0zLMOOJU=
+github.com/ethersphere/langos v1.0.0 h1:NBtNKzXTTRSue95uOlzPN4py7Aofs0xWPzyj4AI1Vcc=
+github.com/ethersphere/langos v1.0.0/go.mod h1:dlcN2j4O8sQ+BlCaxeBu43bgr4RQ+inJ+pHwLeZg5Tw=
 github.com/fatih/color v1.7.0/go.mod h1:Zm6kSWBoL9eyXnKyktHP6abPY2pDugNf5KwzbycvMj4=
 github.com/fjl/memsize v0.0.0-20190710130421-bcb5799ab5e5 h1:FtmdgXiUlNeRsoNMFlKLDt+S+6hbjVMEW6RGQ7aUf7c=
 github.com/fjl/memsize v0.0.0-20190710130421-bcb5799ab5e5/go.mod h1:VvhXpOYNQvB+uIk2RvXzuaQtkQJzzIx6lSBe1xv7hi0=
diff --git a/pkg/api/api.go b/pkg/api/api.go
index 19b0e718e70..470174c68d4 100644
--- a/pkg/api/api.go
+++ b/pkg/api/api.go
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ const (
 	SwarmRedundancyStrategyHeader     = "Swarm-Redundancy-Strategy"
 	SwarmRedundancyFallbackModeHeader = "Swarm-Redundancy-Fallback-Mode"
 	SwarmChunkRetrievalTimeoutHeader  = "Swarm-Chunk-Retrieval-Timeout"
+	SwarmLookAheadBufferSizeHeader    = "Swarm-Lookahead-Buffer-Size"
 
 	ImmutableHeader = "Immutable"
 	GasPriceHeader  = "Gas-Price"
diff --git a/pkg/api/bzz.go b/pkg/api/bzz.go
index fc5b5ec56be..f94de54ae4b 100644
--- a/pkg/api/bzz.go
+++ b/pkg/api/bzz.go
@@ -31,9 +31,29 @@ import (
 	"github.com/ethersphere/bee/pkg/swarm"
 	"github.com/ethersphere/bee/pkg/topology"
 	"github.com/ethersphere/bee/pkg/tracing"
+	"github.com/ethersphere/langos"
 	"github.com/gorilla/mux"
 )
 
+// The size of buffer used for prefetching content with Langos when not using erasure coding
+// Warning: This value influences the number of chunk requests and chunker join goroutines
+// per file request.
+// Recommended value is 8 or 16 times the io.Copy default buffer value which is 32kB, depending
+// on the file size. Use lookaheadBufferSize() to get the correct buffer size for the request.
+const (
+	smallFileBufferSize = 8 * 32 * 1024
+	largeFileBufferSize = 16 * 32 * 1024
+
+	largeBufferFilesizeThreshold = 10 * 1000000 // ten megs
+)
+
+func lookaheadBufferSize(size int64) int {
+	if size <= largeBufferFilesizeThreshold {
+		return smallFileBufferSize
+	}
+	return largeFileBufferSize
+}
+
 func (s *Service) bzzUploadHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	logger := tracing.NewLoggerWithTraceID(r.Context(), s.logger.WithName("post_bzz").Build())
 
@@ -275,6 +295,7 @@ func (s *Service) serveReference(logger log.Logger, address swarm.Address, pathV
 		Strategy              getter.Strategy `map:"Swarm-Redundancy-Strategy"`
 		FallbackMode          bool            `map:"Swarm-Redundancy-Fallback-Mode"`
 		ChunkRetrievalTimeout string          `map:"Swarm-Chunk-Retrieval-Timeout"`
+		LookaheadBufferSize   string          `map:"Swarm-Lookahead-Buffer-Size"`
 	}{}
 
 	if response := s.mapStructure(r.Header, &headers); response != nil {
@@ -464,6 +485,7 @@ func (s *Service) downloadHandler(logger log.Logger, w http.ResponseWriter, r *h
 		Strategy              getter.Strategy `map:"Swarm-Redundancy-Strategy"`
 		FallbackMode          bool            `map:"Swarm-Redundancy-Fallback-Mode"`
 		ChunkRetrievalTimeout string          `map:"Swarm-Chunk-Retrieval-Timeout"`
+		LookaheadBufferSize   *string         `map:"Swarm-Lookahead-Buffer-Size"`
 	}{}
 
 	if response := s.mapStructure(r.Header, &headers); response != nil {
@@ -500,9 +522,18 @@ func (s *Service) downloadHandler(logger log.Logger, w http.ResponseWriter, r *h
 	}
 	w.Header().Set(ContentLengthHeader, strconv.FormatInt(l, 10))
 	w.Header().Set("Access-Control-Expose-Headers", ContentDispositionHeader)
+	bufSize := int64(lookaheadBufferSize(l))
+	if headers.LookaheadBufferSize != nil {
+		bufSize, err = strconv.ParseInt(*headers.LookaheadBufferSize, 10, 64)
+		if err != nil {
+			logger.Debug("parsing lookahead buffer size", "error", err)
+			bufSize = 0
+		}
+	}
+	if bufSize > 0 {
+		http.ServeContent(w, r, "", time.Now(), langos.NewBufferedLangos(reader, int(bufSize)))
+	}
 	http.ServeContent(w, r, "", time.Now(), reader)
-	// NOTE: temporary workaround for testing, watch this...
-	// http.ServeContent(w, r, "", time.Now(), langos.NewBufferedLangos(reader, lookaheadBufferSize(l)))
 }
 
 // manifestMetadataLoad returns the value for a key stored in the metadata of
diff --git a/pkg/api/bzz_test.go b/pkg/api/bzz_test.go
index edf90a78c48..634d4eb0166 100644
--- a/pkg/api/bzz_test.go
+++ b/pkg/api/bzz_test.go
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ func TestBzzUploadDownloadWithRedundancy(t *testing.T) {
 				fileDownloadResource(refResponse.Reference.String()),
 				http.StatusPartialContent,
 				jsonhttptest.WithRequestHeader(api.RangeHeader, rangeHeader),
+				jsonhttptest.WithRequestHeader(api.SwarmLookAheadBufferSizeHeader, "0"),
 				// set for the replicas so that no replica gets deleted
 				jsonhttptest.WithRequestHeader(api.SwarmRedundancyLevelHeader, "0"),
 				jsonhttptest.WithRequestHeader(api.SwarmRedundancyStrategyHeader, "0"),