diff --git a/tests.py b/tests.py
index 9b4b094..fd250fc 100644
--- a/tests.py
+++ b/tests.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import codecs
+import gzip
 import ujson as json
 import unittest
 from wanikaniburned import app, db, User, datetime_format, parse_range
@@ -97,8 +97,8 @@ class TestFormats(unittest.TestCase):
 
 class TestUserItems(BaseTestCase):
 
-    with codecs.open('testuserdata.json', encoding='utf-8') as input_file:
-        user_data = json.load(input_file)
+    with gzip.open("testuserdata.json.gz", "rb") as input_file:
+        user_data = json.loads(input_file.read().decode('utf8'))
         user_radicals = user_data['radicals']
         user_kanji = user_data['kanji']
         user_vocabulary = user_data['vocabulary']
diff --git a/testuserdata.json.gz b/testuserdata.json.gz
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..517d30a
Binary files /dev/null and b/testuserdata.json.gz differ