diff --git a/History.md b/History.md
index 35259befeea..2410810d337 100644
--- a/History.md
+++ b/History.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ unreleased
 ==========
 
   * Add `express.raw` to parse bodies into `Buffer`
+  * Add `express.text` to parse bodies into string
   * Improve error message for non-strings to `res.sendFile`
   * Improve error message for `null`/`undefined` to `res.status`
   * Support multiple hosts in `X-Forwarded-Host`
diff --git a/lib/express.js b/lib/express.js
index f618ccc125a..d188a16db70 100644
--- a/lib/express.js
+++ b/lib/express.js
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ exports.json = bodyParser.json
 exports.query = require('./middleware/query');
 exports.raw = bodyParser.raw
 exports.static = require('serve-static');
+exports.text = bodyParser.text
 exports.urlencoded = bodyParser.urlencoded
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/exports.js b/test/exports.js
index f43df44c34c..7624a8c8641 100644
--- a/test/exports.js
+++ b/test/exports.js
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ describe('exports', function(){
     assert.equal(express.static.length, 2)
   })
 
+  it('should expose text middleware', function () {
+    assert.equal(typeof express.text, 'function')
+    assert.equal(express.text.length, 1)
+  })
+
   it('should expose urlencoded middleware', function () {
     assert.equal(typeof express.urlencoded, 'function')
     assert.equal(express.urlencoded.length, 1)
diff --git a/test/express.text.js b/test/express.text.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7c92f90e5aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/express.text.js
@@ -0,0 +1,441 @@
+
+var assert = require('assert')
+var Buffer = require('safe-buffer').Buffer
+var express = require('..')
+var request = require('supertest')
+
+describe('express.text()', function () {
+  before(function () {
+    this.app = createApp()
+  })
+
+  it('should parse text/plain', function (done) {
+    request(this.app)
+      .post('/')
+      .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      .send('user is tobi')
+      .expect(200, '"user is tobi"', done)
+  })
+
+  it('should 400 when invalid content-length', function (done) {
+    var app = express()
+
+    app.use(function (req, res, next) {
+      req.headers['content-length'] = '20' // bad length
+      next()
+    })
+
+    app.use(express.text())
+
+    app.post('/', function (req, res) {
+      res.json(req.body)
+    })
+
+    request(app)
+      .post('/')
+      .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      .send('user')
+      .expect(400, /content length/, done)
+  })
+
+  it('should handle Content-Length: 0', function (done) {
+    request(createApp({ limit: '1kb' }))
+      .post('/')
+      .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      .set('Content-Length', '0')
+      .expect(200, '""', done)
+  })
+
+  it('should handle empty message-body', function (done) {
+    request(createApp({ limit: '1kb' }))
+      .post('/')
+      .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      .set('Transfer-Encoding', 'chunked')
+      .send('')
+      .expect(200, '""', done)
+  })
+
+  it('should handle duplicated middleware', function (done) {
+    var app = express()
+
+    app.use(express.text())
+    app.use(express.text())
+
+    app.post('/', function (req, res) {
+      res.json(req.body)
+    })
+
+    request(app)
+      .post('/')
+      .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      .send('user is tobi')
+      .expect(200, '"user is tobi"', done)
+  })
+
+  describe('with defaultCharset option', function () {
+    it('should change default charset', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ defaultCharset: 'koi8-r' })
+      var test = request(app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320cec5d4', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is нет"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should honor content-type charset', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ defaultCharset: 'koi8-r' })
+      var test = request(app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('with limit option', function () {
+    it('should 413 when over limit with Content-Length', function (done) {
+      var buf = Buffer.alloc(1028, '.')
+      request(createApp({ limit: '1kb' }))
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .set('Content-Length', '1028')
+        .send(buf.toString())
+        .expect(413, done)
+    })
+
+    it('should 413 when over limit with chunked encoding', function (done) {
+      var buf = Buffer.alloc(1028, '.')
+      var app = createApp({ limit: '1kb' })
+      var test = request(app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.set('Transfer-Encoding', 'chunked')
+      test.write(buf.toString())
+      test.expect(413, done)
+    })
+
+    it('should accept number of bytes', function (done) {
+      var buf = Buffer.alloc(1028, '.')
+      request(createApp({ limit: 1024 }))
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .send(buf.toString())
+        .expect(413, done)
+    })
+
+    it('should not change when options altered', function (done) {
+      var buf = Buffer.alloc(1028, '.')
+      var options = { limit: '1kb' }
+      var app = createApp(options)
+
+      options.limit = '100kb'
+
+      request(app)
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .send(buf.toString())
+        .expect(413, done)
+    })
+
+    it('should not hang response', function (done) {
+      var buf = Buffer.alloc(10240, '.')
+      var app = createApp({ limit: '8kb' })
+      var test = request(app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(buf)
+      test.write(buf)
+      test.write(buf)
+      test.expect(413, done)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('with inflate option', function () {
+    describe('when false', function () {
+      before(function () {
+        this.app = createApp({ inflate: false })
+      })
+
+      it('should not accept content-encoding', function (done) {
+        var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+        test.set('Content-Encoding', 'gzip')
+        test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        test.write(Buffer.from('1f8b080000000000000bcb4bcc4d55c82c5678b16e170072b3e0200b000000', 'hex'))
+        test.expect(415, 'content encoding unsupported', done)
+      })
+    })
+
+    describe('when true', function () {
+      before(function () {
+        this.app = createApp({ inflate: true })
+      })
+
+      it('should accept content-encoding', function (done) {
+        var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+        test.set('Content-Encoding', 'gzip')
+        test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        test.write(Buffer.from('1f8b080000000000000bcb4bcc4d55c82c5678b16e170072b3e0200b000000', 'hex'))
+        test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+      })
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('with type option', function () {
+    describe('when "text/html"', function () {
+      before(function () {
+        this.app = createApp({ type: 'text/html' })
+      })
+
+      it('should parse for custom type', function (done) {
+        request(this.app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/html')
+          .send('<b>tobi</b>')
+          .expect(200, '"<b>tobi</b>"', done)
+      })
+
+      it('should ignore standard type', function (done) {
+        request(this.app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+          .send('user is tobi')
+          .expect(200, '{}', done)
+      })
+    })
+
+    describe('when ["text/html", "text/plain"]', function () {
+      before(function () {
+        this.app = createApp({ type: ['text/html', 'text/plain'] })
+      })
+
+      it('should parse "text/html"', function (done) {
+        request(this.app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/html')
+          .send('<b>tobi</b>')
+          .expect(200, '"<b>tobi</b>"', done)
+      })
+
+      it('should parse "text/plain"', function (done) {
+        request(this.app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+          .send('tobi')
+          .expect(200, '"tobi"', done)
+      })
+
+      it('should ignore "text/xml"', function (done) {
+        request(this.app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/xml')
+          .send('<user>tobi</user>')
+          .expect(200, '{}', done)
+      })
+    })
+
+    describe('when a function', function () {
+      it('should parse when truthy value returned', function (done) {
+        var app = createApp({ type: accept })
+
+        function accept (req) {
+          return req.headers['content-type'] === 'text/vnd.something'
+        }
+
+        request(app)
+          .post('/')
+          .set('Content-Type', 'text/vnd.something')
+          .send('user is tobi')
+          .expect(200, '"user is tobi"', done)
+      })
+
+      it('should work without content-type', function (done) {
+        var app = createApp({ type: accept })
+
+        function accept (req) {
+          return true
+        }
+
+        var test = request(app).post('/')
+        test.write('user is tobi')
+        test.expect(200, '"user is tobi"', done)
+      })
+
+      it('should not invoke without a body', function (done) {
+        var app = createApp({ type: accept })
+
+        function accept (req) {
+          throw new Error('oops!')
+        }
+
+        request(app)
+          .get('/')
+          .expect(404, done)
+      })
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('with verify option', function () {
+    it('should assert value is function', function () {
+      assert.throws(createApp.bind(null, { verify: 'lol' }),
+        /TypeError: option verify must be function/)
+    })
+
+    it('should error from verify', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ verify: function (req, res, buf) {
+        if (buf[0] === 0x20) throw new Error('no leading space')
+      } })
+
+      request(app)
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .send(' user is tobi')
+        .expect(403, 'no leading space', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should allow custom codes', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ verify: function (req, res, buf) {
+        if (buf[0] !== 0x20) return
+        var err = new Error('no leading space')
+        err.status = 400
+        throw err
+      } })
+
+      request(app)
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .send(' user is tobi')
+        .expect(400, 'no leading space', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should allow pass-through', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ verify: function (req, res, buf) {
+        if (buf[0] === 0x20) throw new Error('no leading space')
+      } })
+
+      request(app)
+        .post('/')
+        .set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+        .send('user is tobi')
+        .expect(200, '"user is tobi"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should 415 on unknown charset prior to verify', function (done) {
+      var app = createApp({ verify: function (req, res, buf) {
+        throw new Error('unexpected verify call')
+      } })
+
+      var test = request(app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=x-bogus')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('00000000', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(415, 'unsupported charset "X-BOGUS"', done)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('charset', function () {
+    before(function () {
+      this.app = createApp()
+    })
+
+    it('should parse utf-8', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should parse codepage charsets', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=koi8-r')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320cec5d4', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is нет"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should parse when content-length != char length', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
+      test.set('Content-Length', '11')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should default to utf-8', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should 415 on unknown charset', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=x-bogus')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('00000000', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(415, 'unsupported charset "X-BOGUS"', done)
+    })
+  })
+
+  describe('encoding', function () {
+    before(function () {
+      this.app = createApp({ limit: '10kb' })
+    })
+
+    it('should parse without encoding', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should support identity encoding', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Encoding', 'identity')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('6e616d6520697320e8aeba', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should support gzip encoding', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Encoding', 'gzip')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('1f8b080000000000000bcb4bcc4d55c82c5678b16e170072b3e0200b000000', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should support deflate encoding', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Encoding', 'deflate')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('789ccb4bcc4d55c82c5678b16e17001a6f050e', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should be case-insensitive', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Encoding', 'GZIP')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('1f8b080000000000000bcb4bcc4d55c82c5678b16e170072b3e0200b000000', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(200, '"name is 论"', done)
+    })
+
+    it('should fail on unknown encoding', function (done) {
+      var test = request(this.app).post('/')
+      test.set('Content-Encoding', 'nulls')
+      test.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
+      test.write(Buffer.from('000000000000', 'hex'))
+      test.expect(415, 'unsupported content encoding "nulls"', done)
+    })
+  })
+})
+
+function createApp (options) {
+  var app = express()
+
+  app.use(express.text(options))
+
+  app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
+    res.status(err.status || 500)
+    res.send(err.message)
+  })
+
+  app.post('/', function (req, res) {
+    res.json(req.body)
+  })
+
+  return app
+}