diff --git a/app/services/prefetcher.ts b/app/services/prefetcher.ts
index 1d93881..7471343 100644
--- a/app/services/prefetcher.ts
+++ b/app/services/prefetcher.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ export class Prefetcher {
   private stopped = false
   private spoolBytes = 0
   private sizedAt = 0
+  /** Fetched since the last report: chunks, articles, ms spent fetching. */
+  private stats = { chunks: 0, articles: 0, fetchMs: 0, since: Date.now() }
 
   /** One round: refreshes the targets now and then, and puts idle connections to work. */
   async tick() {
@@ -42,6 +44,7 @@ export class Prefetcher {
       this.refreshedAt = Date.now()
       this.targets = await this.readTargets()
     }
+    this.report()
     while (!this.stopped && this.running < NntpPool.size && this.peek()) {
       this.running++
       this.work()
@@ -65,10 +68,14 @@ export class Prefetcher {
       if (!next) return
       const { target, span } = next
       try {
+        const fetchedAt = Date.now()
         const data = await NntpPool.use(async (client) => {
           await client.group(target.group)
           return client.xoverRaw(span.from, span.to)
         })
+        this.stats.chunks++
+        this.stats.articles += span.to - span.from + 1
+        this.stats.fetchMs += Date.now() - fetchedAt
         const existed = await Spool.has(target.id, span)
         await Spool.write(target.id, span, data)
         if (existed) continue
@@ -84,6 +91,20 @@ export class Prefetcher {
     }
   }
 
+  /** A line a minute: what the connections fetched, and how long a chunk took. */
+  private report() {
+    const seconds = (Date.now() - this.stats.since) / 1000
+    if (seconds < 60) return
+    const { chunks, articles, fetchMs } = this.stats
+    if (chunks > 0) {
+      logger.info(
+        `Prefetched ${chunks} chunks in ${seconds.toFixed(0)} s: ${Math.round(articles / seconds).toLocaleString('en')} articles/s, ` +
+          `${(fetchMs / chunks / 1000).toFixed(1)} s a chunk, connections busy ${Math.round((fetchMs / (seconds * 1000 * NntpPool.size)) * 100)}%.`
+      )
+    }
+    this.stats = { chunks: 0, articles: 0, fetchMs: 0, since: Date.now() }
+  }
+
   private peek(): boolean {
     return this.targets.some((t) => t.missing.some((s) => !this.claimed.has(`${t.id}:${s.from}`)))
   }
diff --git a/lib/nntp/xover_client.ts b/lib/nntp/xover_client.ts
index dcf0f51..0e7dac4 100644
--- a/lib/nntp/xover_client.ts
+++ b/lib/nntp/xover_client.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 import { promisify } from 'node:util'
 import net from 'node:net'
 import tls from 'node:tls'
-import { deflate, deflateSync, unzipSync } from 'node:zlib'
+import { deflate, deflateSync, unzip } from 'node:zlib'
 
 const deflateAsync = promisify(deflate)
+const unzipAsync = promisify(unzip)
 
 export interface XoverClientOptions {
   host: string
@@ -241,7 +242,8 @@ export class XoverClient {
         const all = this.buffer()
         const raw = all.subarray(0, all.length - DOT_LINE.length)
         try {
-          const inflated = unzipSync(raw)
+          // On a thread-pool thread: a chunk's ~25 MB of text took the coordinator's event loop ~60 ms.
+          const inflated = await unzipAsync(raw)
           this.take(all.length)
           return { raw: Buffer.from(raw), text: wantText ? inflated.toString('utf8') : '' }
         } catch {