diff --git a/aperturedb/ConnectorRest.py b/aperturedb/ConnectorRest.py
index 803ab733..c3231234 100644
--- a/aperturedb/ConnectorRest.py
+++ b/aperturedb/ConnectorRest.py
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@
 
 from types import SimpleNamespace
 from typing import Optional
+try:
+    import pybase64 as base64
+except ImportError:
+    import base64
+
 from aperturedb.Connector import Connector
 from aperturedb.Configuration import Configuration
 from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
@@ -164,8 +169,10 @@ def _query(self, query, blob_array = [], try_resume=True):
                                                   verify  = self.config.use_ssl and self.config.verify_hostname)
                 if response.status_code == 200:
                     # Parse response:
-                    json_response       = json.loads(response.text)
-                    import base64
+                    if hasattr(response, "json"):
+                        json_response = response.json()
+                    else:
+                        json_response = json.loads(response.text)
                     response_blob_array = [base64.b64decode(
                         b) for b in json_response['blobs']]
                     self.last_response  = json_response["json"]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index de914ca0..e6c8f2eb 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ aperturedb = "aperturedb"
 "Bug Reports" = "https://github.com/aperture-data/aperturedb-python/issues"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
+speedups = [
+    "pybase64",
+]
 # This is used when we build the docker image for notebook
 notebook = [
     "torch",