diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index d01da8c..9fefc89 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 [project]
 name = "slim-trees"
 description = "A python package for efficient pickling of ML models."
-version = "0.2.11"
+version = "0.2.12"
 readme = "README.md"
 license = { file = "LICENSE" }
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
diff --git a/slim_trees/__init__.py b/slim_trees/__init__.py
index b71f4f4..221aedb 100644
--- a/slim_trees/__init__.py
+++ b/slim_trees/__init__.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 import importlib.metadata
 import warnings
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Any, Optional, Union
+from typing import Any, BinaryIO, Optional, Union
 
 from slim_trees.pickling import (
     dump_compressed,
@@ -42,14 +42,16 @@
 
 
 def dump_sklearn_compressed(
-    model: Any, path: Union[str, Path], compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None
+    model: Any,
+    file: Union[str, Path, BinaryIO],
+    compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None,
 ):
     """
     Pickles a model and saves a compressed version to the disk.
 
     Saves the parameters of the model as int16 and float32 instead of int64 and float64.
     :param model: the model to save
-    :param path: where to save the model
+    :param file: where to save the model, either a path or a file object
     :param compression: the compression method used. Either a string or a dict with key 'method' set
                         to the compression method and other key-value pairs are forwarded to `open`
                         of the compression library.
@@ -57,7 +59,7 @@ def dump_sklearn_compressed(
     """
     from slim_trees.sklearn_tree import dump
 
-    dump_compressed(model, path, compression, dump)
+    dump_compressed(model, file, compression, dump)
 
 
 def dumps_sklearn_compressed(
@@ -79,14 +81,16 @@ def dumps_sklearn_compressed(
 
 
 def dump_lgbm_compressed(
-    model: Any, path: Union[str, Path], compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None
+    model: Any,
+    file: Union[str, Path, BinaryIO],
+    compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None,
 ):
     """
     Pickles a model and saves a compressed version to the disk.
 
     Saves the parameters of the model as int16 and float32 instead of int64 and float64.
     :param model: the model to save
-    :param path: where to save the model
+    :param file: where to save the model, either a path or a file object
     :param compression: the compression method used. Either a string or a dict with key 'method' set
                         to the compression method and other key-value pairs are forwarded to `open`
                         of the compression library.
@@ -94,7 +98,7 @@ def dump_lgbm_compressed(
     """
     from slim_trees.lgbm_booster import dump
 
-    dump_compressed(model, path, compression, dump)
+    dump_compressed(model, file, compression, dump)
 
 
 def dumps_lgbm_compressed(
diff --git a/slim_trees/pickling.py b/slim_trees/pickling.py
index f3af990..a324cad 100644
--- a/slim_trees/pickling.py
+++ b/slim_trees/pickling.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import pathlib
 import pickle
 from collections.abc import Callable
-from typing import Any, Dict, Optional, Tuple, Union
+from typing import Any, BinaryIO, Dict, Optional, Tuple, Union
 
 
 class _NoCompression:
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def _get_default_kwargs(compression_method: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
 
 def _unpack_compression_args(
     compression: Optional[Union[str, Dict[str, Any]]] = None,
-    path: Optional[Union[str, pathlib.Path]] = None,
+    file: Optional[Union[str, pathlib.Path, BinaryIO]] = None,
 ) -> Tuple[str, dict]:
     if compression is not None:
         if isinstance(compression, str):
@@ -61,16 +61,16 @@ def _unpack_compression_args(
                 k: compression[k] for k in compression if k != "method"
             }
         raise ValueError("compression must be either a string or a dict")
-    if path is not None:
+    if file is not None and isinstance(file, (str, pathlib.Path)):
         # try to find out the compression using the file extension
-        compression_method = _get_compression_from_path(path)
+        compression_method = _get_compression_from_path(file)
         return compression_method, _get_default_kwargs(compression_method)
-    raise ValueError("path or compression must not be None.")
+    raise ValueError("File must be a path or compression must not be None.")
 
 
 def dump_compressed(
     obj: Any,
-    path: Union[str, pathlib.Path],
+    file: Union[str, pathlib.Path, BinaryIO],
     compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None,
     dump_function: Optional[Callable] = None,
 ):
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ def dump_compressed(
     Pickles a model and saves it to the disk. If compression is not specified,
     the compression method will be determined by the file extension.
     :param obj: the object to pickle
-    :param path: where to save the object
+    :param file: where to save the object, either a path or a file object
     :param compression: the compression method used. Either a string or a dict with key 'method' set
                         to the compression method and other key-value pairs are forwarded to open()
                         of the compression library.
@@ -89,11 +89,11 @@ def dump_compressed(
     if dump_function is None:
         dump_function = pickle.dump
 
-    compression_method, kwargs = _unpack_compression_args(compression, path)
+    compression_method, kwargs = _unpack_compression_args(compression, file)
     with _get_compression_library(compression_method).open(
-        path, mode="wb", **kwargs
-    ) as file:
-        dump_function(obj, file)
+        file, mode="wb", **kwargs
+    ) as fd:
+        dump_function(obj, fd)
 
 
 def dumps_compressed(
@@ -124,13 +124,13 @@ def dumps_compressed(
 
 
 def load_compressed(
-    path: Union[str, pathlib.Path],
+    file: Union[str, pathlib.Path, BinaryIO],
     compression: Optional[Union[str, dict]] = None,
     unpickler_class: type = pickle.Unpickler,
 ) -> Any:
     """
     Loads a compressed model.
-    :param path: where to load the object from
+    :param file: where to load the object from, either a path or a file object
     :param compression: the compression method used. Either a string or a dict with key 'method'
                         set to the compression method and other key-value pairs which are forwarded
                         to open() of the compression library.
@@ -139,11 +139,11 @@ def load_compressed(
                             This is useful to restrict possible imports or to allow unpickling
                             when required module or function names have been refactored.
     """
-    compression_method, kwargs = _unpack_compression_args(compression, path)
+    compression_method, kwargs = _unpack_compression_args(compression, file)
     with _get_compression_library(compression_method).open(
-        path, mode="rb", **kwargs
-    ) as file:
-        return unpickler_class(file).load()
+        file, mode="rb", **kwargs
+    ) as fd:
+        return unpickler_class(fd).load()
 
 
 def loads_compressed(
diff --git a/slim_trees/sklearn_tree.py b/slim_trees/sklearn_tree.py
index 71648a5..32ceccf 100644
--- a/slim_trees/sklearn_tree.py
+++ b/slim_trees/sklearn_tree.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ def dumps(model: Any) -> bytes:
 def _tree_pickle(tree: Tree):
     assert isinstance(tree, Tree)
     reconstructor, args, state = tree.__reduce__()
-    compressed_state = _compress_tree_state(state)
+    compressed_state = _compress_tree_state(state)  # type: ignore
     return _tree_unpickle, (reconstructor, args, (slim_trees_version, compressed_state))
 
 
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ def _compress_tree_state(state: Dict) -> Dict:
             "values": values,
         },
         **(
-            {"missing_go_to_left": np.packbits(missing_go_to_left)}
+            {"missing_go_to_left": np.packbits(missing_go_to_left)}  # type: ignore
             if sklearn_version_ge_130
             else {}
         ),
diff --git a/tests/test_lgbm_compression.py b/tests/test_lgbm_compression.py
index 64037e0..31b00dd 100644
--- a/tests/test_lgbm_compression.py
+++ b/tests/test_lgbm_compression.py
@@ -107,4 +107,19 @@ def test_loads_compressed_custom_unpickler(lgbm_regressor):
         loads_compressed(compressed, unpickler_class=_TestUnpickler)
 
 
+def test_dump_and_load_from_file(tmp_path, lgbm_regressor):
+    with (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("wb") as file:
+        dump_lgbm_compressed(lgbm_regressor, file, compression="lzma")
+
+    with (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("rb") as file:
+        load_compressed(file, compression="lzma")
+
+    # No compression method specified
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError), (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("rb") as file:
+        load_compressed(file)
+
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError), (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("wb") as file:
+        dump_lgbm_compressed(lgbm_regressor, file)
+
+
 # todo add tests for large models
diff --git a/tests/test_sklearn_compression.py b/tests/test_sklearn_compression.py
index 0cb649c..28192ef 100644
--- a/tests/test_sklearn_compression.py
+++ b/tests/test_sklearn_compression.py
@@ -159,4 +159,19 @@ def test_loads_compressed_custom_unpickler(random_forest_regressor):
         loads_compressed(compressed, unpickler_class=_TestUnpickler)
 
 
+def test_dump_and_load_from_file(tmp_path, random_forest_regressor):
+    with (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("wb") as file:
+        dump_sklearn_compressed(random_forest_regressor, file, compression="lzma")
+
+    with (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("rb") as file:
+        load_compressed(file, compression="lzma")
+
+    # No compression method specified
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError), (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("rb") as file:
+        load_compressed(file)
+
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError), (tmp_path / "model.pickle.lzma").open("wb") as file:
+        dump_sklearn_compressed(random_forest_regressor, file)
+
+
 # todo add tests for large models