A method and device are disclosed for opportunistic compression of routing segment identifiers. In one embodiment, the method includes participating in routing of a first data packet through a first node in a network, and subsequently entering into an arrangement with an adjacent node in the network. The first data packet includes a first plurality of routing segment identifiers, and additional data packets to be routed through the first node also include the first plurality of routing segment identifiers. The arrangement entered into includes representation of the first plurality of routing segment identifiers by a single compression identifier. The method further includes participating in routing of at least one of the additional data packets using the compression identifier instead of the first plurality of routing segment identifiers. In an embodiment, the device includes one or more network interfaces and a processor configured to perform the steps of the method.