diff --git a/bin/compile b/bin/compile
index 6ba0a39..981fc99 100755
--- a/bin/compile
+++ b/bin/compile
@@ -15,16 +15,45 @@ if [ -f $ENV_DIR/JEMALLOC_VERSION ]; then
   version=$(cat $ENV_DIR/JEMALLOC_VERSION)
 fi
 
-url="https://github.com/gaffneyc/heroku-buildpack-jemalloc/releases/download/$STACK/jemalloc-$version.tar.bz2"
+# dest is the path in the application that jemalloc will be extracted to.
 dest="$BUILD_DIR/vendor/jemalloc"
 
-echo "-----> Vendoring jemalloc $version"
-echo "       Fetching $url"
+# bundle is the full path to the cached jemalloc binaries for this version.
+bundle=$CACHE_DIR/jemalloc/$version
+
+function download_jemalloc() {
+  url="https://github.com/gaffneyc/heroku-buildpack-jemalloc/releases/download/$STACK/jemalloc-$version.tar.bz2"
+
+  # Disable exit on command failure so we can provide better error messages
+  set +e
+
+  echo "       Fetching $url"
+  status=$(curl -sL -f  -w "%{http_code}" -o /tmp/jemalloc.tar.bz2 $url)
+
+  if [[ $status -ge 300 ]]; then
+    echo " !     jemalloc: Server returned HTTP $status"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  # Reenable exit on failure
+  set -e
+
+  mkdir -p $bundle
+  tar -xj -f /tmp/jemalloc.tar.bz2 -C $bundle
+}
+
+echo "-----> jemalloc: Vendoring $version"
+
+# Check if this version of jemalloc is in the cache and download it if it
+# doesn't exist.
+if [[ ! -f $bundle ]]; then
+  download_jemalloc
+fi
 
 mkdir -p $dest
-curl -sL $url | tar -C $dest -xj
+cp -r $bundle -T $dest/
 
-echo "-----> Building runtime environment"
+echo "-----> jemalloc: Building runtime environment"
 mkdir -p $BUILD_DIR/.profile.d
 
 cat <<'EOF' > $BUILD_DIR/.profile.d/jemalloc.sh