diff --git a/io/gocloud/README.md b/io/gocloud/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f4ba5fff2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/io/gocloud/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+<!--
+ - Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ - contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ - this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ - The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ - (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ - the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ -
+ -   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ -
+ - Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ - distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ - WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ - See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ - limitations under the License.
+ -->
+
+# gocloud blob I/O (S3, GCS, Azure)
+
+This package connects [gocloud.dev/blob](https://gocloud.dev/blob) drivers to
+`iceberg-go`’s filesystem abstraction. Register it with a blank import:
+
+```go
+import _ "github.com/apache/iceberg-go/io/gocloud"
+```
+
+Full API docs: [pkg.go.dev/github.com/apache/iceberg-go/io/gocloud](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/apache/iceberg-go/io/gocloud).
+
+## S3: HTTP client and connection reuse
+
+For Amazon S3, if `aws.Config.HTTPClient` is **nil**, the backend configures an
+AWS SDK HTTP client with **larger per-host connection pools** than Go’s
+`http.DefaultTransport` defaults. That improves workloads with many small object
+reads (same S3 hostname), such as Parquet footer reads, without changing proxy
+or TLS behavior (the SDK “buildable” client keeps those aligned with normal AWS
+clients).
+
+If `HTTPClient` is already set—by you, by `s3.proxy-uri` in table/storage
+properties, or by any other means—it is **not** replaced.
+
+## Providing your own `aws.Config` (`utils.WithAwsConfig`)
+
+Some catalogs (for example **AWS Glue**) put the catalog’s
+[`aws.Config`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/aws#Config) on
+[`context.Context`](https://pkg.go.dev/context) before opening manifests or
+data files. You can do the same anywhere you control the context, or override
+behavior for tests and custom tooling:
+
+```go
+import (
+    "context"
+
+    "github.com/apache/iceberg-go/utils"
+    "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/aws"
+    "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/config"
+    awshttp "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/aws/transport/http"
+)
+
+cfg, err := config.LoadDefaultConfig(ctx, config.WithRegion("us-east-1"))
+if err != nil {
+    return err
+}
+
+// Example: fully custom HTTP client (optional).
+cfg.HTTPClient = awshttp.NewBuildableClient().WithTransportOptions(func(t *http.Transport) {
+    t.MaxIdleConnsPerHost = 64
+    // ... any other *http.Transport fields
+})
+
+ctx = utils.WithAwsConfig(ctx, &cfg)
+// Use ctx for iceberg table / IO operations that resolve S3 through gocloud.
+```
+
+[`utils.GetAwsConfig`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/apache/iceberg-go/utils#GetAwsConfig)
+returns that pointer when the S3 backend builds the bucket; if it returns `nil`,
+configuration comes from Iceberg/S3 properties and the shared config loader
+instead.
diff --git a/io/gocloud/s3.go b/io/gocloud/s3.go
index ea979d5d1..309513fcc 100644
--- a/io/gocloud/s3.go
+++ b/io/gocloud/s3.go
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"slices"
 	"strconv"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/apache/iceberg-go/io"
 	"github.com/apache/iceberg-go/utils"
@@ -131,6 +132,20 @@ func createS3Bucket(ctx context.Context, parsed *url.URL, props map[string]strin
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Default HTTP client when not configured: use the SDK buildable client so
+	// proxy, TLS, dial, and HTTP/2 behavior match the usual AWS defaults, but
+	// raise per-host idle limits (Go's DefaultTransport uses 2 per host).
+	if awscfg.HTTPClient == nil {
+		awscfg.HTTPClient = awshttp.NewBuildableClient().WithTransportOptions(
+			func(t *http.Transport) {
+				t.MaxIdleConns = 256
+				t.MaxIdleConnsPerHost = 256
+				t.MaxConnsPerHost = 256
+				t.IdleConnTimeout = 90 * time.Second
+			},
+		)
+	}
+
 	endpoint, ok := props[io.S3EndpointURL]
 	if !ok {
 		endpoint = os.Getenv("AWS_S3_ENDPOINT")