In response to ventilatory loading, a number of compensatory mechanisms can serve to maintain ventilation at or near control levels. To test the hypothesis that respiratory compensation for inspiratory flow-resistive load during nasal breathing may be different from that during oral breathing, we investigated the ventilatory responses to four different magnitudes of inspiratory flow-resistive loads ("control," "light," "moderate," and "severe" loads: 3.5, 15.0, 51.8, 83.3 cm H2O/L/s at a flow rate of 30 L/min, respectively) during nasal breathing and during oral breathing in 11 conscious subjects. With the control, light, and moderate loads, there were no significant differences in tidal volume (VT), respiratory frequency (f), minute ventilation (VI), and end-tidal (partial) carbon dioxide pressure (PETCO2) between nasal and oral breathing. With the severe load, however, VI and f were significantly lower and PETCO2 was significantly higher during nasal breathing than during oral breathing. Occlusion pressure (P0.1) progressively increased during both nasal and oral breathing with increasing magnitudes of loading. However, the value of P0.1 during oral breathing at the severe loading was significantly higher than that during nasal breathing. Our results indicate that ventilatory compensation for the inspiratory flow-resistive load is better during oral breathing than during nasal breathing.