diff --git a/docarray/array/doc_list/io.py b/docarray/array/doc_list/io.py
index fdad272b94c..45258b2c69d 100644
--- a/docarray/array/doc_list/io.py
+++ b/docarray/array/doc_list/io.py
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
 T = TypeVar('T', bound='IOMixinArray')
 T_doc = TypeVar('T_doc', bound=BaseDoc)
 
-ARRAY_PROTOCOLS = {'protobuf-array', 'pickle-array'}
-SINGLE_PROTOCOLS = {'pickle', 'protobuf'}
+ARRAY_PROTOCOLS = {'protobuf-array', 'pickle-array', 'json-array'}
+SINGLE_PROTOCOLS = {'pickle', 'protobuf', 'json'}
 ALLOWED_PROTOCOLS = ARRAY_PROTOCOLS.union(SINGLE_PROTOCOLS)
 ALLOWED_COMPRESSIONS = {'lz4', 'bz2', 'lzma', 'zlib', 'gzip'}
 
@@ -180,6 +180,8 @@ def _write_bytes(
                 f.write(self.to_protobuf().SerializePartialToString())
             elif protocol == 'pickle-array':
                 f.write(pickle.dumps(self))
+            elif protocol == 'json-array':
+                f.write(self.to_json())
             elif protocol in SINGLE_PROTOCOLS:
                 f.write(
                     b''.join(
@@ -575,7 +577,11 @@ def _load_binary_all(
             else:
                 d = fp.read()
 
-        if protocol is not None and protocol in ('pickle-array', 'protobuf-array'):
+        if protocol is not None and protocol in (
+            'pickle-array',
+            'protobuf-array',
+            'json-array',
+        ):
             if _get_compress_ctx(algorithm=compress) is not None:
                 d = _decompress_bytes(d, algorithm=compress)
                 compress = None
@@ -590,6 +596,9 @@ def _load_binary_all(
         elif protocol is not None and protocol == 'pickle-array':
             return pickle.loads(d)
 
+        elif protocol is not None and protocol == 'json-array':
+            return cls.from_json(d)
+
         # Binary format for streaming case
         else:
             from rich import filesize
diff --git a/tests/units/array/test_array_save_load.py b/tests/units/array/test_array_save_load.py
index 1a632673d15..a56ad13064a 100644
--- a/tests/units/array/test_array_save_load.py
+++ b/tests/units/array/test_array_save_load.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class MyDoc(BaseDoc):
 
 @pytest.mark.slow
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
-    'protocol', ['pickle-array', 'protobuf-array', 'protobuf', 'pickle']
+    'protocol', ['pickle-array', 'protobuf-array', 'protobuf', 'pickle', 'json-array']
 )
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('compress', ['lz4', 'bz2', 'lzma', 'zlib', 'gzip', None])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('show_progress', [False, True])
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def test_array_save_load_binary(protocol, compress, tmp_path, show_progress):
 
 @pytest.mark.slow
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
-    'protocol', ['pickle-array', 'protobuf-array', 'protobuf', 'pickle']
+    'protocol', ['pickle-array', 'protobuf-array', 'protobuf', 'pickle', 'json-array']
 )
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('compress', ['lz4', 'bz2', 'lzma', 'zlib', 'gzip', None])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('show_progress', [False, True])