diff --git a/docs/source/api.rst b/docs/source/api.rst
index 5385accc7..4d0462083 100644
--- a/docs/source/api.rst
+++ b/docs/source/api.rst
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ Built-in Implementations
    fsspec.implementations.dbfs.DatabricksFileSystem
    fsspec.implementations.dirfs.DirFileSystem
    fsspec.implementations.ftp.FTPFileSystem
+   fsspec.implementations.gist.GistFileSystem
    fsspec.implementations.git.GitFileSystem
    fsspec.implementations.github.GithubFileSystem
    fsspec.implementations.http.HTTPFileSystem
@@ -162,6 +163,9 @@ Built-in Implementations
 .. autoclass:: fsspec.implementations.ftp.FTPFileSystem
    :members: __init__
 
+.. autoclass:: fsspec.implementations.gist.GistFileSystem
+   :members: __init__
+
 .. autoclass:: fsspec.implementations.git.GitFileSystem
    :members: __init__
 
diff --git a/fsspec/implementations/gist.py b/fsspec/implementations/gist.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..72adbdfff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fsspec/implementations/gist.py
@@ -0,0 +1,211 @@
+import requests
+
+import fsspec
+
+from ..spec import AbstractFileSystem
+from ..utils import infer_storage_options
+from .memory import MemoryFile
+
+
+class GistFileSystem(AbstractFileSystem):
+    """
+    Interface to files in a single GitHub Gist.
+
+    Provides read-only access to a gist's files. Gists do not contain
+    subdirectories, so file listing is straightforward.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    gist_id : str
+        The ID of the gist you want to access (the long hex value from the URL).
+    sha : str (optional)
+        If provided, fetch a particular revision of the gist. If omitted,
+        the latest revision is used.
+    username : str (optional)
+        GitHub username for authentication (required if token is given).
+    token : str (optional)
+        GitHub personal access token (required if username is given).
+    timeout : (float, float) or float, optional
+        Connect and read timeouts for requests (default 60s each).
+    kwargs : dict
+        Passed to AbstractFileSystem base class.
+    """
+
+    protocol = "gist"
+    gist_url = "https://api.github.com/gists/{gist_id}"
+    gist_rev_url = "https://api.github.com/gists/{gist_id}/{sha}"
+
+    def __init__(
+        self, gist_id, sha=None, username=None, token=None, timeout=None, **kwargs
+    ):
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+        self.gist_id = gist_id
+        self.sha = sha  # revision of the gist (optional)
+        if (username is None) ^ (token is None):
+            # Both or neither must be set
+            if username or token:
+                raise ValueError("Auth requires both username and token, or neither.")
+        self.username = username
+        self.token = token
+        # Default timeouts to 60s connect/read if none provided
+        self.timeout = timeout if timeout is not None else (60, 60)
+
+        # We use a single-level "directory" cache, because a gist is essentially flat
+        self.dircache[""] = self._fetch_file_list()
+
+    @property
+    def kw(self):
+        """Auth parameters passed to 'requests' if we have username/token."""
+        if self.username is not None and self.token is not None:
+            return {"auth": (self.username, self.token)}
+        return {}
+
+    def _fetch_gist_metadata(self):
+        """
+        Fetch the JSON metadata for this gist (possibly for a specific revision).
+        """
+        if self.sha:
+            url = self.gist_rev_url.format(gist_id=self.gist_id, sha=self.sha)
+        else:
+            url = self.gist_url.format(gist_id=self.gist_id)
+
+        r = requests.get(url, timeout=self.timeout, **self.kw)
+        if r.status_code == 404:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(
+                f"Gist not found: {self.gist_id}@{self.sha or 'latest'}"
+            )
+        r.raise_for_status()
+        return r.json()
+
+    def _fetch_file_list(self):
+        """
+        Returns a list of dicts describing each file in the gist. These get stored
+        in self.dircache[""].
+        """
+        meta = self._fetch_gist_metadata()
+        files = meta.get("files", {})
+        out = []
+        for fname, finfo in files.items():
+            if finfo is None:
+                # Occasionally GitHub returns a file entry with null if it was deleted
+                continue
+            # Build a directory entry
+            out.append(
+                {
+                    "name": fname,  # file's name
+                    "type": "file",  # gists have no subdirectories
+                    "size": finfo.get("size", 0),  # file size in bytes
+                    "raw_url": finfo.get("raw_url"),
+                }
+            )
+        return out
+
+    @classmethod
+    def _strip_protocol(cls, path):
+        """
+        Remove 'gist://' from the path, if present.
+        """
+        # The default infer_storage_options can handle gist://username:token@id/file
+        # or gist://id/file, but let's ensure we handle a normal usage too.
+        # We'll just strip the protocol prefix if it exists.
+        path = infer_storage_options(path).get("path", path)
+        return path.lstrip("/")
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _get_kwargs_from_urls(path):
+        """
+        Parse 'gist://' style URLs into GistFileSystem constructor kwargs.
+        For example:
+          gist://:TOKEN@<gist_id>/file.txt
+          gist://username:TOKEN@<gist_id>/file.txt
+        """
+        so = infer_storage_options(path)
+        out = {}
+        if "username" in so and so["username"]:
+            out["username"] = so["username"]
+        if "password" in so and so["password"]:
+            out["token"] = so["password"]
+        if "host" in so and so["host"]:
+            # We interpret 'host' as the gist ID
+            out["gist_id"] = so["host"]
+        return out
+
+    def ls(self, path="", detail=False, **kwargs):
+        """
+        List files in the gist. Gists are single-level, so any 'path' is basically
+        the filename, or empty for all files.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        path : str, optional
+            The filename to list. If empty, returns all files in the gist.
+        detail : bool, default False
+            If True, return a list of dicts; if False, return a list of filenames.
+        """
+        path = self._strip_protocol(path or "")
+        # If path is empty, return all
+        if path == "":
+            results = self.dircache[""]
+        else:
+            # We want just the single file with this name
+            all_files = self.dircache[""]
+            results = [f for f in all_files if f["name"] == path]
+            if not results:
+                raise FileNotFoundError(path)
+        if detail:
+            return results
+        else:
+            return sorted(f["name"] for f in results)
+
+    def invalidate_cache(self, path=None):
+        """
+        Clear the dircache. If path is given, we could refetch—but for gist,
+        we typically refetch everything in one shot anyway.
+        """
+        self.dircache.clear()
+        # Re-fetch on next ls
+        self.dircache[""] = self._fetch_file_list()
+
+    def _open(self, path, mode="rb", block_size=None, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Read a single file from the gist.
+        """
+        if mode != "rb":
+            raise NotImplementedError("GitHub Gist FS is read-only (no write).")
+
+        path = self._strip_protocol(path)
+        # Find the file entry in our dircache
+        matches = [f for f in self.dircache[""] if f["name"] == path]
+        if not matches:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(path)
+        finfo = matches[0]
+
+        raw_url = finfo.get("raw_url")
+        if not raw_url:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(f"No raw_url for file: {path}")
+
+        r = requests.get(raw_url, timeout=self.timeout, **self.kw)
+        if r.status_code == 404:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(path)
+        r.raise_for_status()
+        return MemoryFile(path, None, r.content)
+
+    def cat(self, path, recursive=False, on_error="raise", **kwargs):
+        """
+        Return {path: contents} for the given file or files. If 'recursive' is True,
+        and path is empty, returns all files in the gist.
+        """
+        paths = self.expand_path(path, recursive=recursive)
+        out = {}
+        for p in paths:
+            try:
+                with self.open(p, "rb") as f:
+                    out[p] = f.read()
+            except FileNotFoundError as e:
+                if on_error == "raise":
+                    raise e
+                elif on_error == "omit":
+                    pass  # skip
+                else:
+                    out[p] = e
+        return out
diff --git a/fsspec/implementations/tests/test_gist.py b/fsspec/implementations/tests/test_gist.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d46900cf3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fsspec/implementations/tests/test_gist.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import pytest
+
+import fsspec
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("gist_id", ["16bee4256595d3b6814be139ab1bd54e"])
+def test_gist_public(gist_id):
+    fs = fsspec.filesystem("gist", gist_id=gist_id)
+    # Listing
+    all_files = fs.ls("")
+    assert len(all_files) > 0
+    # Cat
+    data = fs.cat(all_files)
+    assert set(data.keys()) == set(all_files)
+    for k, v in data.items():
+        assert isinstance(v, bytes)
diff --git a/fsspec/registry.py b/fsspec/registry.py
index 5d104f266..740470e01 100644
--- a/fsspec/registry.py
+++ b/fsspec/registry.py
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ def register_implementation(name, cls, clobber=False, errtxt=None):
         "err": "Please install gdrivefs for access to Google Drive",
     },
     "generic": {"class": "fsspec.generic.GenericFileSystem"},
+    "gist": {
+        "class": "fsspec.implementations.gist.GistFileSystem",
+        "err": "Install the requests package to use the gist FS",
+    },
     "git": {
         "class": "fsspec.implementations.git.GitFileSystem",
         "err": "Install pygit2 to browse local git repos",
@@ -218,9 +222,9 @@ def register_implementation(name, cls, clobber=False, errtxt=None):
     "zip": {"class": "fsspec.implementations.zip.ZipFileSystem"},
 }
 
-assert list(known_implementations) == sorted(known_implementations), (
-    "Not in alphabetical order"
-)
+assert list(known_implementations) == sorted(
+    known_implementations
+), "Not in alphabetical order"
 
 
 def get_filesystem_class(protocol):