A method of adaptively selecting an optimum data deduplication chunking method receives a request to deduplicate a file, wherein the file has a file type. The method searches a table of file types, wherein the table includes, for each file type, a chunking method, a deduplication ratio, and a depulication ratio threshold. The method selects a chunking method for the file according to the table. The method chunks the file using the selected chunking method. The method deduplicates the chunked file according to prior art deduplication methods. The method calculates a deduplication ratio for the file type and updates the table with the calculated deduplication ratio for the file type. If the calculated deduplication ratio for the file type is less than the deduplication ratio threshold for the file type, the method selects a new chunking method for the file type and updates the table of file types with the new chunking method for the file type.