The magnitude and variation of tooth pair compliance affects tooth loading and gear dynamics significantly. This paper presents an improved fillet/foundation compliance analysis based on the theory of Muskhelishvili applied to circular elastic rings. Assuming linear and constant stress variations at root circle, the above theory makes it possible to derive an analytical formula for gear body-induced tooth deflections which can be directly integrated into gear computer codes. The corresponding results are in very good agreement with those from finite element models and the formula is proved to be superior to Weber’s widely used equation, especially for large gears.