Techniques for compensating for I-Q mismatch in a communications receiver. In an exemplary embodiment, incoming I and Q samples are adjusted by multiplying with certain compensation coefficients to generate mismatch-compensated I and Q samples. The compensation coefficients may themselves be calculated and iteratively refined from the mismatch-compensated I and Q samples. Further techniques for partitioning the adjustment and estimation functions among computational hardware are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, estimation may be restricted to only those segments of the incoming I and Q samples that fulfill certain conditions, e.g., segments of the incoming I and Q samples known to be statistically uncorrelated and/or to have equal average energy.