Embodiments of an invention related to compacted context state management are disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor includes instruction hardware and state management logic. The instruction hardware is to receive a first save instruction and a second save instruction. The state management logic is to, in response to the first save instruction, save context state in an un-compacted format in a first save area. The state management logic is also to, in response to the second save instruction, save a compaction mask and context state in a compacted format in a second save area and set a compacted-save indicator in the second save area. The state management logic is also to, in response to a single restore instruction, determine, based on the compacted-save indicator, whether to restore context from the un-compacted format in the first save area or from the compacted format in the second save area.