Abstract. For a fixed Banach operator ideal A, we use the notion of A-compact sets of Carl and Stephani to study A-compact polynomials and A-compact holomorphic mappings. Namely, those mappings g : X → Y such that every x ∈ X has a neighborhood V x such that g(V x ) is relatively A-compact. We show that the behavior of A-compact polynomials is determined by its behavior in any neighborhood of any point. We transfer some known properties of A-compact operators to A-compact polynomials. In order to study A-compact holomorphic functions, we appeal to the A-compact radius of convergence which allows us to characterize the functions in this class. Under certain hypothesis on the ideal A, we give examples showing that our characterization is sharp.