We present a high-pressure x-ray diffuse scattering study of the ABO3 ferroelectric perovskites BaTiO3 and KNbO3. The well-known diffuse lines are observed in all the phases studied. In KNbO3, we show that the lines are present up to 21.8 GPa, with constant width and a slightly decreasing intensity. At variance, the intensity of the diffuse lines observed in the cubic phase of BaTiO3 linearly decreases to zero at ∼ 11 GPa. These results are discussed with respect to x-ray absorption measurements, which leads to the conclusion that the diffuse lines are only observed when the B atom is off the center of the oxygen tetrahedron. The role of such disorder on the ferroelectric instability of perovskites is discussed. Because of the simplicity of their structure and their actual or potential applications, perovskites ABO 3 and their derivatives are amongst the most studied compounds in solid state science. Perovskites stabilize a large variety of states such as superconductivity, ferroelectricity (FE) and multiferroism, but despite decades of studies, the mechanisms of these transitions are still a matter of debate [1]. This is the case of the oxygen perovskites such as SrTiO 3 and KTaO 3 , which only exhibit incipient FE, while PbTiO 3 , BaTiO 3 and KNbO 3 stabilize this instability in well defined series of FE transitions.Upon heating at ambient pressure, barium titanate and potassium niobate undergo the same famous sequence of rhomboedric-orthorhombic-tetragonal-cubic (R-O-T-C) first-order phase transitions [2,3]. During this sequence, the polarization changes direction from the [111], to the [110] and [100] pseudo-cubic directions, before vanishing above the Curie temperature T C in the cubic phase. The mechanism of this sequence of phase transition has been often discussed from two limiting cases: the soft mode -or displacive -theory, in which a transverse optical (TO) mode frequency gradually soften when approaching the phase transition [4], and an order-disorder scenario [5], in which some atoms lying on symmetryequivalent sites, order on preferential ones. In fact, current theories favor an intermediate situation, in which soft phonons and disorder play a role [6,7].Pressure has proven to be an essential parameter to study phase transitions in perovskites [8]. Because applying pressure results in a symmetrization of chemical bonds, drastic effects on order-disorder phase transitions are expected. Indeed, the same sequence of phase transitions is observed as a function of pressure in KNbO 3 and BaTiO 3 [9]. At 300 K, FE is lost at 10 GPa (2 GPa) and is no more observed at low temperature above ∼ 26 GPa (∼ 6.5 GPa) in KNbO 3 (BaTiO 3 ). The existence of the O-T transition under pressure has been questioned in KNbO 3 [10], while in other studies its transition pressure was found at 6 GPa [11] or 8.5 GPa [9]. In this letter, we will show that high pressure x-ray diffuse scattering measurements give a unique opportunity to study the transitions and the FE instability as a function of the nature and the position of...