In this paper, we are concerned with the global well-posedness and L 2 decay rate for the strong solutions of the compressible finite extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) dumbbell model. For d ≥ 2, we prove that the compressible FENE dumbbell model admits a unique global strong solution provided the initial data are close to equilibrium state. Moreover, by the Littlewood-Paley decomposition theory and the Fourier splitting method, we show optimal L 2 decay rate of global strong solutions for d ≥ 3.