Methods, systems, and devices for a read operation using compressed memory are described. An apparatus may include a host system coupled with a non-volatile memory device and a volatile memory device. The host system may store, in the volatile memory device, a compressed copy of data stored in the non-volatile memory device, for example, based on a score assigned to the data. The host system may identify that the compressed copy of the data is stored in the volatile memory device and may transmit a read command to the volatile memory device that includes a logical address associated with a logical block address of the data stored in the non-volatile memory device. The host system may receive the compressed copy of the data from the volatile memory device in response to the read command and may decompress the data.