diff --git a/modules/astcenc/SCsub b/modules/astcenc/SCsub
index 23e9fa87fc1..bb8bc8d8677 100644
--- a/modules/astcenc/SCsub
+++ b/modules/astcenc/SCsub
@@ -41,6 +41,13 @@ env_astcenc.Prepend(CPPPATH=[thirdparty_dir])
 
 env_thirdparty = env_astcenc.Clone()
 env_thirdparty.disable_warnings()
+
+# Build the encoder only for editor builds
+astc_encoder = env.editor_build
+
+if not astc_encoder:
+    env_thirdparty.Append(CPPDEFINES=[("ASTCENC_DECOMPRESS_ONLY")])
+
 env_thirdparty.add_source_files(thirdparty_obj, thirdparty_sources)
 env.modules_sources += thirdparty_obj
 
diff --git a/modules/astcenc/config.py b/modules/astcenc/config.py
index 37bb65f8ae7..d22f9454ed2 100644
--- a/modules/astcenc/config.py
+++ b/modules/astcenc/config.py
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 def can_build(env, platform):
-    # Godot only uses it in the editor, but ANGLE depends on it and we had
-    # to remove the copy from prebuilt ANGLE libs to solve symbol clashes.
-    return env.editor_build or env.get("angle_libs")
+    return True
 
 
 def configure(env):
diff --git a/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.cpp b/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.cpp
index 31cfe4b9025..c074f3ebb4f 100644
--- a/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.cpp
+++ b/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.cpp
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 
 #include <astcenc.h>
 
+#ifdef TOOLS_ENABLED
 void _compress_astc(Image *r_img, Image::ASTCFormat p_format) {
 	const uint64_t start_time = OS::get_singleton()->get_ticks_msec();
 
@@ -171,6 +172,7 @@ void _compress_astc(Image *r_img, Image::ASTCFormat p_format) {
 
 	print_verbose(vformat("astcenc: Encoding took %d ms.", OS::get_singleton()->get_ticks_msec() - start_time));
 }
+#endif // TOOLS_ENABLED
 
 void _decompress_astc(Image *r_img) {
 	const uint64_t start_time = OS::get_singleton()->get_ticks_msec();
@@ -213,8 +215,9 @@ void _decompress_astc(Image *r_img) {
 
 	astcenc_config config;
 	const float quality = ASTCENC_PRE_MEDIUM;
+	const uint32_t flags = ASTCENC_FLG_DECOMPRESS_ONLY;
 
-	astcenc_error status = astcenc_config_init(profile, block_x, block_y, 1, quality, 0, &config);
+	astcenc_error status = astcenc_config_init(profile, block_x, block_y, 1, quality, flags, &config);
 	ERR_FAIL_COND_MSG(status != ASTCENC_SUCCESS,
 			vformat("astcenc: Configuration initialization failed: %s.", astcenc_get_error_string(status)));
 
diff --git a/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.h b/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.h
index ad157d7c0a6..790a3bd3229 100644
--- a/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.h
+++ b/modules/astcenc/image_compress_astcenc.h
@@ -33,7 +33,10 @@
 
 #include "core/io/image.h"
 
+#ifdef TOOLS_ENABLED
 void _compress_astc(Image *r_img, Image::ASTCFormat p_format);
+#endif
+
 void _decompress_astc(Image *r_img);
 
 #endif // IMAGE_COMPRESS_ASTCENC_H
diff --git a/modules/astcenc/register_types.cpp b/modules/astcenc/register_types.cpp
index 0bb1c3432f8..ca0f317fa94 100644
--- a/modules/astcenc/register_types.cpp
+++ b/modules/astcenc/register_types.cpp
@@ -37,7 +37,10 @@ void initialize_astcenc_module(ModuleInitializationLevel p_level) {
 		return;
 	}
 
+#ifdef TOOLS_ENABLED
 	Image::_image_compress_astc_func = _compress_astc;
+#endif
+
 	Image::_image_decompress_astc = _decompress_astc;
 }