Metal/zeolite bifunctional catalysts have been widely explored for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of phenolics. However, the effect of acid-metal balance is not clearly understood because it is difficult to decouple this from other effects. In this work, a series of 1 wt.% Pt/Beta catalysts with different Bronsted acid site (BAS) to surface N ratios (BAS/Pt) were prepared by varying only the density of BAS, and tested in HDO of m-cresol at 250 degrees C and atmospheric pressure. Increasing BAS density increases intra-crystallite diffusion constraints of m-cresol/products due to strong chemisorption on BAS, and therefore slows their transportation through BASs toward the N sites inside the micropores of zeolite. As a result, both the reaction rate and turnover frequency of HDO are reduced with increasing BASIN ratio. Increasing BASIN ratio increases the yield of ring contraction products but reduces the yields of methylcyclohexane and methylcyclohexanone, because of the increased acid functionality and diffusion constraints of intermediates. A low BASIN ratio is beneficial for improving catalytic stability by reducing coke deposition.