Porosity generally embrittles ceramics. In contrast to such expectations, this report demonstrates that an effective fracture strain of nanoporous silica aerogels increases with increasing porosity. At ultralow relative densities of < 0.5%, nanoporous monoliths start exhibiting super-compressible deformation with effective fracture strains of > 50%. This is attributed to consequences of an increase in the aspect ratio of ligaments with decreasing density.