We study the decay of approximation numbers of compact composition operators on the Dirichlet space. We give upper and lower bounds for these numbers. In particular, we improve on a result of O. El-Fallah, K. Kellay, M. Shabankhah and A. Youssfi, on the set of contact points with the unit circle of a compact symbolic composition operator acting on the Dirichlet space D. We extend their results in two directions: first, the contact only takes place at the point 1. Moreover, the approximation numbers of the operator can be arbitrarily sub-exponentially small.
