A multi-scale investigation of the swelling behaviour of a purified bentonite under constrained conditions is carried out by a monitoring of the swelling pressure and the porosity evolution at various scales (inter-aggregate, inter-particle, interlayer). A specific oedometer, oedo-tomometer, has been designed to monitor both the swelling pressure and the inter-aggregate porosity evolution deduced from microfocus X-ray computed tomography measurements (size higher than 5 µm). Further investigations of the porosity at lower scale were conducted at various stages of the swelling process by gas adsorption mainly and transmission electron microscopy. Various fluids were used for specimen hydration to control either crystalline swelling or osmotic swelling (NaCl solutions at different ionic strengths and methyl methacrylate (MMA) solution). The results, which combined both swelling pressure measurements and quantification of microstructure evolution upon hydration for the two different solutions, give sound understanding on the development of osmotic and/or crystalline swelling and their relative impact both on the microstructure and on the magnitude of the macroscopic swelling pressure of compacted smectites. Furthermore, these results compared to calculated results (BExM for example) shows similar evolutions