VARCHAR vs TEXT in MySQL — Which Should You Use?

VARCHAR(n) stores a variable-length string up to n characters and is stored inline within the row. TEXT stores much larger variable-length text (up to 65,535 bytes for TEXT, more for MEDIUMTEXT/LONGTEXT) and in MySQL's InnoDB engine is typically stored off-page once it exceeds a certain size.

Common causes

• MySQL needs a defined maximum row size, so very large text content doesn't fit efficiently as an inline VARCHAR column

How to fix it

• Use VARCHAR(n) for short, bounded fields like names, emails, or slugs where you know a reasonable maximum length
• Use TEXT (or MEDIUMTEXT/LONGTEXT) for large content like article bodies, JSON blobs, or user-submitted comments where length isn't predictable
• Avoid indexing full TEXT columns directly — index a fixed-length prefix or use a full-text index if you need to search TEXT content

Example

CREATE TABLE articles (
  title VARCHAR(255),
  slug VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE,
  content LONGTEXT
);

FAQ

Is VARCHAR faster than TEXT?

For small-to-medium values, yes, generally — VARCHAR is stored inline with the row, avoiding the extra lookup TEXT sometimes requires when its content is stored off-page.