MySQL JSON vs TEXT Type Performance Comparison: TEXT for Simple Retrieval, JSON for Function Usage

This analysis examines the internal structure and performance differences between the JSON data type and the TEXT data type when storing JSON data in MySQL. The JSON type undergoes a serialization process upon storage and includes metadata such as Type, Key Count, and Value Size, thus occupying more space than the TEXT type. For example, storing a simple JSON object uses 25 bytes with the TEXT type, whereas the JSON type uses 35 bytes.

In terms of performance, the optimal type depends on the use case. For simple storage and full retrieval, the TEXT type demonstrates faster QPS as it lacks serialization/deserialization overhead. Conversely, when using JSON functions like JSON_EXTRACT() to extract specific key values or process data, the internally optimized JSON type shows significantly better performance than the TEXT type.