What is the max size of localStorage values?

Question

Since localStorage (currently) only supports strings as values, and in order to do that the objects need to be stringified (stored as JSON-string) before they can be stored, is there a defined limitation regarding the length of the values.

Does anyone know if there is a definition which applies to all browsers?

Answer 1

You don't want to stringify large objects into a single localStorage entry. That would be very inefficient - the whole thing would have to be parsed and re-encoded every time some slight detail changes. Also, JSON can't handle multiple cross references within an object structure and wipes out a lot of details, e.g. the constructor, non-numerical properties of arrays, what's in a sparse entry, etc.

Instead, you can use http://rhaboo.org. It stores large objects using lots of localStorage entries so you can make small changes quickly. The restored objects are much more accurate copies of the saved ones and the API is incredibly simple. E.g.:

var store = Rhaboo.persistent('Some name');
store.write('count', store.count ? store.count+1 : 1);
store.write('somethingfancy', {
  one: ['man', 'went'],
  2: 'mow',
  went: [  2, { mow: ['a', 'meadow' ] }, {}  ]
});
store.somethingfancy.went[1].mow.write(1, 'lawn');

BTW, I wrote it.

Answer 2

Don't assume 5MB is available - localStorage capacity varies by browser, with 2.5MB, 5MB and unlimited being the most common values. Source: http://dev-test.nemikor.com/web-storage/support-test/

Answer 3

I really like cdmckay's answer, but it does not really look good to check the size in a real time: it is just too slow (2 seconds for me). This is the improved version, which is way faster and more exact, also with an option to choose how big the error can be (default 250,000, the smaller error is - the longer the calculation is):

function getLocalStorageMaxSize(error) {
  if (localStorage) {
    var max = 10 * 1024 * 1024,
        i = 64,
        string1024 = '',
        string = '',
        // generate a random key
        testKey = 'size-test-' + Math.random().toString(),
        minimalFound = 0,
        error = error || 25e4;

    // fill a string with 1024 symbols / bytes    
    while (i--) string1024 += 1e16;

    i = max / 1024;

    // fill a string with 'max' amount of symbols / bytes    
    while (i--) string += string1024;

    i = max;

    // binary search implementation
    while (i > 1) {
      try {
        localStorage.setItem(testKey, string.substr(0, i));
        localStorage.removeItem(testKey);

        if (minimalFound < i - error) {
          minimalFound = i;
          i = i * 1.5;
        }
        else break;
      } catch (e) {
        localStorage.removeItem(testKey);
        i = minimalFound + (i - minimalFound) / 2;
      }
    }

    return minimalFound;
  }
}

To test:

console.log(getLocalStorageMaxSize()); // takes .3s
console.log(getLocalStorageMaxSize(.1)); // takes 2s, but way more exact

This works dramatically faster for the standard error; also it can be much more exact when necessary.

Answer 4

Find the maximum length of a single string that can be stored in localStorage

This snippet will find the maximum length of a String that can be stored in localStorage per domain.

//Clear localStorage
for (var item in localStorage) delete localStorage[item];

window.result = window.result || document.getElementById('result');

result.textContent = 'Test running…';

//Start test
//Defer running so DOM can be updated with "test running" message
setTimeout(function () {

    //Variables
    var low = 0,
        high = 2e9,
        half;

    //Two billion may be a little low as a starting point, so increase if necessary
    while (canStore(high)) high *= 2;


    //Keep refining until low and high are equal
    while (low !== high) {
        half = Math.floor((high - low) / 2 + low);

        //Check if we can't scale down any further
        if (low === half || high === half) {
            console.info(low, high, half);
            //Set low to the maximum possible amount that can be stored 
            low = canStore(high) ? high : low;
            high = low;
            break;
        }


        //Check if the maximum storage is no higher than half
        if (storageMaxBetween(low, half)) {
            high = half;
            //The only other possibility is that it's higher than half but not higher than "high"
        } else {
            low = half + 1;
        }

    }

    //Show the result we found!
    result.innerHTML = 'The maximum length of a string that can be stored in localStorage is <strong>' + low + '</strong> characters.';

    //Functions
    function canStore(strLen) {
        try {
            delete localStorage.foo;
            localStorage.foo = Array(strLen + 1).join('A');
            return true;
        } catch (ex) {
            return false;
        }
    }


    function storageMaxBetween(low, high) {
        return canStore(low) && !canStore(high);
    }

}, 0);

<h1>LocalStorage single value max length test</h1>

<div id='result'>Please enable JavaScript</div>

Note that the length of a string is limited in JavaScript; if you want to view the maximum amount of data that can be stored in localStorage when not limited to a single string, you can use the code in this answer.

Edit: Stack Snippets don't support localStorage, so here is a link to JSFiddle.

Results

Chrome (45.0.2454.101): 5242878 characters
Firefox (40.0.1): 5242883 characters
Internet Explorer (11.0.9600.18036): 16386 122066 122070 characters

I get different results on each run in Internet Explorer.