[ars]

This is why most databases have separate char/varchar and text types: char and varchar are stored inline, and text is stored externally.

PostgreSQL doesn't do this, there is no difference between any of the character types, they are all stored the same way, and the type only serves to validate the data. See: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-character.h...

MySQL even has TINYTEXT for when you want to store small strings outside the table (for performance). With tinytext only a single byte is stored in the table, and the rest externally, so I/O is reduced when doing a full table scan, if you don't need to read the tinytext column.

[karmakaze]

For MySQL with the default InnoDB where text bytes also depends on the 'row format' in use. "The InnoDB storage engine supports four row formats: REDUNDANT, COMPACT, DYNAMIC, and COMPRESSED."