Editing Comparison of common data file formats (section)

=== JSON Files ===
JSON files: suitable for complex or flexibly structured field definitions. A JSON file containing multiple records with a size of approximately 250 MB has been encountered in practice; a read error occurred and the file had to be split before processing.
The JSON format itself has no row limit, but the bottleneck is that the entire file must be loaded into memory when read — the larger the file, the more likely an out-of-memory error will occur.<ref>Quora — What is the practical limit on the size of a JSON message?: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-practical-limit-on-the-size-of-a-JSON-message-for-an-internet-application</ref>

In practice, it is recommended to avoid storing multiple records in a single JSON file and to use JSONL instead — that is, JSON with newline characters delimiting individual records. This format is suitable for streaming line-by-line with a program, preventing out-of-memory errors.