Which NFC tag type should I buy?

NTAG215 is the safest all-round choice: 504 bytes is enough for a URL, a Wi-Fi login or a vCard contact, with room to spare, and it's the same chip used by Nintendo Amiibo so it's widely stocked and cheap. Use NTAG213 only if you're writing a short URL and want the lowest price; use NTAG216 if you plan to store several records or a long block of text on one tag.

Does tag memory size affect how fast a tag scans?

No. Read and write speed is set by the NFC radio and the amount of data actually written, not by the tag's total capacity. A short URL on an NTAG216 reads just as fast as the same URL on an NTAG213.

Can I use a bigger tag than I need?

Yes — a larger tag never hurts, it's just unused memory. Buy NTAG216 for everything if you don't want to think about sizing, at a small cost premium per tag.

Will any NFC tag work with my phone?

NDEF-formatted tags (NTAG213/215/216 and similar) read and write on both Android and iPhone with [NFC Write & Read Tags](/apps/nfc-write-read). MIFARE Classic tags are the exception — see the table below.

NFCGuide

NFC Tag Types Compared: NTAG213 vs NTAG215 vs NTAG216

5 min readUpdated 2026-10-06

Short answer: for most uses, buy NTAG215 (504 bytes) — it fits a URL, Wi-Fi login or contact card comfortably and is the cheapest tag with room to spare. Use NTAG213 (144 bytes) only for a single short link where price per tag matters most, and NTAG216 (888 bytes) when you need to store more data on one tag, such as several records or a longer block of text.

Not sure how to put data on a tag once you've picked one? See how to write NFC tags for the step-by-step process using our NFC Write & Read Tags app.

NFC Tag Types at a Glance

Tag Type	User Memory	Fits	iPhone	Android
NTAG213	144 bytes	A single short URL or a few words of text	Reads & writes (NDEF)	Reads & writes (NDEF)
NTAG215	504 bytes	A URL, Wi-Fi network login, or one vCard contact	Reads & writes (NDEF)	Reads & writes (NDEF)
NTAG216	888 bytes	Multiple records, or a longer block of text	Reads & writes (NDEF)	Reads & writes (NDEF)
MIFARE Classic 1K	up to 1KB raw (less once formatted)	Legacy access-control and transit use cases	Not readable by iPhone's NFC framework	Support varies by phone and app

User-memory figures for NTAG213/215/216 are from NXP's own NTAG213/215/216 datasheet (see Sources). The MIFARE Classic figure is the chip's raw storage; usable space is smaller once the tag's internal sector structure is accounted for, and we did not find a single reliable usable-bytes number worth stating here.

Why NTAG215 Is the Default Recommendation

504 bytes sounds small, but a typical NDEF record is compact:

A URL like https://yalintech.com is under 30 bytes.
A Wi-Fi network credential (SSID + password) is usually under 60 bytes.
A vCard contact (name, phone, email) typically runs 150-300 bytes depending on how much detail you include.

NTAG215 covers all of these with room left over, and because it's the same chip used in Nintendo Amiibo figures, it's manufactured at high volume and sold cheaply in blank form.

When to Step Up to NTAG216

Choose NTAG216 (888 bytes) when a single tag needs to carry more than one piece of data — for example a contact card plus a note, or a longer passage of text that won't fit in 504 bytes. The extra memory costs a little more per tag but removes any risk of running out of space mid-write.

The MIFARE Classic Caveat

MIFARE Classic tags are common in older access-control cards and transit cards, but they are not readable by iPhone's NFC framework — Apple's Core NFC only supports NDEF and a specific set of other tag formats, and MIFARE Classic isn't one of them. Android support varies by phone model and by the app trying to read the tag. If you want a tag that's guaranteed to work the same way on both platforms with our app, stick to NDEF-formatted NTAG213/215/216 tags rather than MIFARE Classic.