2026-11-05 · Printags Team
NTAG213 or NTAG216: Which NFC Chip for Your Card?
NTAG213 holds 144 bytes, NTAG216 holds 888. What that means for an NFC card: a link or a full vCard, which phones read them, and which one to order.
Both chips come from the same NTAG family, both are read by the same phones, and both look identical inside a PVC card. The difference is one number: how much the chip can store.
The difference in one line
- NTAG213: 144 bytes of user memory.
- NTAG216: 888 bytes of user memory.
A byte is one character of plain text, roughly. 144 bytes hold a web link and a little more. 888 bytes hold about six times as much.
What fits in 144 bytes
A typical business card writes one link to the chip: your profile, your portfolio, a booking page or your Google review page. A link of normal length fits in 144 bytes with room to spare, and the phone opens it in its browser when it touches the card.
If the card only has to open a page, NTAG213 is enough. It is the chip the NFC business card and the Google review card use by default in the Printags shop.
When 888 bytes help
NTAG216 is for the cases where the chip itself has to carry more:
- A full vCard: name, job title, phone, email, address and website written directly in the chip, so the contact can be saved without opening any page.
- A long link with tracking or customisation parameters.
- A few lines of text that must be readable without a connection.
Because the data lives on the card, it works even where there is no network. The trade-off is that a vCard written to a chip is fixed: a change of phone number means a new card, whereas a link to a page can be updated at any time. See how an NFC business card works.
Do phones read them differently?
No. Both are NFC Forum Type 2 tags, read at 13.56 MHz. Most Android phones read them with the screen on, and recent iPhones (XS and later) read them without an app. Print the link as a QR code on the back as well, for the phones that do not read NFC.
Which one to order
| You want to | Choose |
|---|---|
| Open a link or a review page | NTAG213 |
| Store a full vCard on the card | NTAG216 |
| Prove a card is genuine, with built-in encryption | NTAG424 |
| Open a door with a MIFARE reader | MIFARE 1K |
Printags writes the content you choose to the chip before shipping, with free encoding on both NTAG213 and NTAG216, from a single card. The chip is locked once written, unless you ask for it to stay rewritable.
Order one in the shop: NFC PVC card NTAG213 or NFC PVC card NTAG216. The price per card falls as the quantity rises, and the current grid is on the pricing page.