# Snowflake: Error parsing JSON — Object size exceeds maximum length of 16777216 bytes

- **ID:** `data/snowflake-semi-structured-field-exceeds-limit`
- **Domain:** data
- **Category:** data_error
- **Error Code:** `100132`
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 85%

## Root Cause

A single JSON object in a VARIANT column exceeds the 16 MB size limit for semi-structured data fields in Snowflake.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| Snowflake 7.0 | active | — | — |
| Snowflake 8.0 | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **Split the large JSON object into multiple smaller objects (e.g., array of objects) and load them as separate rows using FLATTEN.** (90% success)
   ```
   Split the large JSON object into multiple smaller objects (e.g., array of objects) and load them as separate rows using FLATTEN.
   ```
2. **Store the JSON as a TEXT column (VARCHAR) instead of VARIANT, then use PARSE_JSON() only when querying smaller subsets.** (80% success)
   ```
   Store the JSON as a TEXT column (VARCHAR) instead of VARIANT, then use PARSE_JSON() only when querying smaller subsets.
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **Increasing the VARIANT column size or using a different data type like TEXT** — Snowflake's semi-structured limit is a hard limit; changing column type does not bypass it. (100% fail)
- **Compressing the JSON data before loading** — Compression reduces storage but the parsed object size remains the same; the limit is on the parsed object, not the file. (80% fail)