# When to use JSON types in Supabase

Use JSON/JSONB columns in Supabase when you have these specific scenarios:

**Semi-structured data with varying schemas** - Perfect for user preferences, product attributes that differ by category, or configuration settings where each record might have different fields. For example, storing product metadata where electronics have different attributes than clothing.

**Nested object relationships** - When you need to store hierarchical data like address information (street, city, state, country), contact details with multiple phone numbers, or complex form responses with dynamic fields. This avoids creating multiple related tables for simple nested data.

**Flexible schema requirements** - Applications where you can’t predict all the fields upfront, like user-generated content, API responses you’re caching, or analytics events with varying properties.

**Rapid prototyping** - During development when your data structure is still evolving and you don’t want to constantly run migrations to add new columns.

**Avoid JSON/JSONB when:**

**You need frequent atomic updates** to individual properties - SQL columns are better for fields you’ll update often independently, like user status or counters.

**Heavy relational queries** - If you need complex JOINs or foreign key relationships, traditional normalized tables are more efficient.

**Frequent filtering/sorting** on specific fields - While JSONB can be indexed, dedicated columns with proper indexes perform better for fields you query regularly.

**Data integrity is critical** - SQL constraints, foreign keys, and data types provide stronger guarantees than JSON validation.

**Simple, well-defined structures** - A user’s email, name, and created_at timestamp should be regular columns, not JSON.

A good hybrid approach is using both: core, frequently-queried fields as columns, with a JSONB column for flexible metadata or preferences. This gives you the best of both worlds.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​