$ java -Xmx3g -XX:-UseCompactObjectHeaders MillionStrings (JDK 27) java.version = 27 strings : 1,000,000 (average 42.50 chars) coder == 0 (LATIN1) in set A : 1,000,000 coder == 1 (UTF16) in set B : 1,000,000 # WARNING: Unable to attach Serviceability Agent. sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.VM.isCompressedKlassPointersEnabled() A: lower-case ASCII only : 89,844,680 bytes (89.8 MB, 89.8 bytes per string) B: same + one euro sign : 133,839,824 bytes (133.8 MB, 133.8 bytes per string) B / A : 1.490