2023-09-06 Updated 2023-11-05 csharp dotnet dotnet-8

.NET 8 – Memory<byte> is serialized as base64

Starting with .NET 8, both Memory<byte> and ReadOnlyMemory<byte> are serialized as Base64 strings, while other types like Memory<int> remain JSON arrays.

Starting with .NET 8, both Memory<byte> and ReadOnlyMemory<byte> are serialized as Base64 strings. Let’s look at a quick example:

var bar = new byte[] { 28, 70, 0 };

JsonSerializer.Serialize<Memory<byte>>(bar);
JsonSerializer.Serialize<ReadOnlyMemory<byte>>(bar);
// Output: "HEYA"

In contrast, Memory<int> and the likes will continue to be serialized as JSON arrays.

JsonSerializer.Serialize<Memory<int>>(new int[] { 28, 70, 0 });
// Output: [28,70,0]