NTAG213, 215 oder 216: Welcher NFC-Chip passt zu dir?

NTAG213, NTAG215, NTAG216. Three chip types, three letter-number combinations. And the most common question we receive before a first NFC promotional product project: “Which one is right for us?” The honest answer: it depends on what you want to do with the chip. This article explains the differences so clearly that you can make an informed decision without a degree in engineering.

What all three NFC chips have in common

Before we break down the differences, the most important thing first: all three chip types come from the NTAG family by NXP Semiconductors. They are the global standard for NFC promotional products, NFC business cards, and smart advertising materials. That has two concrete advantages for you.

First, all NTAG chips from NXP are certified to the ISO/IEC 14443A standard. That means they work reliably with virtually every modern smartphone. No app download, no Bluetooth pairing, no setup required. You hold your device up to the chip, and the connection is made.

Second, all three are rewritable. You can change the content, whether that’s the URL, the landing page, or the digital contact, at any time. The promotional item stays the same. The content adapts to your current campaign. That’s exactly what makes NFC promotional products a sustainable tool.

The key difference between the three types comes down to two factors: storage capacity (measured in bytes) and the use case that capacity supports.

NTAG213: The all-rounder for 90% of promotional product projects

The NTAG213 is the most widely used NFC chip in the promotional products world. And for good reason.

It offers 144 bytes of usable storage. That sounds limited. But it isn’t, once you understand what you actually need that storage for. In an NFC promotional item, you’re not storing videos, images, or entire websites. You’re storing a URL. A short redirect URL typically requires between 30 and 50 bytes. That means the NTAG213 is more than sufficient for a smart redirect to your landing page, online shop, or digital contact profile.

Concrete use cases for the NTAG213:

• NFC pens that redirect to a product page or event landing page
• NFC stickers on packaging with a simple link to a product video
• Basic NFC business cards that transmit a vCard or a single URL
• Signage and information points in retail that link to specific product details

The NTAG213 is the most cost-effective chip in the NTAG family. If your use case is a URL redirect, you don’t need anything else. Buying more storage that then sits empty is simply unnecessary.

NTAG215: The chip for more data, fewer redirects

The NTAG215 comes with 504 bytes of usable storage. That’s more than three times as much as the NTAG213. When does that extra space make sense?

Any time you want to store more complex data structures directly on the chip. Not as a redirect, but as direct data. The most classic example is a full vCard 3.0: name, multiple phone numbers, email addresses, physical address, website, and a short note. All of that together can easily amount to 300 to 400 bytes. Too much for an NTAG213, but no problem at all for an NTAG215.

Concrete use cases for the NTAG215:

• Professional NFC business cards with a complete contact record and no dependency on an external URL
• Promotional items designed to carry multiple NDEF records (different data formats simultaneously)
• Applications where offline functionality matters and no redirect should be required
• Products in the gaming and collectibles space that need slightly more data stored directly on the chip

A note from experience: many NFC business card projects initially planned with the NTAG215 can be implemented just as effectively with an NTAG213 and a well-structured URL strategy. We recommend clarifying that briefly before placing an order.

NTAG216: When maximum storage is what matters

The NTAG216 is the specialist at the upper end of the standard NTAG family. With 888 bytes of usable storage, it offers more than six times the capacity of the NTAG213.

For standard NFC promotional products, you will rarely need this chip. The NTAG216 comes into play when a promotional item doesn’t just carry a URL, but functions as a data carrier in its own right. These are niche applications, but they do exist.

Concrete use cases for the NTAG216:

• Access control and membership cards where encrypted identification data is stored directly on the chip
• Promotional items with embedded cryptographic data for authenticity certification (anti-counterfeiting protection)
• Complex multi-record NDEF structures with multiple data packets in different formats
• Specialised B2B applications in logistics or production that are transferred onto a promotional item

Honest assessment: in typical promotional product use cases such as trade fairs, events, direct mailings, or hospitality giveaways, you won’t need the NTAG216. If you’re unsure, the NTAG213 is the right first choice.

The three chips compared directly

Here are the key differences at a glance:

The one question to answer before choosing a chip

Before you decide on a chip type, answer a single question: what happens when someone taps the promotional item?

If the answer is “they land on a page” (landing page, online shop, social media profile, form, video), then you need the NTAG213. Full stop. The URL is stored on the chip, and everything else happens in the user’s browser. The page itself can be as complex as you like. The chip only needs to carry the address.

If the answer is “all contact details should be transferable offline, without the device needing to go online”, then the NTAG215 comes into play.

If you need encrypted identification data or complex data structures stored directly on the chip, then the NTAG216 is your chip.

In practice, around 85 to 90% of our customers ultimately choose the NTAG213. Not because it’s the cheapest, but because it is technically more than sufficient for URL-based smart promotional items.

What actually happens at the tap (and why the chip type doesn’t matter there)

Here’s a point that’s often misunderstood: the intelligence of an NFC promotional item doesn’t live in the chip itself. It lives in the system behind it.

The chip carries a URL. That URL points to a smart redirect platform. That’s where the actual tracking happens. At the moment of the tap, the system captures the timestamp, approximate location, and device type, then redirects to the target destination. Whether that’s a personalised landing page, a form, or a product page is your decision.

This means: the NFC chip itself is the door mechanism. The house behind it is built with the right campaign objective. According to NFC tag analytics solutions, the trackable metrics include total taps, unique users, conversion rates, and device information. All of that regardless of whether NTAG213, 215, or 216 is embedded in the promotional item.

The Swiss case study of Helsana shows what’s possible: NFC tags in physical mailings that directed recipients to personalised landing pages achieved an interaction rate of 36%. That’s not coincidence. That’s measurable planning.

Which chip to choose for which promotional product

Even more specific, broken down by product category:

NFC pens: NTAG213. The pen is used as a giveaway, directing users to a landing page or contact profile. 144 bytes are fully sufficient.

NFC business cards: NTAG213 or NTAG215, depending on whether a redirect URL strategy or offline vCard transfer is preferred. For projects involving NFC business cards, we clarify this on a case-by-case basis.

NFC stickers: NTAG213 in almost all cases. NFC stickers are applied to packaging, displays, or print materials and redirect to digital content. The NTAG213 is the workhorse here.

Membership or access cards with a promotional message: NTAG216, as soon as cryptographic data needs to be stored directly on the chip.

Trade fair giveaways of all kinds: NTAG213. Fast, reliable, no app required, intuitive for every visitor. Particularly relevant for trade fairs and events, where the tap-to-landing process needs to work within seconds.

The technical question you never need to ask yourself

One final thought. When planning an NFC promotional product project, the chip question should never be your first conversation. The first question is: what should happen when someone taps? What is the goal of that interaction?

The answer to that question almost automatically determines the chip type. In 9 out of 10 cases, it’s the NTAG213. And that’s not a limitation. That’s efficiency. The right chip isn’t the most powerful one. It’s the one that fits your use case precisely.

NFC technology is built into every modern smartphone today. According to the NFC Forum, around

Further reading: This article is part of our comprehensive guide Understanding NFC Promotional Products: The Complete Guide.

Related articles: Smart Promotional Products: What NFC Really Does Differently | Sustainable NFC Promotional Items: Less Waste, More Impact | NFC Promotional Product Costs: Prices, Factors and Real ROI

Part of our guide: NFC Promotional Items: The Complete Guide

Author

Pascal Arnold

Founder of Smart Giveaway and owner of Pixels AG in Lucerne. Specialised in NFC-based promotional items and phygital marketing solutions with Swiss quality standards.