overhead of varchar(max) columns with small data

Question

As part of a bulk load of data from an external source the stageing table is defined with varchar(max) columns. The idea being that each column will be able to hold whateve

Answer 1

The storage overhead is the same between varchar(n) and varchar(max) The storage size is the actual length of data entered + 2 bytes

MSDN Reference

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https://stackoverflow.com/questions/166371/varcharmax-versus-varcharn-in-ms-sql-server Are there any disadvantages to always using nvarchar(MAX)?