dep-size

Show the install size, dependency count, and tree depth of every package in your node_modules.

Find the heaviest dependencies in seconds. Zero dependencies. Works with any Node.js project.

Why

Your node_modules is 500 MB but you have no idea which package is responsible.

dep-size answers:

• How large is each dependency on disk?
• How many transitive dependencies does each one pull in?
• How deep is each dependency tree?

Install

npx dep-size

Or install globally:

npm install -g dep-size

Usage

# Show all dependencies sorted by size (largest first)
dep-size

# Show only top 10 heaviest packages
dep-size --top=10

# Include devDependencies
dep-size --dev

# Sort by transitive dependency count
dep-size --sort=deps

# Sort alphabetically
dep-size --sort=name

# JSON output for scripting
dep-size --json

# Analyze a specific project
dep-size ./my-project

Example Output

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Package                                 Version        Size    Deps    Depth
------------------------------------------------------------------------
typescript                              5.8.3       73.2 MB       0        0
@next/swc-win32-x64-msvc               16.1.7      48.1 MB       0        0
esbuild                                 0.25.1      10.4 MB       1        1
rollup                                  4.37.0       8.9 MB       1        1
prettier                                3.5.3        7.8 MB       0        0
eslint                                  9.22.0       3.2 MB      42        5
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total: 6 packages, 151.6 MB

Options

Flag	Description	Default
--json	Output as JSON	table
--sort=size	Sort by disk size	size
--sort=name	Sort alphabetically	-
--sort=deps	Sort by transitive deps	-
--top=N	Show only top N packages	all
--dev	Include devDependencies	false
--help	Show help	-

JSON Output

dep-size --json --top=3

[
  {
    "name": "typescript",
    "version": "5.8.3",
    "sizeBytes": 76742656,
    "transitiveDeps": 0,
    "depth": 0,
    "sizeHuman": "73.2 MB"
  }
]

Use Cases

• CI pipeline: Fail builds when total dependency size exceeds a threshold
• PR review: Check if a new dependency adds unexpected bloat
• Cleanup: Find packages pulling in hundreds of transitive dependencies
• Docker: Reduce container image size by identifying heavy dependencies

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• An existing node_modules directory (run npm install first)

License

MIT