diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index b687e4a234..206bf75d72 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3314,6 +3314,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "hashbrown 0.13.1",
  "iox_time",
  "itertools",
+ "mutable_batch_lp",
  "rand",
  "schema",
  "snafu",
diff --git a/mutable_batch/Cargo.toml b/mutable_batch/Cargo.toml
index 0187c7d7d8..09554b8039 100644
--- a/mutable_batch/Cargo.toml
+++ b/mutable_batch/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,4 +19,5 @@ itertools = "0.10"
 workspace-hack = { path = "../workspace-hack"}
 
 [dev-dependencies]
+mutable_batch_lp = { path = "../mutable_batch_lp" }
 rand = "0.8"
diff --git a/mutable_batch/src/column.rs b/mutable_batch/src/column.rs
index 3b9b7efa45..b85ff4948d 100644
--- a/mutable_batch/src/column.rs
+++ b/mutable_batch/src/column.rs
@@ -243,6 +243,21 @@ impl Column {
         mem::size_of::<Self>() + data_size + self.valid.byte_len()
     }
 
+    /// The approximate memory size of the data in the column, not counting for stats or self or
+    /// whatever extra space has been allocated for the vecs
+    pub fn size_data(&self) -> usize {
+        match &self.data {
+            ColumnData::F64(_, _) => mem::size_of::<f64>() * self.len(),
+            ColumnData::I64(_, _) => mem::size_of::<i64>() * self.len(),
+            ColumnData::U64(_, _) => mem::size_of::<u64>() * self.len(),
+            ColumnData::Bool(_, _) => mem::size_of::<bool>() * self.len(),
+            ColumnData::Tag(_, dictionary, _) => {
+                mem::size_of::<DID>() * self.len() + dictionary.size()
+            }
+            ColumnData::String(v, _) => v.size(),
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Converts this column to an arrow [`ArrayRef`]
     pub fn to_arrow(&self) -> Result<ArrayRef> {
         let nulls = self.valid.to_arrow();
diff --git a/mutable_batch/src/lib.rs b/mutable_batch/src/lib.rs
index 27cc37d5dc..db574a6e14 100644
--- a/mutable_batch/src/lib.rs
+++ b/mutable_batch/src/lib.rs
@@ -212,6 +212,11 @@ impl MutableBatch {
                 .sum::<usize>()
             + self.columns.iter().map(|c| c.size()).sum::<usize>()
     }
+
+    /// Return the approximate memory size of the data in the batch, in bytes.
+    pub fn size_data(&self) -> usize {
+        self.columns.iter().map(|c| c.size_data()).sum::<usize>()
+    }
 }
 
 /// A description of the distribution of timestamps in a
@@ -249,3 +254,40 @@ impl TimestampSummary {
         self.record(Time::from_timestamp_nanos(timestamp_nanos))
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use mutable_batch_lp::lines_to_batches;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn size_data_without_nulls() {
+        let batches = lines_to_batches(
+            "cpu,t1=hello,t2=world f1=1.1,f2=1i 1234\ncpu,t1=h,t2=w f1=2.2,f2=2i 1234",
+            0,
+        )
+        .unwrap();
+        let batch = batches.get("cpu").unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(batch.size_data(), 128);
+
+        let batches = lines_to_batches(
+            "cpu,t1=hellomore,t2=world f1=1.1,f2=1i 1234\ncpu,t1=h,t2=w f1=2.2,f2=2i 1234",
+            0,
+        )
+        .unwrap();
+        let batch = batches.get("cpu").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(batch.size_data(), 138);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn size_data_with_nulls() {
+        let batches = lines_to_batches(
+            "cpu,t1=hello,t2=world f1=1.1 1234\ncpu,t2=w f1=2.2,f2=2i 1234",
+            0,
+        )
+        .unwrap();
+        let batch = batches.get("cpu").unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(batch.size_data(), 124);
+    }
+}