How many bits generated for each UTF8 char with 256 bit AES?

[charlestek]

For database table column size purposes, I'm trying to estimate the number
of bits I will generate when encrypting character strings (which of course
get converted into binary arrays before encryption).


For each input Unicode-8 character in a string, using 256 bit Aes keysize
encryption that has 256 bit blocks and CBC mode, with say
PaddingMode.ISO10126 (or even default padding) how many resultant bits do I
generate in the encrypted result?

I think that the blocks will set a minimum size resultant bit output for
less than a certain number of characters.


Thanks,

Phil