diff --git a/esphome/components/json/json_util.cpp b/esphome/components/json/json_util.cpp
index 643f23f499..dbdf6e3486 100644
--- a/esphome/components/json/json_util.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/json/json_util.cpp
@@ -19,15 +19,19 @@ std::string build_json(const json_build_t &f) {
 
 bool parse_json(const std::string &data, const json_parse_t &f) {
   // NOLINTBEGIN(clang-analyzer-cplusplus.NewDeleteLeaks) false positive with ArduinoJson
-  JsonDocument doc = parse_json(data);
+  JsonDocument doc = parse_json(reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t *>(data.c_str()), data.size());
   if (doc.overflowed() || doc.isNull())
     return false;
   return f(doc.as<JsonObject>());
   // NOLINTEND(clang-analyzer-cplusplus.NewDeleteLeaks)
 }
 
-JsonDocument parse_json(const std::string &data) {
+JsonDocument parse_json(const uint8_t *data, size_t len) {
   // NOLINTBEGIN(clang-analyzer-cplusplus.NewDeleteLeaks) false positive with ArduinoJson
+  if (data == nullptr || len == 0) {
+    ESP_LOGE(TAG, "No data to parse");
+    return JsonObject();  // return unbound object
+  }
 #ifdef USE_PSRAM
   auto doc_allocator = SpiRamAllocator();
   JsonDocument json_document(&doc_allocator);
@@ -38,7 +42,7 @@ JsonDocument parse_json(const std::string &data) {
     ESP_LOGE(TAG, "Could not allocate memory for JSON document!");
     return JsonObject();  // return unbound object
   }
-  DeserializationError err = deserializeJson(json_document, data);
+  DeserializationError err = deserializeJson(json_document, data, len);
 
   if (err == DeserializationError::Ok) {
     return json_document;
diff --git a/esphome/components/json/json_util.h b/esphome/components/json/json_util.h
index a8f452d7d0..91cc84dc14 100644
--- a/esphome/components/json/json_util.h
+++ b/esphome/components/json/json_util.h
@@ -50,8 +50,13 @@ std::string build_json(const json_build_t &f);
 
 /// Parse a JSON string and run the provided json parse function if it's valid.
 bool parse_json(const std::string &data, const json_parse_t &f);
+
 /// Parse a JSON string and return the root JsonDocument (or an unbound object on error)
-JsonDocument parse_json(const std::string &data);
+JsonDocument parse_json(const uint8_t *data, size_t len);
+/// Parse a JSON string and return the root JsonDocument (or an unbound object on error)
+inline JsonDocument parse_json(const std::string &data) {
+  return parse_json(reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t *>(data.c_str()), data.size());
+}
 
 /// Builder class for creating JSON documents without lambdas
 class JsonBuilder {