Methods and apparatus are provided for performing byte caching using a chunk size based on the object type of the object being cached. Byte caching is performed by receiving at least one data packet from at least one network node; extracting at least one data object from the at least one data packet; identifying an object type associated with the at least one data packet; determining a chunk size associated with the object type; and storing at least a portion of the at least one data packet in a byte cache based on the determined chunk size. The chunk size of the object type can be determined, for example, by evaluating one or more additional criteria, such as network conditions and object size. The object type may be, for example, an image object type; an audio object type; a video object type; and a text object type.