In this paper, size effects on optical performance of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are investigated. The essential physical mechanism is studied by fabricating LEDs with various sizes of the active area and testing optical characteristics. It is found that micro-LEDs have better light extracting efficiency and thermal dissipation compared with broad-area LEDs, which is likely due to the small ratio of perimeter and active area. Furthermore, micro-LEDs are more beneficial for displays due to the stable wavelength under the low pulse width modulation (PWM) current density.