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Could you tell me if there is any difference between the idiom that's about the size of it and that's about the extent of it? For example:

Person A: What Kate's birthday party?

Person B: She dropped her birthday cake. That's about the size of it./That's about extent of it.

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  • Your cited context is a very poor one for these equivalent idiomatic expressions - which both mean That's all there is to it; I have nothing more to add. Note that semantically it makes little difference whether we include the word about in either your examples, or my alternative That's about all there is to it, but whereas about is entirely optional in my version, it's usually seriously unidiomatic not to include it with metaphorical size / extent.
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 28, 2021 at 14:00

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They both probably mean the same thing: "that's it, not much (or nothing) more".

But "that's about the size of it" is so uncommon in modern American English, it's almost a stretch for the reader to make the connection.

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