diff --git a/cpp/src/copying/concatenate.cu b/cpp/src/copying/concatenate.cu
index 9b9e780965a..ddf39e21685 100644
--- a/cpp/src/copying/concatenate.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/copying/concatenate.cu
@@ -403,26 +403,7 @@ void traverse_children::operator()<cudf::string_view>(host_span<column_view cons
   // verify offsets
   check_offsets_size(cols);
 
-  // chars
-  size_t const total_char_count = std::accumulate(
-    cols.begin(), cols.end(), std::size_t{}, [stream](size_t a, auto const& b) -> size_t {
-      strings_column_view scv(b);
-      return a + (scv.is_empty() ? 0
-                  // if the column is unsliced, skip the offset retrieval.
-                  : scv.offset() > 0
-                    ? cudf::detail::get_value<size_type>(
-                        scv.offsets(), scv.offset() + scv.size(), stream) -
-                        cudf::detail::get_value<size_type>(scv.offsets(), scv.offset(), stream)
-                  // if the offset() is 0, it can still be sliced to a shorter length. in this case
-                  // we only need to read a single offset. otherwise just return the full length
-                  // (chars_size())
-                  : scv.size() + 1 == scv.offsets().size()
-                    ? scv.chars_size()
-                    : cudf::detail::get_value<size_type>(scv.offsets(), scv.size(), stream));
-    });
-  CUDF_EXPECTS(total_char_count <= static_cast<size_t>(std::numeric_limits<size_type>::max()),
-               "Total number of concatenated chars exceeds the column size limit",
-               std::overflow_error);
+  // chars -- checked in call to cudf::strings::detail::concatenate
 }
 
 template <>
diff --git a/cpp/tests/copying/concatenate_tests.cpp b/cpp/tests/copying/concatenate_tests.cpp
index c81f1772d10..b8faa0bd081 100644
--- a/cpp/tests/copying/concatenate_tests.cpp
+++ b/cpp/tests/copying/concatenate_tests.cpp
@@ -193,26 +193,10 @@ TEST_F(StringColumnTest, ConcatenateColumnViewLarge)
   CUDF_TEST_EXPECT_COLUMNS_EQUAL(*results, expected);
 }
 
-TEST_F(StringColumnTest, ConcatenateTooManyColumns)
+TEST_F(StringColumnTest, ConcatenateManyColumns)
 {
-  std::vector<char const*> h_strings{"aaa",
-                                     "bb",
-                                     "",
-                                     "cccc",
-                                     "d",
-                                     "ééé",
-                                     "ff",
-                                     "gggg",
-                                     "",
-                                     "h",
-                                     "iiii",
-                                     "jjj",
-                                     "k",
-                                     "lllllll",
-                                     "mmmmm",
-                                     "n",
-                                     "oo",
-                                     "ppp"};
+  std::vector<char const*> h_strings{
+    "aaa", "bb", "", "cccc", "d", "ééé", "ff", "gggg", "", "h", "iiii", "jjj"};
 
   std::vector<char const*> expected_strings;
   std::vector<cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper> wrappers;
@@ -228,6 +212,18 @@ TEST_F(StringColumnTest, ConcatenateTooManyColumns)
   CUDF_TEST_EXPECT_COLUMNS_EQUAL(*results, expected);
 }
 
+TEST_F(StringColumnTest, ConcatenateTooLarge)
+{
+  std::string big_str(1000000, 'a');  // 1 million bytes x 5 = 5 million bytes
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper input{big_str, big_str, big_str, big_str, big_str};
+  std::vector<cudf::column_view> input_cols;
+  // 5 millions bytes x 500 = 2.5GB > std::numeric_limits<size_type>::max()
+  for (int i = 0; i < 500; ++i) {
+    input_cols.push_back(input);
+  }
+  EXPECT_THROW(cudf::concatenate(input_cols), std::overflow_error);
+}
+
 struct TableTest : public cudf::test::BaseFixture {};
 
 TEST_F(TableTest, ConcatenateTables)