We study the Fourier transform \(\mathcal {F}\) on \(\mathbb {R}^n\) as a bounded but non-compact operator and quantify its degree of non-compactness via strict singularity and finite strict singularity (Bernstein numbers). For \(1<p<2\) we prove a dichotomy for \( \mathcal {F}:L^p(\mathbb {R}^n)\rightarrow L^{p',r}(\mathbb {R}^n), \qquad \tfrac{1}{p}+\tfrac{1}{p'}=1, \) namely: non-compact and not strictly singular at \(r=p\) (so \(L^{p',p}\) is optimal), and finitely strictly singular for \(r>p\) . For \(2<p\le \infty \) we show that \( \mathcal {F}:L^p(\mathbb {R}^n)\rightarrow B_p^{\,s}(\mathbb {R}^n) \) is not strictly singular at \(s= d_p^n{:}{=}2n(\frac{1}{p}-\frac{1}{2})<0\) , and is finitely strictly singular for \(s<d_p^n\) ; the dual results for \(\mathcal {F}:B_p^{\,s}\rightarrow L^p\) ( \(1<p<2\) ) is also studied.