Shopify has officially increased the product variations limit for all plans from October 15th, 2025. This blog covers all the key questions and details you need to know about this major update. If you are considering migrating to Shopify or simply looking to optimize your existing store, this guide will provide insight to the new 2048 variant limit.
What is the new product variants limit on Shopify?
Can default Shopify stores list more than three options? Shopify Answered now. No
Merchants can now list up to 2048 variants per product. This is a significant upgrade from the previous limit of 100 product variants. The long-awaited update will now give businesses more flexibility in managing complex product catalogs.
Does the recent Shopify update allow more product options within a single product, or are there now unlimited options?
No. Shopify has not increased the number of options per product, it still remains limited to 3 options per product. Many merchants expected the increased limit of product variants would also include an increase in option limit to 5, Unfortunately Shopify has not pushed this feature in the latest upgrade.
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Explore Shopify Data Entry ServicesHow many values are allowed per option with the new 2048 Shopify product variants limit?
The number of values allowed per option will depend on how many options (example; size, color, style, configuration) you would need to utilize for a single product.
- If a product has only one option (e.g., Size), you can list up to 2048 option values/variants.
- If a listing has two product options (e.g., Size and Color), you can enter up to 45 values per option.
- For catalog listing with three product options, you can enter around 12 and 13 values per option. However the total count of combination of option values should remain within the 2048 product variants limit.
With the new update, can category metafields be still used to create Shopify product variant?
Yes, category metafields can still be linked and used for product variation. This increased product variants limit is strengthening the concept of category metafield based option set and swatches.
With the variation limit increased to 2048, what is the maximum number of variant images that can be assigned to a single Shopify product?
Shopify has limited the number of media files per product to 250. This includes all images, videos, and 3D models assigned to a product. The variant images will count to the total number of media files, hence a maximum of only 250 unique variant images can be used per product.
Possible bug that Shopify may correct in the future: During testing, we observed that the 250 media files limit is primarily enforced when new products are created on store via flat-file upload (CSV import).When we updated products and variant images manually in admin or via CSV file upload this restriction was not being applied correctly.
If you are currently utilizing a third-party variation plugin, should you move to Shopify default variations?
If almost all of the products in your store have 3 or less than 3 product options (example: size, color, material, style) and the total product variants doesn’t exceed 2048. Our recommendation is to switch back to Shopify’s default variation system. Native variations accessible via Shopify admin panel are far more efficient and easier to update than most third-party plugins that have paid and free plans. For example, a price update for Shopify product variants can be carried out via CSV uploads or the Shopify bulk editor, while it might not be that easy to update price and option values in other third-party apps.
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Which Shopify store theme supports the increased variant limit?
Shopify’s own themes, such as Dawn and Horizon, fully support the new expanded variant limit. However, if you’re using the Dawn theme, note that versions earlier than 15.0.0 only support up to 250 variants per product. To take advantage of the increased limit, you’ll have to install version 15.0.0 or later.
For Shopify customers using a third-party themes, support of the increased variant limit will vary. It’s best to contact your theme developer directly to confirm whether the theme has been built or updated to handle Shopify’s new variant system. If your current theme does not support this upgrade, you have the choice to continue using apps or migrate to a pre-built or custom theme that utilize product variants GraphQL API.
Which apps could be affected by Shopify’s new product variants limit?
Inventory and ERP Integration Apps, Bundling and Configurator Apps which offer unlimited product options, plugins that visually modify variant picker section are examples of apps that may require an update to function correctly. That said, Shopify had already provided early access to developers to test the compatibility of increased product variants well before launch. So most apps you utilize would have already been updated to support the new system and should work seamlessly with the 2048 variants.
Has Shopify added a built-in conditional logic feature in its latest variation update?
No, Shopify has not yet introduced conditional logic feature for displaying product variants. Merchants will still need to use third-party apps to show or hide product options and option values based on customers’ previous selections.
Have any changes been made to Shopify Admin to accommodate for the increase in product variants?
No major changes have been made to Shopify Admin interface. However we did notice slight slowdown in page-speed and performance when interacting with admin pages that that display or manage all 2048 product variants.
Which industry is likely to benefit from the new Shopify 2000+ product variants limit?
Businesses in the Fashion and apparels, Furniture, Print-on-demand sectors would really benefit from increase in Shopify's product variants limit. However Shopify still limits 3 options per product, this means businesses that sell highly customizable products with more than three product options, such as multi-component jewelry, lighting with multiple configurations, or modular products will still need to rely on third-party apps to handle the additional product options.
Conclusion
With merchants now able to list products with over 2000 variations, Shopify has addressed one of its long-standing limitations. Many businesses were frustrated by the old 100-product variants cap, some migrated to other eCommerce platforms because of it. Similarly, companies interested in Shopify’s robust app ecosystem were hesitant to make the switch their store to Shopify platform due to this restriction.
The new upgrade is likely to encourage more businesses to stay on Shopify and plenty more to migrate their stores to Shopify, taking advantage of its ecosystem and scalability.
That said, managing 2,000+ product variants manually or even via Shopify’s bulk editor can still be a significant challenge. So if you find yourself needing ready assistance organizing and managing your product catalog efficiently, don’t hesitate to check out the services we offer.