what is a metafield

June 26, 2025

Understanding Shopify Metafields and How to Use Them

Unleash Shopify customization with metafields. Learn what is a metafield, apply them for product details, and manage with ease. Start enhancing now!

When you first set up your Shopify store, you’re given a fixed set of fields for each product: title, price, description, maybe a few variant options. For many stores, that’s enough to get started. But once your catalog grows or your products need more context, those built-in fields start to feel limiting.

Let’s say you sell skincare products and want to show a list of ingredients, or maybe you’re selling apparel and need to display fabric blend, fit type, or washing instructions. Shopify doesn’t give you separate fields for those by default. That’s where metafields come in.

Metafields let you add custom fields across your store—from products and variants to collections and customer profiles. With Shopify’s latest updates, you can now manage these fields directly in your admin, no coding or apps required.

This guide covers what metafields are, where they’re used, how to set them up, and how to manage them at scale

What is a Metafield in Shopify?

A metafield is a custom field that lets you store extra information about your products, collections, customers, or orders, details that Shopify doesn’t include by default.

For instance, if you sell handmade furniture, you might want to show the wood type or care instructions for each piece. If you run a skincare brand, you could add a field for suitability (e.g., for sensitive skin) or application tips on the product page. These kinds of details make your listings more informative and easier for shoppers to trust.

These custom fields can be almost anything related to products, release dates, internal approval status, or part numbers, giving you full flexibility in how you present and manage product data.

You can add metafields to:

Products and product variants
Collections
Customers
Orders
Pages and blog posts
Your overall store settings (like global notices or size charts)

All of this can be set up inside your Shopify admin, no coding needed, and displayed exactly where it's most useful on your storefront.

Example:

This is an example of metafields being used to display structured content for delivery info and care instructions. The “Shipping to United States” and “Washing Instruction” sections inside the red square are not standard Shopify fields; they’ve likely been added using metafields to provide clear, editable content per product, improving both customer experience and store management. Source- Cider

Types of Metafields with Real Examples

Shopify lets you create metafields for multiple parts of your store. These fields allow you to attach extra details where they’re most relevant and useful.

Above is a screenshot from the Shopify admin showing all the types of metafields you can define.

Product Metafields

Product metafields are the most commonly used. They allow you to add specific attributes to a product that aren’t available in Shopify’s default setup. For example, in a footwear store, you can create metafields for “Heel Height,” “Material,” or “Design Details” and display them in a dedicated box on the product page.

In this example, the section titled Product Details includes fields like “2.5'' Flatform Mid Heel,” “Buckle Detail,” and a safety warning under California Proposition 65. These fields are managed as metafields in Shopify and shown in a clean, consistent format for every product. Source - Fashion Nova

Variant Metafields

If you want to add particular fields to your products, such as colors, pattern type, fabric, or heel style, you use variant metafields. These are custom fields that provide more options for a specific product variant and can be added directly to the product page of your Shopify store.

Here is an example where the customer has the option to choose any color:

Each circle in the image above represents a different variant. When a shopper selects one, the product images and label update accordingly. Variant metafields make this possible by linking each color option to its own gallery, label, or tag, without affecting the rest of the product. Source - Allbirds

Collection Metafields

If you want to add custom banners, promotional text, or sale messaging to a collection page, like for “Holiday Gifts” or “Father’s Day Specials”, you use collection metafields. These fields allow you to control what’s shown on each collection landing page without editing your store’s theme manually.

Here is an example where the store uses metafields to show a collection-specific banner promoting a limited-time offer:

The highlighted banner includes a custom discount, the name of the collection (Father’s Day), and a dynamic price display. This kind of targeted message is attached directly to the collection via metafields, so it can be easily changed or removed after the campaign ends, without affecting other parts of the site. Source - Suta

Customer Metafields

If you want to store and display details specific to each customer like preferences, allergies, loyalty tier, or fit profile, you use customer metafields. These fields let you personalize content, messages, or alerts inside the customer account section of your store.

Here is an example where the store uses metafields to show allergy information linked to the customer profile:

In this case, the customer has a known allergy to Sesame and Milk. That data is pulled from their profile via metafields and shown as a warning in their order history. This makes the experience more personalized and adds a safety layer, especially for stores dealing with consumables, skincare, or health-related products. Source

Order Metafields

Sometimes, merchants want to give customers more flexibility at checkout, like choosing between standard and express shipping, adding special notes, or tagging priority orders.

Order metafields make this possible. They let you attach structured choices or flags to each order, such as true/false checkboxes for delivery type, custom remarks, or even internal ratings to prioritize fulfillment.

The section below shows how these metafields can support checkout options and improve order handling:

Source - Sephora

Page, Blog, and Blog Post Metafields

Similarly, you can add metafields to Shopify Pages, Shopify Blogs, and Blog Posts thanks to the updates introduced with Online Store 2.0. This allows you to control how extra details, like SEO subtitles, reading time, author bios, or related product links, appear dynamically across your store’s content. It’s a useful way to make your blog and informational pages feel more integrated with your storefront.

By now, you’ve seen how metafields can handle everything from extra product info to checkout preferences. But beyond the individual use cases, they offer broader benefits that impact how your store runs, how flexible your content becomes, and how easy it is to scale.

Benefits of Using Metafields

Metafields help you manage more than just extra content. They make your storefront easier to update, reduce the need for apps, and give you tighter control over how product and page information is displayed. Here’s how they help across different areas of your store:

Keep your storefront clean and structured: Metafields let you organize product details into readable sections instead of cramming everything into the main description. This keeps your product pages clear, especially on mobile.
Edit once, update everywhere: Since metafields are tied to specific resources (like a product or collection), you can update data from your Shopify admin without touching your theme or duplicating content.
Avoid app overload: Many tasks that used to require a third-party app like showing ingredients, displaying size charts, or tagging holiday deals, can now be done directly with metafields.
Work with your theme, not against it: Most modern Shopify themes (especially Online Store 2.0) let you connect metafields directly to sections or blocks, so you can design flexible layouts without editing code.
Power personalization at scale: By storing data at the customer or order level, metafields help you personalize messages, track preferences, or add checkout options in a structured way.
Improve on-page SEO with structured data: Metafields let you define exact phrases like product material, brand, or usage tags that can be placed in headings, labels, or structured sections. This makes your content easier to target for long-tail searches and keeps SEO-critical terms outside the main description block.

Metafields give you more control over how your store handles content. To take advantage of them, you'll first need to create the fields inside your Shopify admin. Here's how to set up your first metafield from scratch.

How to Create a Metafield in Shopify

Before you start creating metafields, it helps to understand how they’re structured. Setting up a new metafield involves two parts:

Metafield definitions

These are templates you create to define the type of information you want to store (like “Fabric Type” or “Delivery Time”). A definition includes a name, a content type (such as text, number, or file), and the part of your store it applies to (such as products or collections). You only need to create each definition once.

Metafield values

These are the actual details you enter per product, collection, or other item. For example, “100% Organic Cotton” might be the value added to the “Fabric Type” metafield for one product, while another product might say “Polyester blend.”

Once you understand how definitions and values work, you can create your first metafield directly from your Shopify admin. Here's how to do it, step by step:

Step 1: Go to Settings → Custom Data

In your Shopify admin, click Settings in the bottom-left corner, then select Custom data. This is where you’ll manage metafields for different parts of your store.

Step 2: Choose a Resource Type

Select the part of your store where you want to add the metafield such as Products, Variants, or Collections.

Step 3: Click “Add Definition.”

Click the Add definition button. Give your metafield a clear name (like “Care Instructions”) and optional description. Shopify will generate a key for it automatically, or you can customize one.

Step 4: Set the Content Type

Choose the data type this field will hold: text, number, file, URL, date, true/false, and more. You can also set validations, like character limits or allowed file types.

Step 5: Save the Definition

Once saved, your metafield definition is ready and will appear on the edit page of any item under that resource (e.g. each product page in the admin).

Step 6: Add Values from the Admin

Go to any product (or collection, etc.), scroll to the Metafields section, and enter your custom value like “Hand wash only” for care instructions or “Ships in 3 days” for delivery time.

How to Display Metafields in Your Storefront

Once you've created and filled in metafields, you can display them on your storefront using Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 theme editor. This allows you to connect metafield values directly to sections or blocks without editing any code.

Step 1: Go to Online Store → Themes: From your Shopify admin, click Online Store, then Themes. Find your current theme and click Customize to open the visual editor.

Step 2: Navigate to the Page Type: Use the preview navigator to open the page where you want to show the meta field, such as a specific product, collection, or page template.

Step 3: Add or Select a Section: Choose an existing block (like a text block or image) or add a new section where you want the custom data to appear.

Step 4: Click “Connect Dynamic Source.” If the block supports dynamic content, you'll see a stacked diamond icon next to the field. Click it and choose your metafield from the list. Only metafields that match the block’s content type (text, image, etc.) will appear.

Step 5: Save and Preview: Once connected, Shopify will pull the actual metafield value from your product or page. You can preview how it looks and click Save when you're done.

Want more control over how your product images, swatches, or variant content appear?
StarApps apps like Color Swatch King and Variant Image Automator use metafields to automate and improve storefront display, no coding required.

How to Bulk Edit Metafields

If you need to update metafield values for multiple products or collections at once, Shopify’s bulk editor makes this process quick and manageable, without using any external tools.

Step 1: Go to the Resource List: From your Shopify admin, go to the section you want to update like Products, Collections, or Variants.

Step 2: Select Items to Edit: Use the checkboxes to select the items you want to update. Then click the “Bulk edit” button at the top of the list.

Step 3: Add the Metafield Column: Inside the bulk editor, click “Columns” and scroll down to find the metafield you want to edit. Select it to add that metafield as a column in the table view.

Step 4: Enter Values: You can now type values directly into each row, just like editing a spreadsheet. Make sure the content matches the metafield’s type (e.g. plain text, numbers, true/false).

Step 5: Save Your Changes: Once you've updated the values, click Save in the top-right corner to apply your changes across all selected items.

After creating and editing metafields across your store, it's important to keep them organized. A messy setup can lead to duplicate fields and broken storefront displays, especially as your product catalog grows.

Best Practices for Metafield Organization

Creating meta fields is easy, but managing them at scale requires structure. These best practices will help keep your meta field setup clean, consistent, and easy to maintain.

Use consistent naming: Stick to clear, predictable labels when naming your metafields like fabric_type or care_instructions. Avoid vague terms like “info_1” or “custom_text”.
Group metafields using namespaces: Use namespaces to group related metafields together. For example, use specs for all technical details or shipping for logistics-related fields. This keeps your setup cleaner and easier to manage later.
Document your field structure: Keep a simple reference list of all metafield definitions, where they're used, and what type of content they hold. This helps when training new staff or updating themes.
Avoid overlapping definitions: Don’t create multiple metafields for the same purpose (e.g., “material” and “fabric”) unless they serve different content types or storefront logic.
Pin frequently used fields: In the admin, you can pin key metafields so they always appear at the top of the product or collection edit page, making them easier to find and update.
Clean up unused metafields regularly: If a metafield is no longer used in your theme or processes, remove or unpublish it to prevent clutter and accidental confusion.

Before you create dozens of metafields across your store, it’s worth understanding the limits Shopify sets on how much data you can store and what types are allowed.

Metafield Limits and Data Type Constraints

While metafields offer flexibility, they do come with certain limits. Understanding these early can help you avoid errors or unexpected issues as your store scales.

Maximum number of metafields per resource: Shopify allows 200 metafields per resource type (e.g. per product or per collection). If you're managing a large catalog, plan your fields carefully to avoid hitting this limit.
Character limits for text fields
- Single-line text: up to 65,535 characters
- Multi-line text: also up to 65,535 characters
- Keep in mind that very long text fields can be harder to manage in the admin and may not display well on all themes.
File and image metafield limits
- Files must be under 20 MB
- Accepted types include PDF, JPG, PNG, and a few others
- File URLs are hosted securely by Shopify and count as one field
True/false fields: These are stored as boolean values, useful for toggles like “Show badge?” or “Is featured?”. They don’t support custom labels, so they should be used where the meaning is clear.
Data validation: When creating metafields, Shopify allows you to set rules, like minimum/maximum character count, required format (e.g., email or URL), or accepted file types. These constraints help keep your data clean.
Performance note: Overloading your product pages with too many metafields, especially ones tied to theme logic, can slow down your storefront. Use only what you need and avoid duplicating fields.

As you work more with custom data, you may come across another feature called metaobjects. While they share similarities with metafields, they serve a different purpose, and it’s important to know when to use one over the other.

Difference Between Metafields and Metaobjects

If you’re planning to reuse the same custom content across multiple products or pages, metafields may not be the right fit. That’s where metaobjects come in. Understanding the difference between the two can help you choose the right tool for each type of content.

Metafields are used to store custom data directly on existing resources like products, variants, or collections. Each metafield is tied to a single item and is ideal for product-specific details like care instructions, material, or delivery notes.
Metaobjects are reusable content blocks that can be linked across multiple resources. They’re ideal when the same set of data needs to appear in different places for example, a size guide, fabric care chart, or a staff profile that appears across multiple products or pages.
Metafields store single-use data tied to one item while metaobjects are for repeating data that can be managed centrally and used in many places.

Shopify’s newer themes and custom data setups often use both. Use metafields when the data is unique per item. Use metaobjects when you want to manage and reuse the same data across your store.

Even with everything set up correctly, metafields may occasionally not appear as expected on the storefront. Here are some common issues to watch for and how to fix them quickly.

Troubleshooting Metafield Display Issues

Even after creating and connecting metafields, there may be times when the content doesn’t appear as expected on your storefront. Here are a few common issues and how to resolve them:

The metafield value isn’t showing: Double-check that the metafield is populated for the specific item (product, collection, etc.). If the value is empty, nothing will display, even if the definition is correct.
The metafield doesn’t appear in the theme editor: Only metafields that match the content type supported by a block (text, image, file, etc.) will show up as dynamic sources. Also, ensure that your metafield is published and attached to the correct resource type.
The content type doesn’t match: For example, if your theme block expects an image but the metafield is set as text, Shopify won’t let you connect it. Fix this by editing the metafield definition to match the correct content type.
Theme section doesn’t support dynamic sources: Not all theme blocks allow dynamic content. Try using a different section or switching to a newer Online Store 2.0-compatible theme that fully supports metafields.
Old metafields or definitions still appear: If you renamed or deleted a metafield but it’s still visible in the theme or admin, try clearing your browser cache or refreshing the editor. Stale metafield definitions may take a moment to disappear.

Conclusion

Metafields give you the flexibility to customize your Shopify store beyond default settings, whether you’re adding product-specific details, or organizing collection content more efficiently. When used well, they reduce your reliance on apps, speed up content updates, and keep your storefront clean and scalable.

If you’re looking to take even more control of how product information, swatches, variant logic, or SEO content is displayed in your store, explore the full suite of Shopify apps by StarApps built specifically to work with metafields and Online Store 2.0 features. Explore StarApps Tools on Shopify

FAQs

Do I need coding skills to use Shopify metafields?
No. Shopify allows you to create, edit, and display metafields directly from the admin using its visual editor. As long as you're using an Online Store 2.0-compatible theme, no coding is required.
Can metafields be used to show different content for product variants?
Yes. Variant metafields let you add custom content to each version of a product—such as different sizing notes, images, or care instructions for each color or style.
What happens if a metafield is left empty?
If no value is added to a metafield, nothing will display on the storefront where that field is connected. It won't break your page—it will simply stay hidden unless filled in.
Can I bulk edit metafields for multiple products?
Yes. Shopify’s built-in bulk editor lets you update metafield values across several products or collections at once, similar to editing a spreadsheet.
What’s the difference between metafields and metaobjects?
Metafields store unique data tied to one item (like a product-specific feature). Metaobjects store reusable content (like a size guide or warranty policy) that you can link across multiple products or pages.