Shopify Product Taxonomy: category IDs and list
Find the Shopify category ID and path for common items below, see which Google category Shopify maps each one to, and get the full list from Shopify's own release.
Quick answers: which category does it belong to?
| Item | Category path | Standard | ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeans | Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Pants > Jeans | Shopify category | aa-1-12-4 |
| T-shirt | Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Clothing Tops > T-Shirts | Shopify category | aa-1-13-8 |
| Sneakers | Apparel & Accessories > Shoes > Sneakers | Shopify category | aa-8-8 |
| Mattress | Furniture > Beds & Accessories > Mattresses | Shopify category | fr-2-6 |
| Sofa | Furniture > Sofas | Shopify category | fr-22 |
| Hair dryer | Health & Beauty > Personal Care > Hair Care > Hair Styling Tools > Hair Dryers | Shopify category | hb-3-10-12-6 |
| Smartphone | Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile & Smart Phones | Shopify category | el-4-8-5 |
| Laptop | Electronics > Computers > Laptops | Shopify category | el-6-6 |
| Dog food | Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Dog Supplies > Dog Food | Shopify category | ap-2-3-3 |
| Coffee | Food, Beverages & Tobacco > Beverages > Coffee | Shopify category | fb-1-3 |
Source: Shopify/product-taxonomy on GitHub (MIT licence), release 2026-08
Shopify Taxonomy to Google product category
The owner of this standard publishes a mapping to Google's product taxonomy. These rows are copied from that file, so you can check the google_product_category your feed sends.
| Item | Shopify Taxonomy category | Google product category |
|---|---|---|
| Jeans | aa-1-12-4Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Pants > Jeans | 204Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Pants |
| T-shirt | aa-1-13-8Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Clothing Tops > T-Shirts | 212Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Shirts & Tops |
| Sneakers | aa-8-8Apparel & Accessories > Shoes > Sneakers | 187Apparel & Accessories > Shoes |
| Mattress | fr-2-6Furniture > Beds & Accessories > Mattresses | 2696Furniture > Beds & Accessories > Mattresses |
| Sofa | fr-22Furniture > Sofas | 460Furniture > Sofas |
| Hair dryer | hb-3-10-12-6Health & Beauty > Personal Care > Hair Care > Hair Styling Tools > Hair Dryers | 490Health & Beauty > Personal Care > Hair Care > Hair Styling Tools > Hair Dryers |
| Smartphone | el-4-8-5Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile & Smart Phones | 267Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile Phones |
| Laptop | el-6-6Electronics > Computers > Laptops | 328Electronics > Computers > Laptops |
| Dog food | ap-2-3-3Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Dog Supplies > Dog Food | 3530Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Dog Supplies > Dog Food |
| Coffee | fb-1-3Food, Beverages & Tobacco > Beverages > Coffee | 1868Food, Beverages & Tobacco > Beverages > Coffee |
What is Shopify Taxonomy?
The Shopify Standard Product Taxonomy is the category list behind the Category field on every Shopify product. Release 2026-08 has 14,606 categories in 26 top-level verticals, from Animals & Pet Supplies to Vehicles & Parts, and goes up to 8 levels deep. Each category has a stable ID such as aa-1-12-4 (Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Pants > Jeans), which the Shopify API writes as gid://shopify/TaxonomyCategory/aa-1-12-4. It is not the same as the free-text Product type field or your collections: those are yours to name, the category comes from Shopify's list.
Shopify publishes the taxonomy openly on GitHub under the MIT licence. Each release ships the full category list as text and JSON in 31 languages (Dutch and German included), the attributes that belong to each category, and mapping files. One of those maps every Shopify category to Google's product taxonomy (version 2021-09-21), so you can look up the google_product_category that Shopify pairs with a category instead of guessing it. Other files map older Shopify releases to the current one.
The category matters because Shopify hangs features on it. Category metafields (attributes such as fit, fabric or firmness) are offered per category, and Shopify uses the category for tax on some products. A precise category also gives other channels a better starting point. Pick the deepest category that fits: Jeans (aa-1-12-4) rather than Pants (aa-1-12) or Clothing (aa-1).
At a Glance
- Maintained by
- Shopify Inc.
- Year Founded
- 2024
- Version covered
- 2026-08
- Official Website
- Official Website
- Open Standard
- Yes
Shopify Taxonomy Category Hierarchy
A slice of the Shopify taxonomy at release 2026-08, with each category's ID in brackets.
Apparel & Accessories (aa)
Electronics (el)
Furniture (fr)
Health & Beauty (hb)
Home & Garden (hg)
How Shopify Taxonomy is Structured
The key rules and principles behind how this taxonomy organizes products
- 1
Category IDs: vertical prefix plus one number per level
Every ID starts with a two-letter vertical code and adds a number for each level below it. aa is Apparel & Accessories, aa-1 is Clothing, aa-1-12 is Pants and aa-1-12-4 is Jeans. The admin shows the path; the API and GraphQL use the full GID. The numbers are not alphabetical or sequential by name, so always copy an ID from the release files instead of building one.
aa-1-12-4: Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Pants > Jeansfr-2-6: Furniture > Beds & Accessories > Mattressesel-4-8-5: Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile & Smart Phonesgid://shopify/TaxonomyCategory/hb-3-10-12-6: Hair Dryers - 2
26 verticals, including non-product branches
Release 2026-08 has 26 top-level verticals. Most are product groups such as Electronics (el), Furniture (fr) or Health & Beauty (hb). A few cover things that are not physical products: Bundles (bu), Gift Cards (gc), Product Add-Ons (pa), Services (se) and Uncategorized (na). Of the 14,606 categories, 218 sit on level 2 and most sit on levels 4 and 5.
ap Animals & Pet Supplieshg Home & Gardensg Sporting Goodsvp Vehicles & Parts - 3
Category attributes come with the category
Each category lists the attributes that describe products in it. Shopify offers these as category metafields once you set the category. Jeans (aa-1-12-4) has 15, including fit, waist rise and fabric. Mattresses (fr-2-6) has 7, including firmness and bedding size. Mobile & Smart Phones (el-4-8-5) has 23. The attributes are optional: Shopify does not block a product without them.
- 4
Versioned releases with mapping files
The taxonomy is released as dated versions (2025-09, 2025-12, 2026-02, 2026-05 and 2026-08 are recent ones). Categories can be added, renamed or moved between releases. Each release includes mapping files from earlier Shopify versions to the current one, and a mapping to Google's product taxonomy. Note the version you mapped against, so you can rerun the mapping when a new release lands.
shopify_2025-12_to_shopify_2026-08shopify_2026-08_to_google_2021-09-21
Required Attributes by Category
Mandatory and recommended attributes for key categories in this standard
Shopify Taxonomy Use Cases by Industry
Industries and scenarios where this taxonomy standard is most commonly used
Shopify stores selling on Google
Shopify publishes a mapping from each of its categories to a Google product category. Use it to check the google_product_category your feed sends, for example Mattresses (fr-2-6) to Google 2696 and Sneakers (aa-8-8) to the broader Google Shoes (187).
Fashion and apparel
Clothing categories carry the richest attribute sets, such as fit, waist rise, fabric and size type for Jeans. Setting the category first gives you the metafields to fill in for filters and channel feeds.
Migrating from another platform
When you move a catalog to Shopify, map your old categories to Shopify categories once and keep the IDs next to your own tree. The Product Category column in Shopify's product CSV takes the category path.
Multi-store and multi-language
The category IDs are the same in every language and every store. The names are published in 31 languages, so a Dutch store reads Kleding en accessoires > Kleding > Lange broeken > Jeans for the same aa-1-12-4.
Pros and Cons of Shopify Taxonomy
- Open data under the MIT licence: the full list, attributes and mappings are free to download
- Stable IDs that stay the same across languages and stores
- Category attributes give you a ready set of filters per product type
- A published mapping to Google's product taxonomy for every category
- Names published in 31 languages, including Dutch and German
- Only Shopify uses it natively; other channels still need their own category
- The Google mapping often points to a broader Google category (Sneakers maps to Shoes)
- Releases move and rename categories, so mappings need a version check
- 14,606 categories is a lot to search without a lookup tool
How to Implement Shopify Taxonomy
A step-by-step guide to adding this taxonomy standard to your product catalog
01
Download the current release
Get categories.txt from the latest release on github.com/Shopify/product-taxonomy (2026-08 at the time of writing). Each line holds the GID and the full path. Take the file in your store's language too if you work in Dutch or German.
02
Map your own categories to Shopify categories
For each category in your own tree, pick the deepest Shopify category that fits and store its ID next to it. Map the category, not each product: every product in the category then inherits the right Shopify ID.
03
Set the category on your products
Set the category in the Shopify admin, through the API with the GID, or in the Product Category column of a product CSV import. Check a few products in the admin afterwards to see that the path is right.
04
Fill the category attributes
Once a product has a category, Shopify offers its attributes as category metafields. Fill the ones your shoppers filter on first, such as size, color and fit for clothing.
05
Check the Google mapping
Look up your Shopify categories in the shopify_2026-08_to_google_2021-09-21 mapping and compare them with the google_product_category your feed sends. Where Shopify maps to a broad Google category, decide whether a deeper Google category fits better.
06
Recheck on each release
Note the release you mapped against. When Shopify publishes a new version, run your IDs through the version mapping file and fix any category that moved or was renamed.
Keep one category tree for Shopify and every other channel
WISEPIM keeps your own category tree as the source. It imports categories from Shopify, reads the Product Category column from a Shopify product CSV and pushes your categories to Shopify as collections.
- Import categories and collections from Shopify
- Read Shopify's Product Category column when you import a product CSV
- Push your categories to Shopify as custom collections
- Find Google product category IDs with the Category Finder
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Shopify Taxonomy
Explore Other Taxonomy Standards
Keep exploring
Hand-picked next steps to go deeper.
- Inventory all product sources
- Define your attribute schema
- Normalize brand names
- Add alt-text to every primary image
The taxonomy audit checklist
Eight concrete steps to get your taxonomy in order, from depth/width audit to inherited attributes and a version-tagging strategy for safe rollbacks.
- Audit your current tree: depth, width, orphan rate
- Benchmark against a public standard
- Tag each release so rollback stays an option
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