A sneaker reseller with 240 SKUs (240 products per drop) was just told she needed to move to Shopify Plus by her consultant last Friday. Her consultant quoted her $2000/month for the plus platform. She had been told shopify variant limit of 100 products per collection by her previous consultant. This shopify rule completely changed in 2024. Nobody ever informed her of the new rule.
It’s a fact that you no longer need Plus to have more than 100 product variants. Since Shopify upped the cap to 2048 variants per product for EVERY PLAN, you’re safe from that limit for now. BUT THERE ARE STILL TIMES WHEN YOU NEED TO BYPASS 2PLUS, and these are them.
In this post
- The 2024 reality check
- When you still need a bypass
- Method 1: use the native 2048 ceiling
- Method 2: combined listings via app
- Method 3: sibling products + collection swatches
- Plan comparison
- FAQ
The 2024 reality check
Until October 2024, you got 100 variants on every Shopify plan besides Plus, at which point you could contact support to have it bumped up to 2000. That’s why Shopify current core feature and policies allowed thousands of Shopify Partners to offer and sell upgrades based on this rule where the customer basically gets told to upgrade to Plus because they have more than 100 SKUs per product.
Then, CAP GOING 2048 FOR BASIC. same exact thing, basic plan only, same guy behind the wheel, same utterly broken admin area, same “you need Plus” talking point that just disappeared overnight. no feature flags, no beta, no request form to scream at.
But some consultants still sell it. Watch out for that.
When you still need a bypass
Three situations where 2048 is not enough:
- More than 3 option dimensions. You need color + size + material + length + engraving. Shopify caps option types at 3, regardless of plan. This one has not changed.
- More than 2048 variants. Rare, but it happens (made-to-order products with massive personalization trees).
- Each color needs its own SEO landing page. A single product page doesn’t rank for “red dress Medium” the way 12 separate product pages do. Sometimes you want fragmentation.
Method 1: just use the native 2048 ceiling
3 or fewer option dimensions and 2048 variants or less? DONE! Don’t waste your money on apps or try to hack a solution. Enjoy what you have and go make some variants. Shopify will store them all.
Theme can choke on gallery if product has many colors / images – this is a variant image filtering problem, not a variant count one – and is easily fixed with Rubik Variant Images
Method 2: combined listings via app
Can I have more than 3 option dimensions? This is your answer. When you want to offer combined listings (i.e. multiple products glued together for one shopping experience on your store) you can combine up to 30 3 dimension products. Combined listings are available in the Advanced and Plus versions of the native Shopify OSS product. The Basic and Shopify plans do not support this native feature.
This app comes with all Plans. Same feature set. This app uses metafield-based grouping, and doesn’t make any external API calls to provide this feature. Some other similar app called Rubik Combined Listings was also , but we like the name of this app better, so we use this one instead.
Steps:
- Install Rubik Combined Listings.
- Split your 5-option product into multiple 3-option products (fabric variants, material variants, etc).
- Use AI auto-grouping to match products by tag, title pattern, or metafield.
- Pick your swatch style (visual, button, dropdown).
- Publish. The group now shows on both the product page and collection page.
View the live demo on the Rubik demo store, tutorial or the docs.
Method 3: sibling products + collection swatches
Instead of creating one SEO page for a product that contains multiple colors, keep the colors separate as individual products and list the colors on the collection page with product images for browsing. This is different from creating one listing for multiple colors and is geared towards optimizing for long-tail keywords and will have a different checkout flow than a combined listing. If you want to create a separate SEO page for each color, don’t keep colors together.
Using the Rubik Combined Listings app also gives you swatches on the collection pages for the grouping feature. Same app!
Plan comparison
| Plan | Variants/product | Option types | Native combined listings | Needs bypass? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2048 | 3 | No | Only for 4+ options |
| Shopify | 2048 | 3 | No | Only for 4+ options |
| Advanced | 2048 | 3 | Yes | Rarely |
| Plus | 2048 | 3 | Yes | Rarely |
Link to free online variant calculator and SKU generator to stress test your Variant Matrix before you build it.
FAQ
Do I need Shopify Plus for more than 100 variants?
No. Every plan supports 2048 variants per product since 2024.
What is the absolute variant maximum on Shopify?
2048 variants per product, across any plan.
Can I exceed 2048 variants with an app?
Not in a single product. Combined listings allow you to group products together to list up to 2048 items in a shopping experience.
Is Rubik Combined Listings cheaper than Plus?
By a lot. Rubik starts free, then tiers at $10, $30, and $50 monthly. Plus starts at $2300+ per month.
Will I lose SEO if I combine products?
No. Each product keeps its own URL. Combined listings only add a visual layer.
Does combined listings work with my theme?
Rubik theme is fully compatible with Dawn and all Online Store 2.0 themes. It also supports popular page builders like GemPages, PageFly, EComposer, Foxify, Beae, Instant and Replo.
What about inventory tracking?
Each underlying product maintains separate inventory levels. Combined products do not affect existing inventory levels.
Related reading
- The Shopify 2048 variant limit explained
- 3 option type limit workarounds
- What happens when you exceed the variant limit
- Combined listings bypass workflow (rubikify.com)
- Rubik Variant Images site
Milan reseller chose not to move to Plus plan and stayed on Shopify’s highest plan, $79/month. She utilized Shopify theme and ran combined listings using Rubik Combined Listings app that costs $10/month. She has 240 SKUs and it was a drop and organizational nightmare that she got under control in 3 hours. Consultant has been fired.
