Split the product into several products, for example one product per material or per color family. Drop an option that does not change the price or stock, and mention it in the description instead. If the count is a surprise, look for rows that repeat the same handle by mistake.

Shopify import error: "Validation failed: Exceeded maximum number of variants allowed"

What it means: One product has more variant rows than Shopify accepts. Shopify's help page on variants says a product can have up to 2,048 variants; the checker uses that number. Older stores reported a cap of 100, and the help page does not say whether the CSV importer has a lower cap, so treat 2,048 as the upper end. Variant counts multiply quickly: 3 options with 20, 20 and 6 values make 2,400.

Find the rows in your file

Shopify product import

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The product CSV you are about to import into Shopify, or the one Shopify just rejected.

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How to fix it

Split the product into several products, for example one product per material or per color family.
Drop an option that does not change the price or stock, and mention it in the description instead.
If the count is a surprise, look for rows that repeat the same handle by mistake.

Example

A file with this problem

Title,URL handle,Status,Option1 name,Option1 value,Price,Inventory tracker,Inventory quantity,Continue selling when out of stock,Fulfillm...
Cotton Tee,cotton-tee,active,Size,S1,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S2,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S3,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S4,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S5,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S6,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,
,cotton-tee,,,S7,20.00,shopify,5,deny,manual,

What the checker says about it

Line 2: "cotton-tee" has 2049 variants. Shopify allows up to 2,048 per product.

Once the listed rows are fixed, check the file again; the checker also looks for every other problem Shopify documents, so you do not trade one error for the next.

Questions

What does "Validation failed: Exceeded maximum number of variants allowed" mean in Shopify?: One product has more variant rows than Shopify accepts. Shopify's help page on variants says a product can have up to 2,048 variants; the checker uses that number. Older stores reported a cap of 100, and the help page does not say whether the CSV importer has a lower cap, so treat 2,048 as the upper end. Variant counts multiply quickly: 3 options with 20, 20 and 6 values make 2,400.
How do I fix it?: Split the product into several products, for example one product per material or per color family. Drop an option that does not change the price or stock, and mention it in the description instead. If the count is a surprise, look for rows that repeat the same handle by mistake.

Other Shopify import errors

Sources

Shopify Help Center: Adding variants (our reading; the page does not state this rule outright): https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/variants/add-variants

Based on Shopify's help pages for product CSV import. Not tested on a live store.