Setting up order limits and cart limits in Shopify

Order Limits (also called Quantity & Price Limits or cart limits) let you restrict what customers can add to their cart in a single checkout. Use this feature to:

• Set a maximum quantity per order — cap how many items customers can buy at once (e.g., "max 3 per order")
• Set a minimum quantity per order — require customers to buy at least X items (e.g., "minimum 2 to checkout")
• Set min/max cart totals — control the order value range (e.g., "$25 minimum to checkout")

Order Limits apply only to the current cart or checkout. They do not track past purchases after an order is completed.

💡 Need to track purchases per customer over time?

Order Limits apply to a single checkout session. If you want to limit how much each customer can buy across all their orders (e.g., "max 2 per customer lifetime"), use Customer Purchase Limits instead.

💡 Tip: Restrict purchases to a specific customer group

To allow only VIP-tagged customers to buy a product (while everyone else can view but not purchase), create a rule with Max Quantity = 0 for All Customers, then add the customer tag to Excluded Customer Tags. The tagged customers bypass the rule and can purchase normally.

Getting started

To begin using DC Order Limits, navigate to the DC Order Limits section within your store's administration dashboard. Here, you can create new rules, edit existing ones, or delete them as your business needs evolve.

Creating a new order limit rule

To set up a new order limit rule, follow these steps:

1. Access the form

• Go to the Order Limits page.
• Click on Create rule and select Quantity & Price Limits.

2. Fill out rule details

Rule information

• Title: Enter a descriptive name for the rule. This title is used internally to identify the rule.

Quantity Limits

• Minimum Quantity: Specify the minimum number of items a customer must purchase. (Leave blank if not required.)
• Maximum Quantity: Specify the maximum number of items a customer can purchase. (Leave blank if not required.)

3. Configure grouping options

Choose how the limits apply:

• Any Item: Limits apply to the entire cart collectively.
• Product: Limits apply separately to each product type.
• Product Variant: Limits apply to specific variants of a product.

4. Define product eligibility

Select which products are affected by the rule:

• All Products: Applies the rule to every product.
• Products with Specific Tags: Limits the rule to products tagged with specific keywords.
• Preorders Only: Restricts the rule to preordered items.
• Selected Products: Applies to individually selected products.

5. Determine customer eligibility

Choose which customers the rule affects:

• All Customers: Affects every customer.
• Logged Out Customers: Only applies to customers who are not logged in.
• Logged In Customers: Only affects customers who are logged in.
• Customers with Specific Tags: Applies only to customers tagged with specific keywords.
• Selected Customers: Affects individually selected customers.

6. Determine market eligibility

Choose which market the rule affects:

• All markets: Affects all markets.
• Specific market regions: Affects one or more market regions.

7. Set exclusion rules

Decide which products or customers should be excluded from this rule:

• Exclude Specific Products: Type in product IDs or names for any products you don't want this rule to apply to. Separate tags with commas.
• Exclude Customers with Tags: Enter customer tags that should not be affected by the rule. Customers with these tags can check out without restrictions; separate tags with commas.

Learn more

8. Save and activate

Click "Save" to apply the settings. Once saved, the rules are live immediately, unless you set a future start date.

Once a rule is created, a summary of the rule's settings is displayed on the right side of the form for existing rules. This summary helps you review and confirm the rule's configurations before making further changes.

Related Articles

• Understanding Product Grouping Options — Learn how Per Product, Per Variant, and Any Item grouping affects your limits.
• Which Limit Type Should I Use? — Quick comparison of Order Limits vs Customer Purchase Limits.
• Setting Up Customer Purchase Limits — Complete guide to configuring lifetime and per-customer limits.
• Setting Up Lifetime / Once-Per-Customer Limits — Step-by-step guide for creating "one per customer forever" limits.
• Using Exclusion Rules in DC Order Limits — How to exclude specific products or customers from your rules.
• Troubleshooting: Why My Order Limits Aren't Working — Diagnose and fix common configuration issues.
• When Do Customers Need to Be Logged In? — Understand login requirements for different limit types.