Shopify Catalog Requirements for AI Channels: A Checklist

Last checked against Shopify's Help Center: October 14, 2026.

AI shopping channels connected through Shopify's agentic storefronts (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Gemini, Meta surfaces and Shop) get your products from Shopify Catalog. If a product isn't in Catalog, those channels can't show it through Shopify, however good it is. Eligible products are included by default (Optimizing your products for AI platforms), so the job is mostly finding what's been left out and why.

This checklist follows Shopify's Shopify Catalog requirements page, plus the extra rules for ChatGPT. Shopify updates these pages, so treat the linked pages as the source of truth.

Part 1: Store-level requirements

If your store fails any of these, none of your products are included.

• Starter plan or higher. Shopify also notes that stores on its Agentic plan without a published online store can be included through agentic storefronts.
• Not in private mode. A password-protected storefront makes the store ineligible.
• Not B2B-only. If your store only serves business customers, it's ineligible. Shopify's fix is to turn off the B2B-only option in your store preferences.
• Not locked, restricted or in development mode. Development stores need to move to a paid plan. For locked or restricted stores, Shopify says to contact Support.
• Account security done. Verify your email, turn on two-step authentication, set up a passkey if available, and complete identity and business verification when prompted.
• Healthy operating history. Shopify lists genuine sales to real customers, fulfilling orders promptly and accurately, a low chargeback rate, paying Shopify invoices on time, keeping Shopify Payments in good standing (if you use it), and resolving open policy or compliance issues.
• Compliant with Shopify's Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.
• You haven't opted out of sharing products with AI channels. Shopify says this opt-out is separate from the "Shopify Catalog access" setting in the Agentic section, and opting out makes the store ineligible.

Eligibility is reviewed over time. A store can become eligible later, or lose eligibility if it stops meeting these requirements.

Extra requirements for ChatGPT

Shopify's ChatGPT page adds:

• You sell to customers in the United States. Your business can be based anywhere.
• Terms of service, Privacy policy and Return and refund policy are completed under Settings > Policies.
• You've agreed to the Shopify Agentic Storefronts Supplemental Terms of Service.

ChatGPT also applies OpenAI's own rules: products covered by OpenAI's prohibited products and services policy don't appear in ChatGPT product discovery, even if they're in Catalog. There are no fees for selling in ChatGPT beyond your standard payment processing.

Part 2: Product-level requirements

Work through these per product. They're where most catalogs lose products.

• Has a title and at least one product image.
• Price is greater than 0. Free products are excluded.
• Published to the Online Store, Hydrogen or Headless channel. Hydrogen and headless stores must also use the correct route format.
• Has an identifiable product URL, set in the product's search engine listing. Agentic-plan stores without a published online store need an external product URL instead.
• Not Unlisted and not hidden from search engines. Shopify's agentic storefronts page says the Unlisted status and the seo.hidden metafield both hide a product from Shop, from agentic storefronts and from search engines. If a product is hidden by accident (an old app or a theme trick), it disappears from all three.
• No sensitive content (such as mature content) in images or descriptions. Shopify says this can exclude a product even outside the excluded categories.
• Not in an excluded category (next section).
• Not B2B-only. Shopify's agentic products page says products sold only to business or wholesale customers are excluded automatically when Shopify can identify them (B2B catalogs, products that require customers to log in, password-protected storefronts). Products sold to both B2B and retail customers are included at the retail price.

Part 3: Excluded categories

Shopify excludes these categories, including their subcategories (Catalog requirements):

Two details matter more than the list itself:

1. Shopify classifies products from your product information, and that classification "can differ from the product category set in your admin". Complete, accurate titles and descriptions help Shopify classify correctly.
2. "Uncategorized" is an exclusion. A product with a vague title, a one-line description and no product category risks being classified as uncategorized and dropped. This is the one excluded category you can usually fix.

Shopify can change the excluded list at its discretion, so check the page before acting on edge cases.

Part 4: Settings in Sales channels > Agentic

Even an eligible store can switch sharing off. In Sales channels > Agentic (Managing agentic storefronts):

• "Allow Shopify to manage for me" is on, or, if you manage channels manually, Shopify Catalog access is on for each channel you want. Turning access off can take up to 7 days to take effect, and also turns off direct checkout.
• Catalog mapping is correct. If your real titles, descriptions or categories live in metafields or metaobjects, use Shopify Catalog mapping (Sources > Shopify Catalog > Review product data mapping) to point Catalog at them. You can map one source per field, and you can control how variants are grouped into listings and whether compare-at prices are sent. See our step-by-step Catalog mapping guide.

Worth knowing: blocking crawlers in robots.txt doesn't stop Shopify Catalog from sharing your products with activated channels, and /llms.txt or /agents.md files don't replace Catalog (agentic products page).

Part 5: Beyond eligibility, the data AI platforms use

Eligibility gets a product into Catalog. After that, the quality of its data decides whether an assistant can match it to a question. Shopify lists the fields AI platforms consider: title, description, images, type, vendor, collections, tags, barcode (GTIN, UPC or ISBN) and variant option names, plus complete store policies (Optimizing your products).

The Agentic section also scores each product's listing quality on description completeness (word count), image coverage, verified product reviews, variant and option completeness (including in-stock availability and unclear acronyms or numbers in names), and shop policy completeness. Then use the search preview to run real customer questions against Catalog. Shopify notes channels re-rank results, so treat it as directional.

• Every active product has a Shopify product category, with category attributes filled in
• Titles say what the product is ("Men's Waterproof Hiking Boot", not "The Voyager 2")
• Descriptions state facts: materials, dimensions, use, care
• Variants have clear option names and, for colors and styles, their own images
• Barcodes are filled where your products have real GTINs (how to add them)
• Shipping, return and refund policies are published and current

A fast way to find the gaps

In Products, filter for products with a price of 0, a status of Draft or Unlisted, or no product category, and look for products with no image. Those are the most likely exclusions. For hidden products, check whether any app has set the seo.hidden metafield. Then open the listing quality view in the Agentic section and start with your best sellers.

Sources

• Shopify Help, Shopify Catalog requirements
• Shopify Help, ChatGPT (agentic storefronts)
• Shopify Help, Managing agentic storefronts
• Shopify Help, Products on agentic storefronts
• Shopify Help, Optimizing your products for AI platforms
• Shopify Help, Shopify Catalog mapping