Strict Limits: What They Can't Check
Most limits can be strict. This article covers the exceptions: the settings a strict limit can't check and how to fix them, very large carts, the few things checkout sees differently from your cart, and the deprecated activation rules. For what strict limits are and how to turn them on, see Strict Limits.
Table of Contents
- Why a limit can't be strict, and how to fix it
- Large carts
- Differences between the cart and checkout
- Deprecated activation rules
Why a limit can't be strict, and how to fix it
A checkout rule can ask Shopify whether a product is in given collections, or has given tags. It can't read a collection's title, or list a product's tags. So a few settings can't be strict.
When the option is on, the Strict limit section shows each reason as a warning under the switch, with how to fix it. The switch is never locked: if you save anyway, the limit saves as a standard limit and works as it does today.
Warning | How to fix it |
|---|---|
Targets, excludes or filters products by collection title | Select the collections themselves. When the rule is "is equal to" a title that one collection has, click Use the "…" collection in the warning. |
Targets, excludes or filters products by tag pattern (contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with) | Use a Tag rule with Is equal to or Is not equal to and the exact tag. In a Tag limit, select the tags themselves. |
A Tag limit whose target rule is Is not equal to | Select the tags themselves: with "is not equal to", each of the product's other tags becomes an item of the limit. |
A Customer Tag rule with Contains, Does not contain or Starts with | Use Is equal to or Is not equal to with the exact tag. |
Counts distinct collections or tags | Set the resource type to products, variants, vendors or product types. |
Checks more than 100 collections, product tags or customer tags | Use at most 100, or split the limit into several limits. |
Checks too many tags and collections to read a 50-line cart | Use fewer collections and tags, or split the limit into several limits that each check fewer. |
Rule data too large (over 10 kB) | Shorten its messages (on the Translations page, or in the limit's own texts), use fewer targets, exclusions or rules (a Product or Variant limit with a very long product list, for example), or simplify the limits it references. |
Uses too many different dates in its Date rules | Use the limit's Activation Dates (Start Date and End Date) for its period instead, or use fewer dates. |
Shipping address, delivery and customer rules that can't be checked together | Remove the rules it doesn't need. |
Date rules with shipping rules other than the shipping country | Use the limit's Activation Dates (Start Date and End Date) instead of the Date rules: a strict limit checks them with any rule. |
Uses a deprecated rule | Remove it (see Deprecated activation rules below). |
Can't be strict because of a limit it references | Fix that limit, or remove the rule that references it. |
Product title, variant title, vendor and product type rules work with every condition.
While the option is on, the section also shows the Rule size against Shopify's 10 kB, and each list's count once it nears 100.
A strict limit never becomes standard without a warning. If an edit would stop a strict limit from being strict, MinCart warns you before you save: in the limit's own editor, in the editor of a limit it references, and on the Translations page when new texts would make its rule too large. The save then goes through, the rule is removed, and MinCart names the reason. Undoing the change later doesn't make it strict again: turn the option back on.
Large carts
Shopify limits how much a checkout rule can read and how long it can run. A limit that checks many tags and collections may get this warning:
On carts with more than N lines, Shopify may skip this checkout rule, because the limit checks too many tags and collections. The limit still applies in your online store.
The limit stays strict. On a cart with more lines than that, Shopify may skip the rule and let checkout continue; your online store still applies the limit. To read larger carts, use fewer collections and tags, or, if you can, split it into several limits that each check fewer.
On stores whose product titles, variant titles, vendors or product types are very long, a very large cart can still go past what Shopify lets a checkout rule read, even without the warning. Shopify then skips the rule for that checkout, and checkout continues.
Differences between the cart and checkout
A strict limit checks the same things your cart does, with these differences:
- Prices: at checkout, prices are each line's total after the discounts applied to it, such as an automatic discount.
- Checkout information: rules on the shipping address, shipping type, shipping method and shipping cost apply once the customer has entered that information at checkout. Before that, they count as not met, as in your online store.
- The customer: a strict limit judges the customer checkout knows at that moment. A customer who signs in at checkout is checked as that customer. A Customer Tag rule also applies to a customer who checks out without signing in but enters the email of a customer who has the tag: Shopify links the checkout to that customer.
- Tag case: at checkout, tags match whatever their case. In your cart, tag rules and customer tags already do, but the tags you pick in a Tag limit, or pick as exclusions, must match exactly. So a Tag limit on "Energy" also counts a product tagged "energy" at checkout, but not in the cart. This only matters if your store has tags that differ only by case.
- Point of sale: Shopify doesn't run checkout rules on POS, so strict limits don't apply in your retail stores, as no MinCart limit does today.
Tag rules "Is not equal to" and "Does not contain": since October 2026, in the cart and at checkout, a product matches "tag is not equal to wholesale" when it doesn't have the tag wholesale, and "tag does not contain sale" when none of its tags contains sale. Before, a product matched "is not equal to wholesale" as soon as it had any other tag, and a product without tags matched neither. This applies to target rules, exclusions and resource filters. If one of your limits uses them, check that it targets the products you expect. "Is not equal to" can be strict; "Does not contain" can't.
Deprecated activation rules
These activation rules are deprecated by Shopify:
- Payment Type, Discount Code and Gift Cards Amount: Shopify's checkout rules can't read them. Only MinCart's checkout extension ever applied them, and Shopify has deprecated the way checkout extensions block checkout.
- Market: Shopify is removing the market from what checkout rules can read.
Existing rules keep working for now, with a notice in the editor, but Shopify hasn't said when they'll stop working, so don't rely on them. You can't add them to a limit any more, and a limit that has one can't be strict until you remove it.
Replace a Market rule with the Country rule: the country the customer shops from (your store's country selector), with Is any of or Is none of and a list of countries. It works in your cart and at checkout. MinCart doesn't convert market rules for you. See Activation Rules.
Updated on: 19/10/2026
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