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Where to get the Google product category list: files, formats and languages

Google publishes the list itself, under www.google.com/basepages/producttype/. The file taxonomy-with-ids.en-US.txt has every category with its numeric ID, the .xls version has the same in spreadsheet form, and taxonomy.en-US.txt has the names without IDs. Localised files exist too, for example en-GB, de-DE, fr-FR, es-ES and ja-JP. The current file is dated 2021-09-21 and lists 5,595 categories.

What this comes down to

  • Google publishes the full list as text and Excel files, with and without numeric IDs, under google.com/basepages/producttype/.
  • Each line of the text file is an ID, a space-hyphen-space, then the full path; there is no header row and it is not a CSV.
  • Localised files exist for languages such as en-GB, de-DE, fr-FR, es-ES and ja-JP, and the numeric IDs match across them.
  • The current file is dated 2021-09-21 and lists 5,595 categories under 21 top-level ones.

SellerSort Team · Updated

The files, and which one to take

Google product taxonomy files
FileContainsTake it when
taxonomy-with-ids.en-US.txtID and full path, one per lineYou need IDs for a feed, or you are writing a script
taxonomy-with-ids.en-US.xlsThe same, as a spreadsheetYou want to browse or filter it in Excel or Sheets
taxonomy.en-US.txtPaths only, no IDsRarely; a feed is better off with the ID

All three sit under https://www.google.com/basepages/producttype/. Google’s attribute page still prints the text file’s address with http://; the https:// address serves the same file.

Reading the text file

The first lines of the file with IDs:

The opening lines of the taxonomy file
Line in the fileWhat it is
# Google_Product_Taxonomy_Version: 2021-09-21The version date, as a comment
1 - Animals & Pet SuppliesA top-level category, ID 1
3237 - Animals & Pet Supplies > Live AnimalsOne level down, ID 3237
3 - Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Bird SuppliesTwo levels down, ID 3

Line one is a comment with the version date. Every line after it is one category: the ID, a space, a hyphen, a space, and the full path with levels separated by >. There is no header row.

Paste only the number into your feed. The whole line (3237 - Animals & Pet Supplies > Live Animals) is not a valid value; Google asks for the ID or the path, not both. The ID or path guide explains why the ID is the better choice.

Opening it in a spreadsheet without breaking it

Two traps catch people who import the text file by hand:

  • It is not a CSV. In the 2021-09-21 file, 548 category paths contain a comma, for example Apparel & Accessories > Handbags, Wallets & Cases, so treating commas as the separator splits them apart.
  • Do not split on a bare hyphen. 68 paths contain one, such as Baby One-Pieces. Split on the first space-hyphen-space only, or skip the problem by opening the .xls file, which already has columns.

Other languages

Swap the locale in the filename to get a translated list: en-GB, de-DE, fr-FR, es-ES and ja-JP all exist. The category names change with the language; the IDs do not. That is the practical reason to store IDs: one value works for every country you sell in.

Searching it instead of scrolling it

Five and a half thousand lines is a lot to scroll through for one product. Three faster routes over the same list:

  • Paste a product title into the Category Finder, which suggests the category with its ID and path, free.
  • For a whole catalog, the Bulk Mapper returns an ID for every row of a CSV, TSV or XLSX export.
  • To filter the list yourself, the taxonomy download has it as CSV, Excel or JSON, with each level in its own column.

All three use a dated snapshot of Google’s file, the same one quoted above.

Questions

Is there a CSV of Google product categories?

Google publishes the list as a text file and an .xls spreadsheet, not as a CSV. Open the .xls if you want columns, or take the free CSV on the SellerSort taxonomy download page, converted from Google’s file with one column per level. If you convert the text file yourself, split each line on the first space-hyphen-space, because many category names contain commas and some contain hyphens.

Where can I download the Google product taxonomy with IDs?

From https://www.google.com/basepages/producttype/taxonomy-with-ids.en-US.txt, or the .xls version at the same address with a different extension. Replace en-US with another locale, such as de-DE, for a translated list.

How often does Google update the list?

The current file carries the version date 2021-09-21. Google says it translates any category version published after August 2011 to the latest one, so older values are not automatically wrong.

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