Shopify product metafields: add a video to a product

Shopify product metafields are custom fields you add to products for information the standard product fields don't hold, such as care instructions, dimensions, or a size chart. A File-type metafield can hold one video, MOV or MP4 under 1 GB and under ten minutes, and a text metafield can record whether that video is queued, approved, or published.

Shopify's rules below come from its Help Center and developer pages listed under Sources, read on 2026-09-28. The AI video side comes from Sume's Runs and results docs.

What are product metafields in Shopify?

Shopify describes metafields as a way to extend a data model, such as products, customers, and orders, with your own custom data. Each one has a definition: a name, a type, and a namespace and key that must be unique, such as custom.color. The type decides what the field can hold. These are the types that matter for a product video:

How do I add a metafield to a product in Shopify?

Create the definition once, then fill in a value per product. The steps from Shopify's definition guide:

• In your Shopify admin, go to Products and open a product.
• In the Metafields section, click Add definition, and enter a name such as Product video.
• Click Select type and choose File (the video) or Single line text (a status).
• For a status, add a validation if one is offered, so only your preset values are accepted.
• Click Save. You can also create definitions from Settings > Metafields and metaobjects.
• Enter a value on each product. Staff need the View, create and edit products permissions.

How do I show a metafield video on the product page?

Connect it in the theme editor. If your theme supports dynamic sources, you add a section or block and click the connect dynamic source icon to pick a metafield. A video File metafield renders as a video in video-type theme settings, and falls back to an image in image-type settings. On the developer side, a theme's video setting accepts `file_reference` metafields as a dynamic source.

Whether your theme has such a video setting depends on the theme; check its documentation. Vintage themes need code edits instead of the theme editor.

Should the video go in a metafield or in product media?

Product media is the product's own gallery. It holds up to 250 images, 3D models, or videos, and its first item is the main media shown on collection pages, the cart, checkout, and your home page. Videos can't be used as product variant media. Adding a video to the gallery is covered in How to add a video to a Shopify product page.

A metafield suits a video that should sit in its own section, apart from the gallery, or one you want to hold back until it is reviewed. A File definition holds one value by default; choose List of values when you create it if a product needs several files.

Where do an AI video's URL and status come from?

If a Sume Format run makes the video, its receipt gives you both. status moves from queued through processing to completed or failed, which maps to your status metafield. A completed run fills primary_output_url, and artifacts[] lists each file's content_type, so check for video/mp4 before you use it. These media.sume.com URLs don't expire and are public to anyone holding them.

To have the receipt pushed to you, send communication.webhook_url on the create: Sume POSTs one signed format.run.terminal delivery when the run completes or fails. Starting the run from a Shopify Flow workflow is covered in Shopify Flow automation for AI product videos; getting the file into Shopify is in Turn Shopify product photos into product videos automatically.