OLX listing rules: a checklist

Check your product texts against it before you publish. The numbers are the ones in OLX’s specification on the developer portal, which we read on 2026-10-21; if OLX changes them, the specification wins. You can read it at developer.olx.bg, and the other countries publish the same.

What are the OLX rules for titles and descriptions?

What is on the checklist?

• Title length: 16 to 150 characters.
• Description length: 80 to 9,000 characters.
• Capitals: no more than half of the letters. “BRAND NEW DRESS” will be refused.
• No contact details: no e-mail, web address or phone number in the title or description. The phone number goes in the contact field.
• Plain text: no HTML tags.
• Punctuation: none of ! ? . , - = + # % & @ * _ > < : ( ) | three times in a row, such as “!!!”.
• Category: the last level of OLX’s category tree. A parent category is refused.
• Required fields: every field OLX marks as required has a value, and values come from OLX’s own list where one exists.
• Photos: at least one, in a format OLX accepts, within the limit of the category.
• Price: present and in the currency of the OLX site.
• One advert per item: do not create a second advert for an item that already has one.

Why does OLX care about contact details?

The OLX specification forbids e-mail addresses, web addresses and phone numbers in both the title and the description, and a refused advert is the usual result. A phone number belongs in the contact field of the advert. The rule applies to titles too: do not add a shop name that is really a web address, or a phone number “for information”.

When you write your own title templates, keep contact details out of them. If you build adverts from an existing WooCommerce description, read it with this rule in mind: product descriptions often end with a line such as “Order at www.example.com or call us”.

What about categories and fields?

OLX accepts adverts only in the last level of its category tree. A product mapped to a parent category, when the tree continues below it, is refused. Many categories also require fields such as condition or size, and some of those accept only values from OLX’s list. Map your values once, then check the preview. See Map your categories to OLX and Map product attributes to OLX fields.

What about photos?

OLX sets a photo limit per category, not one limit for the whole site. Photos must be in a format OLX accepts. A .webp photo is not accepted, so Tidelist makes a JPG copy. That copy must be downloadable by OLX, which means an advert with converted photos cannot be published from a staging site.

What does Tidelist fix by itself, and what does it stop?

Tidelist applies these rules when it builds an advert, and you see the result in the preview before anything is sent:

• Shop HTML is turned into plain text.
• E-mail addresses, web addresses and phone-like numbers are removed from the text, and you are told. Be careful with long product codes or barcodes of seven digits or more in your descriptions: they can look like phone numbers.
• Runs of repeated punctuation are collapsed, so “!!!” becomes “!”.
• Fully capitalised words are lowered when the text has more than half capitals.
• Text that is too long is shortened at a word or sentence boundary.

It cannot repair everything. A title or description of the wrong length, a missing category, a category that is not a leaf or a required field without a value stops the advert and is listed in the preview, so you fix it before anything goes out. Troubleshooting explains each message.

Does this tell me which goods I may sell?

No. This checklist covers the content checks in OLX’s API specification. Which goods and services are allowed, and what OLX does with banned content, is set in OLX’s own terms and help pages for your country. We have not summarised them, because they differ by country and change. Read the rules of the OLX site where you sell.

To see how a whole publishing run works, read Sell WooCommerce products on OLX and Preview and publish adverts. Tidelist is not affiliated with OLX Group.