---
schema_version: "1"
id: e5c6c17df850d63e183e2478a54d6169099a4e54062558f8d5dddc5c6d6ef249
title: Custom Metadata Allocations and Usage Calculations
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/custommetadatatypes_limits.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.custommetadatatypes_limits.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 0d45c2fd42db879ea2e7eb922210dde7dbf2c425b84f2df6c6e1b25e19974398
description: Understand requirements for custom metadata types and records and how your custom metadata type usage is calculated.
products:
  - Salesforce Platform
release: "264"
---
# Custom Metadata Allocations and Usage Calculations

Understand requirements for custom metadata types and records and how your custom metadata type usage is calculated.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition">
      <colgroup>
        <col>
      </colgroup>
      <tbody>
        <tr class="">
          <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience</td>

        </tr>
        <tr class="">
          <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">
            <p>Available in: <strong>Enterprise</strong>, <strong>Performance</strong>, <strong>Unlimited</strong>, and
              <strong>Developer</strong> Editions
            </p>
            <p style="margin-bottom:0;">You can create, edit, and delete custom metadata type records
              from installed packages in: <strong>Group</strong> and <strong>Professional</strong> Editions</p>
          </td>

        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>

![Tip](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-platform-extend_code-264-0-0-production-enus/789bc523-706b-4ae4-8fe9-be6322e38b6b/images/icon_tip.png)

Tip View custom metadata type use in System Overview. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter System Overview, and then select **System Overview**. You can get information about the number of custom metadata types and the size of the custom metadata type records used.

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
        <colgroup>
          <col style="width:50%">
          <col style="width:50%">
        </colgroup>
        <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
          <tr class="">
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d22624e89">Description</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d22624e92">Maximum amount</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">SOQL queries per Apex transaction</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">Unlimited</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">SOQL queries for custom metadata type records in flows</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">Count toward Apex governor limits. Per-transaction limits, which Apex enforces, govern
              flows.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">SOQL queries containing long text area fields</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">Count toward Apex governor limits.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Custom metadata per organization *</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">10 million characters</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Custom metadata per certified managed package *</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">
              <p>10 million characters</p>
              <p>Custom metadata records in certified managed packages that you
                installed don’t count toward your org’s allotment. However, if the package developer
                removes the records from the managed package, the deprecated records remain in your org and
                count against your org’s allotment until you delete them.</p>
              <p style="margin-bottom:0;">Custom metadata records
                that you create also count toward your org’s allotment. This rule applies regardless of
                whether you create records in your own custom metadata type or in a type from a certified
                managed package.</p>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Fields per custom metadata type or record</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">100</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Custom metadata types per organization</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">
              <p>200. This number includes all custom metadata types that originate from any
                source: created by a user, installed from unmanaged packages, installed from
                certified managed packages, and so on.</p>
              <p style="margin-bottom:0;">After you reach the limit of 200, you can
                install an additional 150 custom metadata types only from certified managed
                packages for a total of 350. For example, you can create your own or install 200
                custom metadata types, plus install up to an additional 150 custom metadata types
                from certified managed packages.</p>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Characters per description field</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">
              <span id="custommetadatatypes_limits__cmd_desc_field_characters"><a name="custommetadatatypes_limits__cmd_desc_field_characters"><!-- --></a>1,000</span>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Records returned per transaction</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">50,000</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Long Text Area Fields</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">Long text area fields count toward the custom metadata 10 million characters allowed.
              255 characters per long text area field count for a given type.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e89 ">Custom Metadata Types formula references allowed in a process (Process
              Builder)</td>

            <td data-label="Maximum amount" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d22624e92 ">15</td>

          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>

\*Record size is based on the maximum field size of each field type, not the actual storage that’s used in each field. When adding fields to a custom metadata record, use the appropriate type and specify a length that doesn’t exceed what’s needed for your data. This action helps you avoid reaching the cached data maximum. For example, if you create a US social security number (SSN) field, select the **Text** data type, and specify a length of 9. If you select **Text Area**, the field adds 255 characters to the usage count for each record, regardless of the number of characters entered.

## Usage Calculation

- Usage is calculated in _characters_. You can store up to 10 million characters.
- Standard fields such as Label, Name, and Namespace are included in your usage calculation, but Description and Qualified API Name aren’t.
- Long text area fields, up to 255 characters per long text area field for a given type, are included in the usage calculation.
- Metadata relationship fields count as 15 characters in the usage calculation if their target is another custom metadata type, or 10 characters if the target is Entity Definition or Field Definition.
- Picklists and checkboxes count as 10 characters.

## Retrieving Custom Metadata Type Information

When you retrieve custom metadata type records or a count of custom metadata types, the number returned by SOQL, Apex, formulas, flows, or APIs can differ from the number in the user interface. This difference is because of the custom metadata type visibility settings and the access a user has to the type based on profiles and permissions.

#### See Also

- [Custom Metadata Types](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.custommetadatatypes_overview.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "You can create your own declarative developer frameworks for internal teams, partners, and customers. Rather than building apps from data, you can build apps that are defined and driven by their own types of metadata. Metadata is the information that describes the configuration of each customer’s organization.")