ClickUp Custom Fields: Field Types and Values

ClickUp custom fields store the extra facts a task needs: the client, the fee, the channel, the quarter, the phone number. They are not a second description. A field is useful when you will filter, sort or report on it. Free Forever includes 60 uses. Unlimited and above include unlimited uses. A use is setting a value on a task, which is the limit people misread.

If you are still deciding where tasks live, start with how to use ClickUp. The ClickUp hub links the rest of the feature guides.

What are ClickUp custom fields?

ClickUp Help describes custom fields as a way to add context to tasks, either by location or by task type. Location means the field lives on a Space, Folder, Subfolder or List, and tasks there can use it. Custom fields by task type are available on Business Plus and Enterprise only.

The Custom Field Manager is on every plan. Owners and admins manage fields there. On Business Plus and Enterprise, members can open it if a custom role permission allows. Guests and limited members cannot create or add fields.

You can add the same field to another location later, move it, duplicate it, merge similar fields, or convert data to another type. Dropdown options are the same everywhere that field is used. Help says you cannot have different dropdown options on different Spaces or Lists for one field. Labels and dropdowns can hold up to 500 options each, including options pasted in bulk.

Individual fields can be hidden from guests. Help places that control on paid plans. On Free Forever, assume a guest who can open the task can see the fields on it.

Which custom field types can you use?

ClickUp Help documents a long type list. These are the ones teams actually fill in. Required and default value apply only where the type supports them. Making a field required is a Business-and-above feature for every type that lists it.

Some text and dropdown fields also list AI options, such as summary or categorize. Brain AI is a separate add-on from $9 per user/month, so treat those options as optional. You do not need them to store a dropdown or a date.

Checkbox, Date, Dropdown, Labels, Money, Number, People, Phone, Rating, Text, Long Text, Website and several others support a default value. Formula, Button, Rollup and Files do not list a default in Help's type table. Pinning a field so it stays visible on tasks starts on Business.

How do custom field uses work?

ClickUp Help counts uses the same way for every field type.

A use is counted when you add a value on a task. Setting a dropdown once is one use. Adding two labels on one task is two uses. These do not count:

• Creating a field, or adding options to a dropdown or label
• Linking tasks with Relationships
• Linking tasks with a Tasks custom field

On Free Forever, after 60 uses you cannot add values to any custom fields, including Relationships and Tasks fields. You can still add or remove fields from locations. You can clear a value, and you cannot put it back until you change plan. Existing values stay. Required fields are separate, and they are only on Business and above, so the free limit is about values, not about forcing people to fill a form.

Unlimited, Business, Business Plus and Enterprise include unlimited uses. Prices for the plans in our data, checked October 2026: Unlimited is $7 per user/month billed annually ($10 monthly), and Business is $12 billed annually ($19 monthly). The side-by-side of free limits is in ClickUp Free vs Unlimited.

That 60-use pool is easy to spend in a week if every task gets four fields. On Free Forever, add one field you will filter on, and leave the rest until you are on a paid plan.

Where should you put a custom field?

Put a field at the highest location that truly shares it, and no higher.

• Workspace-wide habits, such as a client name you filter everywhere, belong on each Space that needs them, or on the Folder if only client work uses them. Help does not give you a different dropdown per Space for the same field, so name the options so they work in every location.
• A field that only one List uses, such as "bug source" on a bugs List, belongs on that List.
• Do not put a fee field on a personal task List.

People fields have a privacy switch. You can show everyone in the Workspace, or only people who can open the task. Guests only see users from locations shared with them. Turn on "show guests" only if a client should be selectable.

ClickUp for agencies uses the same short list on every client: client, service, billing type. ClickUp for software development uses a dropdown for initiative or a number for a value score when the built-in priorities (Urgent, High, Normal, Low) are not enough. Both patterns work because the options do not change by project.

Dashboards can only report what the fields contain. A dropdown with three clean options will group. A long-text note will not. Card types and plan limits are in ClickUp dashboards.

Which fields should you create first?

Start with three. Add a fourth only after you have filtered on the first three.

Skip Formula until the number fields are filled in reliably. A formula on empty fields looks like a broken report. Skip Signature and Voting until a real step needs them. Skip a field that copies the assignee, the due date or the status. Those already exist.

Statuses are a different tool. Use a status for the stage of the work, and a field for a fact about the work. "Client review" is a status. "Client" is a field. The status side is in ClickUp custom statuses.

If you are comparing plans because of this limit, Free Forever is for trying a field or two. Unlimited is the plan where custom fields become a normal part of the task. Business is the plan where you can require a field and pin it. The ladder is in ClickUp pricing, and the product context is in the ClickUp review.