Shopify address validation at checkout

Does Shopify have address validation? Suggestions, shipping checks, and Checkout Blocks PO-box shipping rules

Direct answer. Yes. Shopify checkout can show address suggestions while a customer types, validate some shipping addresses before the order is placed, and — since the 17 June 2026 changelog — block PO box shipping addresses with Checkout Blocks address format validation, which is available to all merchants. Shopify Help names PO box among the address types you can block. Address collection preferences cover the suggestions and shipping-address checks; the Checkout Blocks rule is the PO-box shipping block. That rule validates shipping addresses; billing address fields are not validated, and requiring a street number is not supported there. A billing PO box rule or a street-number rule still needs a Cart and Checkout Validation Function or an app that provides one. Read address collection preferences on the Shopify Help Center. Which countries are covered, and which stores can turn a check off or replace autocomplete, depends on the store; confirm the live Help Center page. This page does not name plans. This page is not legal advice.

PO Box Blocker — AddressFence (Shopify App Store · Write a review). Free blocks PO Boxes and parcel lockers on the shipping address at checkout, plus a small set of ZIP rules. Street-number checks and billing-address rules are on a paid plan. Native Checkout Blocks can already block a PO box on shipping. AddressFence does not replace Shopify’s address autocomplete or the shipping-address validation setting. This page is what Shopify’s own checkout address features do — not the billing-only gap and not the house-name test list.

Related: B2B PO Guard — Require PO — B2B purchase order number required at company checkout.

Free check first: PO box and street number address checker runs in your browser and sends nothing. Paste addresses and see which look like a PO box or lack a street number.

What Shopify Help Center says checkout already does

Address collection preferences describe four controls: allowing different shipping and billing addresses, requiring those addresses to match, address autocompletion, and validating shipping addresses before the order is placed. Updating those settings can take up to 30 seconds to show on checkout.

Address suggestions (autocompletion)

When customers enter a shipping or billing address, they can be shown address suggestions. Shopify says those suggestions come from services such as Google Autocomplete, not from the customer’s browser. If the feature is inactive, or the customer is in a country where it is not supported yet, the customer checks out by typing the address. Shopify says the default feature is available to all Shopify merchants and is active by default, for customers in these countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Turn it off or on in the checkout and accounts editor: Settings > Checkout, Edit the configuration, open the Settings sidebar, then Address autocompletion, and select or clear Use address autocompletion. Shopify Help Center also says some stores can use a third-party address autocompletion app instead of the default service, and that developers can build custom apps for it with Checkout UI extensions. Which stores can install that third-party checkout app is stated on the Help Center page. This guide does not restate plan names.

Shipping-address validation

When a customer enters invalid shipping-address details, checkout can show issues and suggestions. Shopify says suggestions are offered when there is high confidence in the address the customer intended. If you deactivate the feature, or the shipping address is outside the available countries, the customer can check out as usual. Individual address-field checks, such as whether a field is required and its format or length, stay active for all countries and regions.

Shopify lists shipping-address validation for these countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Faroe Islands, France, Guernsey, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. Orders from other countries are still inspected, but might not return as many specific suggestions. The United Kingdom is on the autocomplete list above and is not on this validation list.

Turn the checkout check on under Settings > Checkout > Advanced preferences > Address collection > Validate shipping address. Shopify also says the shipping address is validated again after the order is placed. That later warning, on the order in admin, is the separate page Validating addresses in your Shopify admin.

If a third-party address-validation app is also installed, Shopify says the two can show conflicting elements or suggestions. Use either the shipping-address validation setting or a third-party app, not both at once.

Shopify Help Center says some checkout address checks, such as state or province and postal code matching, apply to all regions and cannot be deactivated on every store. Whether a given store can turn those checks off is stated on that page. This guide does not restate plan names.

PO boxes and street numbers are a different rule

Checkout Blocks address format validation can block a PO box on shipping. On 17 June 2026 Shopify made that checkout rule available to all merchants at Settings → Checkout → Checkout rules → Address format validation. Shopify Help lists “Block specific address types” including PO box. Address collection preferences cover autocomplete and shipping-address suggestions. The Checkout Blocks rule validates shipping addresses; billing address fields are not validated, and requiring a street number is not supported in address format validation. A billing PO box or a street-number check still needs Cart and Checkout Validation or an app that provides one. The function API documents targets for delivery-address fields. A shopify.dev changelog says that, as of API version 2026-04, the same function can also target billing-address fields. Built-in checkout settings and billing are a separate job: built-in checkout address rules cannot target billing. A street-number rule, including house-name addresses, is require a street number: test house-name addresses first.

If address validation is not working

Work through the Help Center conditions before you treat the feature as broken:

Wait. Shopify says checkout setting changes can take up to 30 seconds to appear.
Autocomplete: in the checkout and accounts editor, confirm Use address autocompletion is selected. If a third-party autocompletion app is installed, select that app after the setting is on. Which stores can use a third-party autocompletion app depends on the store.
Country. If the customer’s country is not on the autocomplete list, Shopify says they type the address. Suggestions come from services such as Google Autocomplete, not from the browser.
Shipping validation: confirm Validate shipping address is selected under Address collection. If it is off, or the address is outside the countries listed above, checkout can continue without those suggestions. Suggestions appear when Shopify has high confidence.
Do not run Shopify’s shipping-address validation and a third-party validation app at the same time. Shopify says that combination can conflict.
Required, format, and length checks on individual fields stay on for every country. State or province and postal-code matching cannot be turned off on every store. Confirm that limit on the Help Center page.
For Brazil, Kuwait, Panama, Peru, and the Philippines, Shopify replaces or adds address fields (street name and building number, and in some cases a neighborhood) and says you cannot change which of those fields appear or which are required. Apps or customizations that read or edit address information can make those extra fields unavailable. Shopify names Checkout Blocks as an exception that does not remove them. Accelerated checkouts such as PayPal do not require the extra fields.
Requiring shipping and billing to match is a different control. Shopify says it is available only to merchants who have upgraded their checkout, and that it does not apply to pickup, local delivery, draft-order checkouts, or B2B checkouts. It does not detect a PO box.
For a shipping PO box, use Checkout Blocks address format validation. Autocomplete and the address-collection shipping-validation setting do a different job. For billing PO boxes or a street-number requirement, use the validation-function job linked above.

What this page is not

Not legal advice, carrier advice, or a statement that an address exists or is deliverable.
Not a plan comparison. Availability that depends on the store is left to the Help Center page.
Checkout Blocks address format validation can block a shipping PO box; this page also covers autocomplete and shipping-address suggestions.
Not the billing-address rule. That page is built-in checkout rules cannot target billing.
Not the house-name test list. That page is street number and house-name addresses.

Not legal advice. Confirm the live Shopify Help Center and shopify.dev pages, including which countries and stores a checkout address feature covers, before you treat autocomplete or shipping-address validation as on or off. Native Checkout Blocks can block a PO box on shipping. Free blocks PO Boxes and parcel lockers on the shipping address at checkout, plus a small set of ZIP rules. Street-number checks and billing-address rules are on a paid plan. It does not replace Shopify’s address suggestion service.