How to limit the number of CMS items shown?

When you add a Collection List to a page in Webflow, it displays items from a CMS Collection. By default, it may show all items or a preset number. Controlling how many items appear is useful for featured sections, sidebars, grids, and any layout where you only need a subset of your content.

Limiting items in a Collection List

Setting the item limit

1. Open the Webflow Designer and navigate to a page with a Collection List (or add one).
2. Select the Collection List Wrapper element — click it on the canvas or find it in the Navigator.
3. In the Settings panel (right sidebar), look for the Items shown or Limit field under Collection List settings.
4. Enter the number of items you want to display (e.g., 3, 6, 12).

The Collection List will now render only that many items, starting from the first item after any sorting or filtering is applied.

How it works with sorting and filtering

The limit applies after sorting and filtering. Webflow first filters the collection, then sorts the remaining items, and finally takes only the number you set as the limit.

For example: if you sort blog posts by date descending and set the limit to 5, you get the 5 most recent posts that match your filters.

Common use cases

• Featured posts section: Filter by featured = true, limit to 3.

• Recent articles sidebar: Sort by date descending, limit to 5.

• Team member grid: No filter, limit to the number of team members.

• Testimonials carousel: Filter by approved = true, limit to 10.

Pagination as an alternative

If you want to show more items than a single Collection List can handle, enable pagination in the Collection List settings. This splits items across multiple pages with next/previous controls. Each page respects the per-page limit you set.

Hard limits

• A single Collection List can display a maximum of 100 items. This is a platform limit.

• If your collection has more than 100 items and you need to display all of them, use pagination or multiple Collection Lists with offset-based filtering (available on paid plans via dynamic lists).

• For complex pagination beyond what Webflow offers natively, consider tools like Wized or custom JavaScript solutions.