# Adding many categories

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-many-categories/198313
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [July 27, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-many-categories/198313 "2021-07-27T13:24:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![awesomerobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/awesomerobot/32/142900_2.png) [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-many-categories/198313/2 "2021-07-27T16:11:32Z")

</div>

We have a guide for doing bulk options from the command line, including exporting/importing categories:

> [@Administrative Bulk Operations](https://meta.discourse.org/t/administrative-bulk-operations/118349#heading--8):
>
> Below you will find a collection of bulk operations that can be initiated from the command line. You will need SSH access, so if you are a hosted customer, you will need to contact the Discourse team about running these commands. warning Before working with the console it is extremely important that you have a recent backup. Mistakes can always happen! First thing to do is enter your site’s container: cd /var/discourse ./launcher enter app Additional Guides: [Performing bulk actions a…](https://meta.discourse.org/t/performing-bulk-actions-as-a-moderator/272832)

I’m not sure how many categories is “many many” but you might run into some performance issues (depending on how the categories are used) once you hit 500+. Using tags instead would avoid that.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-many-categories/198313)._