Hide Specific Shipping Methods When a Product Category Is in the Cart

Some products need special delivery handling. For example, a fragile product category may require freight shipping, so the store should hide free_shipping and flat_rate whenever one of those products is in the cart.

Add this snippet to a child theme’s functions.php file or a code snippets plugin. The method IDs must match the IDs returned by your shipping zones, so inspect the checkout HTML or temporarily log $rate->get_method_id() if needed.

The snippet

add_filter( 'woocommerce_package_rates', function( $rates, $package ) {
  $restricted_category = 'fragile-items';
  $category_in_cart    = false;

  foreach ( $package['contents'] as $item ) {
    $product_id = $item['product_id'];

    if ( has_term( $restricted_category, 'product_cat', $product_id ) ) {
      $category_in_cart = true;
      break;
    }
  }

  if ( ! $category_in_cart ) {
    return $rates;
  }

  $hidden_methods = array( 'free_shipping', 'flat_rate' );

  foreach ( $rates as $rate_id => $rate ) {
    if ( in_array( $rate->get_method_id(), $hidden_methods, true ) ) {
      unset( $rates[ $rate_id ] );
    }
  }

  return $rates;
}, 20, 2 );

Choosing the correct method ID

The filter receives rates after WooCommerce has matched the customer’s shipping zone. A rate key may look like flat_rate:3, but get_method_id() returns the stable method ID, such as flat_rate or free_shipping. That is why the snippet compares the method ID rather than the full array key.

Shipping packages are calculated separately. The code checks $package['contents'], so it applies only to the package containing the restricted product. If your store splits packages by shipping class or destination, this behavior is usually preferable to hiding rates globally.

Keep a fallback available

Do not hide every available method unless you also add a replacement rate. If the category removes the only rate, customers may see a checkout error or be unable to complete the order. For a hard restriction, consider adding a dedicated shipping method such as local_pickup or a carrier service that supports the product.

For a related checkout control, see how to set a minimum order amount and how to apply an automatic cart discount. The WooCommerce hooks reference is useful when checking the exact shipping-rate hook available in your installed version.