The HubSpot Industry property: how to get every value, and when to stop using it

People search for the full list of HubSpot industry values for one of three reasons: they are mapping a spreadsheet before an import, they are building a form, or they are trying to report by industry and the chart has 90 bars. The list answers the first two. The third needs a different property.

What the Industry property is#

Industry is a default company property of type dropdown select. HubSpot describes it as the type of business the company performs, with Airlines/Aviation as its example. It ships with approximately 150 predefined options.

Two rules matter:

• The default options cannot be deleted. They stay in the dropdown whether you use them or not.
• You can add custom options. Anything you add sits alongside the defaults.

Each option has a label, what people see, and an internal value, what the API and imports use. The internal values are uppercase codes, so the label Computer Software is stored as COMPUTER_SOFTWARE. When an import fails on industry, it is nearly always because the file had a label that does not exactly match any option.

Getting the complete list#

In the portal. Settings > Data Management > Properties, choose Company properties, search for Industry, and open it. The field type tab lists every option with its label and internal value.

From the API, as a file. This is faster and gives you something you can use as a lookup table when cleaning an import:

const res = await fetch('https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/properties/companies/industry', {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.HUBSPOT_TOKEN}` },
})
const { options } = await res.json()
 
const csv = ['label,value', ...options.map((o) => `"${o.label}",${o.value}`)].join('\n')

The token needs read access to company schemas, which is set when you create the private app. Pull the list from your own portal rather than copying one from the internet, because custom options your team added will be in yours and not in anyone else's.

Mapping an import to it#

Before an import, map every distinct industry value in the file to an internal value:

1. Pull the distinct industry values from the file. There are usually fewer than you fear.
2. Match each one to an option, by label, in a lookup sheet.
3. Replace the column with the internal values, or with the exact labels.
4. Leave genuinely unknown values blank rather than forcing a guess.

Blank is recoverable. A confident wrong industry becomes a segmentation error nobody notices for a year.

Why reporting by Industry disappoints#

150 options is a taxonomy built to describe every business on earth. Your market is not every business on earth. A report by Industry ends up with a long tail of values that each hold three companies, and the split you actually care about, say manufacturing versus logistics versus everyone else, is spread across a dozen options.

The labels also overlap in ways that make consistent data entry hard. Is a company that builds warehouse software Computer Software, Logistics and Supply Chain, or Information Technology and Services? Three reps will give three answers, and all three are defensible.

The fix: a short custom segment property#

Keep Industry as the raw, detailed field. Add a custom dropdown with the five to ten segments your business actually sells into, for example Vertical or ICP segment, and derive it:

• A workflow sets the segment from Industry for the common cases.
• Anything the workflow cannot map lands in an Unmapped value that someone reviews monthly.
• Reports, lists and routing use the segment property, never raw Industry.

Now your active segments filter on eight values instead of forty, and when the business redefines a vertical you change one mapping instead of every list and report. Naming and ownership for a property like this are covered in property naming and cleanup.

Frequently asked questions#

How many options does the HubSpot Industry property have?#

Approximately 150 by default. The exact list in your portal can be longer because custom options can be added. Open the property under Settings > Properties, or request it from the Properties API, to see every option with its label and internal value.

Can I delete options from the HubSpot Industry property?#

No. The default Industry options cannot be deleted. You can add custom options, and you can hide the property from forms, but the predefined values stay in the dropdown.

Why does my import fail on the Industry column?#

Because the values in the file do not exactly match an option's label or internal value. Pull the option list from your portal, map each distinct value in the file to it before importing, and leave unknown values blank.

Should I report by the default Industry property?#

Usually not directly. It is too granular for most markets and inconsistently applied. Keep it as the detailed field and report on a short custom segment property derived from it by a workflow.