## 2.6.5  Labels
Labels are user-defined words or phrases that you can assign to various entities in SAP BTP to categorize them in your global account, to identify them more easily.
For example, in the Account Explorer page in the cockpit, you can quickly filter for directories and subaccounts by label.
You can assign labels to these entities when you create or edit them using the SAP BTP cockpit, command line interface (btp CLI), or REST APIs:
- Directories
- Subaccounts
- Multitenant application subscriptions
- Service instances
- Environment instances
##  Note
For environment instances, these custom labels are user defined and apply only to SAP BTP. They are not the same labels that might be defined by your environment broker.
Labels are made up of a label name (also referred to as a key ) and up to 10 values associated with the label. You can apply label names and values in any way that suits your business and technical needs.
Types of labels and examples
## Types of Labels
## Examples
| Single-value labels are useful for labels that have an identi- fier, or for labels with fixed lists.                                                                              | • Label Name: Cost Object Value: The ID of a cost center number or internal order that is associated with the entity, such as: 000001134789 • Label Name: Status Value: Active or Inactive • Label Name: Landscape Value: Dev or Test or Production   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Multi-value labels make them useful for labels that typically have more than one value assigned to them.                                                                          | • Label Name: Contacts Value: The e-mail addresses or names of users that are responsible for the en- tity, such as: admin-1@example.com and admin-2@example.com                                                                                      |
| Labels can also be assigned with a name only and no value. In such cases, the label behaves like tag. Note that currently for service instances, labels must have at least value. | • Label Name: For demo only • Label Name: Audited • Label Name: Flagged for deletion                                                                                                                                                                  |
##  Note
Labels replace what were previously called "custom properties". Custom properties supported only single values per label and were available only to directories and subaccounts. As a result of the move to labels, all relevant commands in the SAP BTP command line interface (btp CLI) and in the relevant REST APIs in the SAP Cloud Management service have been updated accordingly. The custom-properties parameter in the btp CLI and the customProperties field in the relevant REST APIs are deprecated.
You can assign labels when you create an entity, and then later add, change, or remove labels by editing the entity.
##  Tip
- In the Account Explorer and Instances and Subscriptions pages in the SAP BTP cockpit, assigned labels are shown in the Labels column. To display the column if it is not shown, click  (Configure Table Columns) .
- In the Account Explorer page, you can view the labels that are assigned to a directory or subaccount by choosing the More Info option of each directory and subaccount. Assigned labels are also listed under the Labels tab when you display the Overview page of every directory and subaccount.
- In the Account Explorer and Instances and Subscriptions pages, you can filter the displayed entities by their assigned labels in the Search field.
- In the Instances and Subscriptions page, you can also view the labels that are assigned to a subscription or instance by expanding its details panel.
When working with labels, consider the following aspects:
- In the cockpit, each entity can have up to 10 labels assigned to it.
- You cannot add the same label name more than once to the same entity.
- Existing label names and values are offered as suggestions when you or anyone else assigns a label to
- other entities of the same type in your global account. When you view a subaccount in the cockpit, the subaccount also shows the labels that are assigned to its parent directory and to other directories that are above it in the same path in your account structure. And in the Account Explorer , when you filter by labels that are assigned to a directory, the subaccounts in that directory path are also listed. We refer to these as inherited labels.
- Label names and values are case-sensitive, which means you can create variants of the same label name with a different casing; for example, My Label and My label can coexist as separate labels. We recommend that you avoid using different casing or styling to create variants of the same names or values.
## Related Links
- Create a Subaccount [page 2249]
- Change Subaccount Details [page 2256]
- Create a Directory [page 2242]
- Commands in the btp CLI [page 2433]
- Account Administration Using APIs of the SAP Cloud Management Service [page 2457]
- Managing Service Resources Using the APIs of the SAP Service Manager [page 2499]
- Creating Service Instances
- Working with Environment Instances
- •
- Subscribe to Multitenant Applications Using the Cockpit [page 2274]