Activating custom ticket statuses

<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>
<div class="article-banner" id="suite_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>All Suites</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="article-banner" id="support_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Support</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Professional, or Enterprise</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="body">
<div class="note fastpath">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Objects and rules &gt; Tickets &gt;
Ticket statuses</span>
</div>
<div class="note attention">
<span class="attentiontitle"></span> If your Zendesk account was created after Jan 17, 2023, then custom ticket
statuses are activated by default and you can begin creating new ticket
statuses right away.</div>
<p class="p">Zendesk supports a set of standard ticket statuses that are used to help you
manage your ticket workflows. Activate custom ticket statuses to create
additional, more-specific ticket statuses. </p>
<p class="p">Make sure you understand how activating custom ticket statuses affects other
features in your account, such as your business rules and the agent
experience.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article includes these sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_nkm_34g_vrb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_g2k_t4g_vrb">Activating and
deactivating custom ticket statuses</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hmv_5kl_dwb">Understanding how custom
ticket statuses impact your account</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ip1_fll_dwb">Understanding how custom
ticket statuses impact the agent experience</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_okm_34g_vrb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575861018" target="_blank">Creating custom ticket statuses</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7755811560346" target="_blank">About form ticket
statuses</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Activating and deactivating custom ticket statuses</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You must be an admin to activate or deactivate custom ticket
statuses.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To activate custom ticket statuses</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb__ol_djr_t4g_vrb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb__d9e1488" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Tickets &gt; Ticket
statuses</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Custom ticket statuses</strong> to expand it.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Select <strong class="ph b">Allow custom ticket statuses</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb__image_vyl_4jl_dwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cst_enable2.png" width="500"></p>
<div class="p">You may want to review your
triggers, automations, macros, and views based on
standard ticket statuses and make sure you’re happy
with how they were automatically updated.<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> When
custom ticket statuses are activated, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832849946" target="_blank">keyboard
shortcuts</a> will not work when you are
creating a new ticket. After a ticket is created,
however, you can use keyboard shortcuts
again.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">Now, you're ready to create
custom ticket statuses (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575861018" target="_blank">Creating custom
ticket statuses</a>).</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To deactivate custom ticket statuses</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb__ol_ijr_t4g_vrb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_g2k_t4g_vrb__d9e1503" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Tickets &gt; Settings</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Custom ticket statuses</strong> to expand it.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Deselect <strong class="ph b">Allow custom ticket statuses</strong>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Review your triggers, automations, macros, and views
based on ticket statuses. <p class="p">You may need to make some
adjustments. For example, any instances of the
Status category and Ticket status condition in your
triggers will be automatically converted to the
Status condition.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hmv_5kl_dwb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding how custom ticket statuses impact your account</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Zendesk supports a set of standard ticket statuses which are used to help
you manage your ticket workflows. These standard ticket statuses are
used in your default triggers and other automations that are based
on status changes in a ticket. </p>
<p class="p">When you activate custom ticket statuses, the existing standard ticket
statuses — New, Open, Pending, On-hold (if <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408889282458" target="_blank">activated</a>), Solved,
and Closed — become status categories. </p>
<p class="p">A status category is a logical group of similar ticket statuses; it
includes at least one default ticket status and can contain multiple
ticket statuses.</p>
<p class="p">Status categories, and the initial default ticket statuses inside of each
status category, are named after the standard ticket statuses. The
example below shows your initial default ticket statuses organized
into their respective status categories:</p>
<div class="p">
<img class="image" id="topic_hmv_5kl_dwb__image_g5b_r1s_dwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cst_initial_defaults.png" width="500"><div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If your account was created on or after
February 13, 2024, an additional ticket status, <strong class="ph b">In
Progress</strong>, is included in the Open status
category. This status is included as an example of a custom
ticket status but it can still be applied to tickets,
edited, or deactivated like other ticket statuses. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575941402" target="_blank">Managing ticket
statuses</a>.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">Custom ticket statuses are created within these status categories. For
example, you could create a custom ticket status in the Open
category that describe why a ticket is open, such as Open - New
customer or Open - Existing customer:</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_hmv_5kl_dwb__image_lfm_kzr_dwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cst_open_customer_example.png" width="300"></p>
<p class="p">You can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575941402-Managing-ticket-statuses#topic_zgh_dbh_vrb" target="_blank">change the default ticket
status of a status category,</a> if needed. Every ticket
status, including both standard and custom ticket statuses, belongs
to a status category. You can’t create or edit status categories,
and you can’t move ticket statuses from one status category to
another.</p>
<p class="p">The status category you use to create a new ticket status controls the
state of the ticket and is dependent on the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408894213018" target="_blank">system ticket rules</a>.
All ticket statuses, including both standard and custom statuses,
are dependent on these rules.</p>
<p class="p">When you activate or deactivate custom ticket statuses, the status of
your tickets are automatically updated based on status categories.
For example, if you created a custom ticket status called Open
Investigating in the Open status category, assigned it to several
tickets, but then deactivated custom ticket statuses, the status of
all those tickets is changed to Open.</p>
<p class="p">Finally, it’s important to note that <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9204149016346" target="_blank">AI agent tickets</a> can’t
have custom ticket statuses.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_pvd_cps_dwb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">How custom ticket statuses impact existing business rules</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When you activate custom ticket statuses, the ticket status
conditions and actions in your existing triggers,
automations, macros, and views are automatically updated
from Ticket: Status to Ticket: Status Category. The Ticket:
Status Category condition and action uses the default ticket
status of the status category, where applicable. </p>
<p class="p">In the example below, the default automation "Close ticket 4 days
after status is set to solved", contains the condition
"Ticket: Hours since solved" and action "Ticket: Status
Closed":</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_pvd_cps_dwb__image_ybb_frs_dwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cst_default_automation_before.png" width="450"></p>
<p class="p">After you activate custom ticket statuses, the automation is
updated to the condition "Ticket: Hours since status
category solved" and action "Ticket: Status category
closed":</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_pvd_cps_dwb__image_hbz_gss_dwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cst_default_automation_after.png" width="450"></p>
<p class="p">It's recommended to review your existing triggers and other
business rules after activating custom ticket statuses. Edit
the "Ticket: Status Category" condition or action to
"Ticket: Ticket status" as needed.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ip1_fll_dwb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Understanding how custom ticket statuses impact the agent experience</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When you activate custom ticket statuses, you and your agents will see a
variety of changes to other features, including:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ip1_fll_dwb__ul_erl_lll_dwb">
<li class="li">Selecting a status from the status picker in the ticket
interface</li>
<li class="li">The appearance of ticket statuses in views</li>
<li class="li">Searching for tickets based on ticket statuses</li>
<li class="li">Tickets in the "Closed" state retain the solved status (see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8263915942938#topic_zlx_pyk_fdc" target="_blank">About closed tickets
solved with a custom ticket status</a>)</li>
<li class="li">Tickets in the “Closed” state appear in search results if your
search terms are included in their subject line or
comments. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408894221594#topic_xh1_kdy_wr" target="_blank">Searching Zendesk
Support data</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575841306",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575841306-Activating-custom-ticket-statuses",
"headline": "Activating custom ticket statuses",
"description": "You can activate or deactivate custom ticket statuses to create more specific ticket statuses within predefined status categories, which affects your ticket workflows, business rules, and agent experience.",
"articleSection": "Ticket customization",
"datePublished": "2021-12-02T18:53:19+00:00",
"dateModified": "2025-10-07T16:44:04+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575841306"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Copilot",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/4405303717658"
}
}
}</script><script id="fast-path-script">
//<![CDATA[
const fast_path_style = document.createElement('style');
fast_path_style.innerHTML = `#article-body .fastpath{font-size:.9em;background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 8px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body .fastpath::before{content:none!important}`;
document.head.appendChild(fast_path_style);
//]]>
</script>