---
agentTools:
  projectIndex: https://developers.brandwatch.com/llms.txt
---

# Categories

A Category is a user-defined label.  It can be applied as metadata to a Mention and used later for advanced filtering and data segmentation. Unlike Tags, Categories have a hierarchical structure.  Each Category can contain multiple Subcategories, and *must* contain at least one Subcategory.

For more information on Categories and how to use them, click [here](https://consumer-research-help.brandwatch.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402943506577-New-Categories).

Learn more about the API calls for:

* [Creating Categories](https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/creating-categories)
* [Retrieving Categories](https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/retrieving-categories)
* [Deleting Categories](https://developers.brandwatch.com/docs/deleting-categories)