Magento 2 – Move the Limiter to the Top

You can do this by modifying catalog/product/list.phtml and catalog/prodct/list/toolbar.phtml from your theme.

First, the changes in catalog/product/list/toolbar.phtml.
Wrap the div with class pager in this if statement (the full div element not just the tag opening line):

<?php if (!$this->getHidePager()) : ?>
   <!-- <div class="pager"> here -->
<?php endif;?>

now in catalog/product/list.phtml replace this line at the top of the file:

<?php echo $this->getToolbarHtml() ?>

with this one:

<?php echo $this->getToolbarBlock()->setHidePager(true)->toHtml();?>

and the same line at the bottom of the file with this one:

<?php echo $this->getToolbarBlock()->setHidePager(false)->toHtml();?>

One way of solving your issue is by hiding and showing toolbar HTML elements

For top toolbar your CSS should look like the following:

.toolbar .pager {
    display: none;
}

For bottom toolbar your CSS should look like the following:

.toolbar-bottom .toolbar .pager {
    display: block;
}

.toolbar-bottom .toolbar .sorter {
    display: none;
}

Another solution is to create a new toolbar template file for bottom and keep pager code and remove sort code and then call toolbar bottom template in product listing. Follow the following steps to accomplish this solution:

• Copy toolbar.phtml from app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/list/toolbar.phtml to your custom theme template app/design/frontend/custom_package/custom_template/product/list/toolbar.phtml

• Make a copy of toolbar.phtml and name it toolbar-bottom.phtml

• Edit toolbar.phtml and remove pager code

• Edit toolbar-bottom.phtml and remove sort code

• Copy list.phtml from app/design/frontend/base/default/template/catalog/product/list.phtml to app/design/frontend/custom_package/custom_template/catalog/product/list.phtml

• Edit list.phtml and replace the following code:

Existing code:

<div class="toolbar-bottom">
    <?php echo $this->getToolbarHtml() ?>
</div>

With this code:

<div class="toolbar-bottom">
    <?php echo $this->getToolbarBlock()->setTemplate('catalog/product/list/toolbar-bottom.phtml')->toHtml() ?>
</div>