Amazon Restock Limits Explained: How Yours Is Set

If you are looking for Amazon restock limits explained in plain terms, start here: the limit is not a number of units and it is not set per ASIN. Since March 1, 2023 it is one monthly FBA capacity limit per storage type, measured in cubic feet, and Amazon recalculates it every month.

Everything else follows from those three facts.

What Amazon restock limits are today

The history matters because old advice is still circulating.

• Until July 2020 there were no general quantity limits. Then Amazon added ASIN-level quantity limits.
• Effective April 22, 2021, ASIN-level quantity limits were dropped and restock limits moved to the storage-type level.
• Effective March 1, 2023, the weekly restock limit and the quarterly storage limit were replaced by a single monthly capacity limit per storage type.

So "restock limit" and "FBA capacity limit" now describe the same thing. If a guide tells you to check an ASIN-level limit, it predates April 2021.

The storage types your limit is split across

Your capacity is not one pool. It is allocated per storage type, and standard-size capacity does not help you ship oversize. The types are standard-size, oversize, apparel and footwear, with dangerous goods capacity (flammable and aerosol products) handled separately.

An account can be comfortable in one type and completely blocked in another on the same day.

How your restock limit is measured

Limits are set and measured by volume, in cubic feet, because volume is what a product actually consumes in a fulfillment center. Amazon still shows usage in units, but that unit figure is an estimate derived from your volume.

This is the single most common misreading. Two SKUs with the same unit count can consume very different capacity.

A full worked example

Say your standard-size capacity limit for the month is 2,400 cubic feet and your packed unit volume is 0.35 cubic feet.

• Your limit in units is roughly 2,400 / 0.35, about 6,857 units.
• You already hold 5,000 units on hand. That is 5,000 x 0.35, or 1,750 cubic feet.
• Remaining capacity is 2,400 - 1,750, or 650 cubic feet, about 1,857 units.
• Switch to a bulkier SKU at 0.9 cubic feet and that same 650 cubic feet is only about 722 units.

Same limit, same warehouse, less than half the units. Run this calculation on your real packed volume before you place a purchase order, not after the shipment is refused.

What sets the number

Your capacity limit is influenced by your IPI score plus sales forecasts for your ASINs, shipment lead time and fulfillment center capacity. Amazon also splits professional accounts by tenure: there is one treatment for accounts active in FBA for less than 39 weeks and another for accounts past 39 weeks, where IPI score and sales performance drive the limit.

Individual selling accounts are a flat case: a capacity limit of 15 cubic feet, which is not eligible to be increased.

How many units fit in your limit?

See my capacity

When you find out, and how far ahead you can see

• Your limit for the coming month is published in the third full week of each month, through the Capacity Monitor in Seller Central and an email notification.
• The Capacity Monitor also shows estimated limits for the following months, so you get a planning horizon rather than a single month.
• Current usage by inventory status and remaining capacity for new shipments sit on the same screen. Your storage-type restock limits and utilisation also appear in the Shipping Queue, under the restock limits bar.

Put the third full week of the month in your calendar. That is the date your next two months of inbound planning actually depends on.

Exceeding the limit: what it costs and what it does not

This is where most outdated articles get expensive. Amazon eliminated the overage fee for storage effective July 1, 2024. Going over your limit on on-hand inventory no longer triggers that charge.

What the limit still does is block you. If your on-hand inventory fills the limit, you cannot create new shipments into that storage type, which matters far more in the weeks before a peak than any fee would.

How to get more capacity

Capacity Manager lets you request an increase at a reservation fee that you specify, per cubic foot. Two details decide whether it is worth using:

• Requests are granted objectively, "starting with the highest reservation fee per cubic foot until all capacity available under this program has been allocated". It is an auction, not a queue.
• Performance credits can offset up to 100% of your reservation fee if the products sell through. The real cost depends on sell-through, not on the fee you bid.

Amazon assesses fulfillment center capacity regularly, typically twice per week, so an approved request does not take effect instantly.

What to do with this

1. Read your limit per storage type, not as one total.
2. Convert it to units using your own packed volume, SKU by SKU.
3. Check the new limit in the third full week of every month, and plan inbound against the estimate for the next months.
4. If a storage type is tight before a peak, decide between a Capacity Manager bid and a removal, and remember removals take time to execute.

Your capacity limit is one of the clocks that runs on FBA stock whether you watch it or not. The rest are in our guide to the five clocks in FBA inventory management. If your limit was cut rather than simply filled, what a reduced FBA capacity limit costs covers that case, and the Q4 side of the same decision is in how the monthly storage rate changes on October 1.

“We eliminated the overage fee for storage effective July 1, 2024.”

— Amazon Seller Central ↗

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👋Hey! I'm Amara

Press at SellerKey.co

☕ Espresso. Never a latte macchiato.

I cover Amazon fee and policy changes: what changed, when it applies and where Amazon published it.

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