Amazon FBA Capacity Limits in Australia: What Sets Them, What Amazon Publishes and What to Do at Your Limit

Amazon says it may apply an inventory storage limit to your FBA account depending on your selling plan and your Inventory Performance Index (IPI). As of October 2026 Amazon does not publish a numeric limit for Australia, or the amount of any storage utilisation surcharge, on its public pages. Your own limit and current usage are shown inside Seller Central. This page explains what drives the limit, what Amazon has published, what it keeps inside Seller Central and how to stay under it.

What is an FBA capacity limit?

A capacity limit is a cap on how much stock you can have at fulfilment centres, including stock on its way. It exists because centre space is finite and Amazon allocates it by expected sales. The public FBA page ties the limit to two things: your selling plan and your IPI.

It is separate from storage fees. Storage fees are what you pay per cubic metre per month to hold stock. See Amazon Australia storage fees. A capacity limit is how much you may send in the first place.

How does IPI affect your limit?

The IPI updates weekly and is based on your 90-day rolling sell-through rate and your stranded inventory percentage. Stranded inventory is stock with no active offer on Amazon. Amazon's forum refresher says sellers with consistently higher IPI scores receive higher capacity limits, adjusted for sales volume and available capacity.

The one IPI number Amazon publishes for Australia is not a capacity threshold. The FBA New Selection programme requires an IPI of 300 or more in the trailing six months from 1 December 2025. Amazon has not published an Australian IPI cut-off for capacity, so none is given here.

The two inputs in plain terms:

If a listing is suppressed, units on hand may be stranded. See suppressed listings on Amazon Australia.

What does Amazon publish about individual and new accounts?

An Amazon staff forum post titled "Refresher: FBA capacity limits and how they work" appears on the Australian Seller Central site. It says:

• individual selling accounts have a capacity limit of 15 cubic feet, which is fixed and cannot be increased;
• new professional accounts active in FBA for under 39 weeks do not receive capacity limits;
• professional accounts active for more than 39 weeks receive limits based on IPI and sales performance;
• usage counts stock on hand and open shipments on the way;
• you can view limits, usage and estimated limits for the next three months in the Capacity Monitor at the bottom of the FBA dashboard;
• you can request extra capacity through Capacity Manager and set the maximum reservation fee you will pay, and Amazon assesses capacity typically twice a week.

How do you check your current limit?

1. Open Seller Central and go to the FBA dashboard.
2. Find the Capacity Monitor at the bottom of the page.
3. Note your limit, your usage and the estimate for coming months.
4. Compare it with the volume of the shipment you plan, including units already in transit.

Do this before ordering from a supplier, not after the goods are on a ship. A limit that blocks the shipping plan when your container is mid-ocean leaves you paying storage elsewhere.

What happens when you reach the limit?

Amazon does not describe the exact behaviour on its public Australian pages. What sellers report, and what the refresher post implies, is that the shipping workflow stops you adding units beyond your remaining capacity. Options when that happens:

• Sell down. The cleanest fix. Run a promotion on slow stock. See Amazon deals and coupons in Australia.
• Remove or dispose of dead stock. Removal carries a per-item fee whose amount is in Seller Central. See removal and disposal fees. Amazon also offers automated removal for units aged 1 to 12 months or over 12 months.
• Request more capacity. Use Capacity Manager and set a maximum reservation fee. Amazon has not published an Australian reservation fee amount, and sellers in that thread report that replies can take weeks.
• Fulfil the overflow yourself. Keep fast sellers in FBA and ship slower lines with your own carrier. See FBA vs FBM in Australia and fulfilling with Australia Post.

How do you plan stock so limits are not a problem?

Three habits, none needing a published number:

1. Send weeks of cover, not months. Estimate daily sales, add transit time and a buffer. A product that sells 10 units a day with a 21-day lead time needs roughly 210 units plus safety stock. That is an illustrative calculation, not an Amazon rule.
2. Watch the aged stock. Stock held more than 365 days attracts a long-term storage fee, assessed monthly. The aged surcharge bands from 271 days are on the storage fees page.
3. Fix stranded units weekly. Open the stranded inventory report and resolve listing, barcode or price problems.

Peak planning matters most. Storage costs A$51.80 per cubic metre in October to December, against A$37.00 from January to September for standard-size items, excluding GST. Sending stock for peak means you pay the higher rate on whatever is unsold. For per-unit economics, use the FBA calculator guide.

What does a limit mean in practice? A worked example

This is illustrative, with invented inputs and no Amazon figures. Say your Capacity Monitor shows 20 cubic metres of space remaining. Your product packs at 0.004 cubic metres a unit, so 5,000 units would fill it exactly. You already have 1,200 units on hand and 1,500 in an open shipment, which together use 10.8 cubic metres. That leaves 9.2 cubic metres, or room for 2,300 more units. If your supplier container holds 4,000 units, you can send 2,300 to FBA and have to hold or fulfil the other 1,700 elsewhere.

The practical lesson is to decide the split before you order. Ask your supplier to pack the container in two lots, or plan a staggered second shipment, and keep a small amount of your own space for the overflow. Storage you hold yourself costs your own rent rather than Amazon's per-cubic-metre rate, so compare the two.

FAQ

What is the FBA storage limit in Australia? Amazon does not publish a numeric limit on its public Australian pages. It says limits may depend on your selling plan and IPI, and shows your own limit in the Capacity Monitor in Seller Central.

Does an Individual plan have a different limit? An Amazon forum refresher says individual accounts have a fixed limit of 15 cubic feet. It does not say whether that applies in Australia, so check your Capacity Monitor.

What IPI score do I need? Amazon publishes no capacity IPI cut-off for Australia. The New Selection programme requires an IPI of 300 or more in the trailing six months, which is a programme rule, not a capacity rule.

How often does IPI update? Weekly. Amazon calculates it from your 90-day rolling sell-through rate and your stranded inventory percentage, so a clean-up of stranded units can show up in your score within a few weeks.

Can I pay for more capacity? The forum refresher describes a reservation fee request through Capacity Manager, assessed typically twice a week, with no amounts given.

Do capacity limits apply to my first shipment? The same refresher says new professional accounts active in FBA for under 39 weeks do not receive capacity limits. Check your own account, because Amazon can change this.

Next steps

Look at your Capacity Monitor today, note the limit and your IPI inputs and build the next replenishment around sell-through. If you want help, Blooprint, an Amazon SPN verified partner, offers Amazon FBA management for Australian sellers. The Amazon Australia hub links the full FBA series.