How to Improve Your Amazon IPI Score (and Keep It There)

Every FBA seller knows the notification by heart. "Your storage capacity has been limited due to your Inventory Performance Index IPI score."

It shows up in Seller Central with no warning, right when you're trying to load up for a peak season.

Here's the promise: this guide maps out the exact 7-step recovery plan that moves the score, not the vague "manage your inventory better" advice Amazon's own help docs recycle.

You'll see what IPI actually measures, what a low score costs in real 2026 dollars, how long recovery takes at each starting tier, and the pricing angle almost every other guide misses.

The 4 metrics, the thresholds, the fix order, and the weekly routine that keeps you out of penalty territory.

Here's where most sellers lose the battle: they treat IPI as a mystery number instead of a downstream effect of four things they already control.

What Is an Amazon IPI Score?

The Amazon IPI score is a 0-1000 metric that measures how efficiently a third-party seller manages FBA inventory. Amazon updates it weekly based on multiple factors: excess inventory percentage, sell-through rate, stranded inventory, and in-stock rate for replenishable ASINs. A score above 400 is typically required to avoid capacity caps and storage overage charges.

The Inventory Performance Index (IPI) is Amazon's internal scorecard for FBA inventory planning. You'll find your current Inventory Performance Index IPI score inside Seller Central under Inventory > Inventory Performance Dashboard.

The score exists for one reason. Amazon's fulfillment centers have finite shelf space, and the company uses IPI to reward sellers who turn inventory fast and penalize sellers who sit on dead stock.

IPI evaluates your on-hand supply against real customer demand. Too much inventory sitting in warehouses drags the score down. Too little inventory on your best-sellers drags it down too.

Your job is to stay in the middle of that band, and every decision covered in this guide serves that outcome.

How Amazon Calculates Your IPI Score: The 4 Metrics

Amazon calculates the IPI score from multiple factors, and understanding each metric is how you reverse-engineer your own score. These are the key metrics that determine whether your inventory planning looks healthy or stressed.

The four components aren't weighted equally across every account. Which metric hurts you most depends on how much inventory you carry and how your sell-through looks over the last 90 days.

Excess Inventory Percentage

Excess inventory is any FBA stock representing more than 90 days of expected sales. If a SKU averages 10 units per month and you have 100 units at FBA, 70 of those units are excess.

The higher your excess share, the lower your IPI score trends. Amazon wants shelf space moving, not sitting.

Excess and aged inventory is the single biggest category most sellers ignore until the score drops. By then you're already paying storage fees on units that should have been liquidated two months ago.

Sell-Through Rate

The FBA sell-through rate has an exact formula: units sold and shipped in the last 90 days divided by the average number of units on hand during that same period.

Amazon recommends a sell-through rate above 1.0, and considers 3.0 to 7.0 good for most categories. If you're below 1.0, you're holding more inventory than you're moving.

Low sell-through is almost always a symptom of one of two things: too much inventory per SKU, or pricing that isn't winning clicks. We'll come back to the pricing side in Section 7.

Stranded Inventory Percentage

Stranded inventory is FBA units physically sitting at Amazon fulfillment centers without an active listing attached to them. Stranded units earn zero revenue, but you're still paying storage on them.

Common causes of stranded inventory:

• Listing suspended for a policy issue
• Pricing errors flagged by Amazon's automation
• Category gated after the listing was created
• Product variant removed from the parent ASIN

Stranded inventory percentage is the fastest-moving IPI metric. Fix a batch of stranded units and you'll see the needle move on the next weekly update.

In-Stock Rate for Replenishable ASINs

The FBA in-stock rate measures the percentage of time your replenishable SKUs stayed in stock over the trailing 30 days. Stockouts on high-velocity, replenishable items drop this metric fast.

Too little inventory on your top sellers is just as damaging to IPI as too much dead stock elsewhere. Both signal that you're mismanaging supply against demand.

One note: this metric only tracks items flagged as replenishable. If a SKU is marked non-replenishable, a stockout doesn't count against your in-stock rate. That distinction matters in Section 6.

What Happens When Your IPI Score Drops Below 400

A low IPI score doesn't just bruise your ego. It costs money every single week until you fix it.

The penalties stack, and they hit hardest during the exact weeks you want to be scaling inventory (Q4 lead-up, Prime Day, back-to-school). Rising fees plus lost sales during peak is the scenario every Amazon reseller wants to avoid.

FBA Storage Limits and Capacity Cuts

When your score falls below 400, Amazon enforces strict FBA storage limits on your account. Your available FBA capacity gets cut, sometimes in half, sometimes more.

The worst part is the timing. Capacity limits often tighten just before Q4, right when every reseller is trying to push more inventory in. That mismatch causes direct lost sales you can't recover.

Monthly Storage Overage Fees

If your stored inventory exceeds your reduced capacity, Amazon charges monthly overage fees on top of regular storage fees. This is a double-dip penalty: you're paying to store inventory Amazon doesn't want you storing in the first place.

Higher storage fees on every cubic foot of overage inventory means your margin on slow-moving SKUs gets eaten alive. A product with a thin margin can go negative fast once storage costs at Amazon fulfillment centers stack up.

Aged Inventory Surcharges and Long-Term Storage Fees

Aged inventory (units sitting 181+ days) triggers aged inventory surcharges in addition to your normal FBA storage fees.

Hit 365+ days and long-term storage fees layer on top of that. Multiple surcharges compounding on a single unit is how sellers end up paying more in fees than the unit would sell for retail.

Blocked Inbound Shipments and ASIN-Level Restock Caps

When capacity gets tight, Amazon may block inbound shipments entirely until you clear out existing stock at the warehouse. ASIN-level restock limits can also cap how many units of a specific SKU you're allowed to replenish.

Combined with the low-inventory-level fee structure, a bad IPI score right before peak season can effectively freeze your entire business. That's why fixing the score is a cash-flow emergency, not a quarterly project.

The 2026 IPI Score Thresholds Every FBA Seller Should Know

Amazon's minimum IPI threshold to avoid capacity penalties is 400, but knowing where you land in the wider band tells you how urgent the fix is. Amazon's minimum threshold acts as the on/off switch for storage limits.

• Below 350: Critical zone. Storage limits active, capacity severely reduced, blocked shipments possible. Triage required.
• 350-400: Penalty zone. Storage limits enforced, overage fees likely stacking. Recovery work is your top priority.
• 400-500: Maintenance zone. You're clear of penalties but one bad month away. Don't coast.
• 500-800: Healthy zone. Full FBA benefits, normal storage capacity, no fee surprises.
• 800+: Best-in-class. Unlimited FBA storage space for qualifying sellers during peak periods.

The 400 floor is exactly that, a floor, not a goal. Operating at 401 means every seasonal swing can drop you right back into penalty territory.

7 Ways to Fix a Low IPI Score (Prioritized by Impact)

Not every fix moves the score at the same speed. Here's the order that works, from fastest impact to long-term maintenance.

1. Fix Stranded Inventory Immediately

Start here. This metric is the highest-impact, fastest-response fix on this list.

Pull the Fix Stranded Inventory report in Seller Central (Inventory > Manage Inventory > Stranded Inventory). The Fix Stranded Inventory tool is the fastest path to a score lift because it clears the single most visible red flag on your account. For each stranded unit, do one of three things within 7 days:

• Relist the item with a corrected listing or pricing fix
• Submit a removal order to pull the units back
• Create a new listing and relink the stranded units

Stranded listings are the score's canary in the coal mine. Every week you leave them there, they drag IPI down further while eating storage fees.

2. Reduce Excess Inventory Strategically

Reduce excess inventory using the Manage Inventory Health report to identify SKUs with more than 90 days of supply.

You have several ways to remove inventory without killing margin:

• Markdown the SKU on Amazon to trigger faster sell-through
• Bundle slow movers with faster-moving complementary products
• Run a PPC push to accelerate units cleared
• Sell on your own website or other sales channels
• Submit removal orders to remove inventory from FBA and relist elsewhere

Don't dump everything at once. Flooding the market with markdowns can train the algorithm to expect lower prices, which crushes sell-through long after the excess inventory sitting problem is fixed.

3. Increase Sell-Through Rate on Slow Movers

Increase sell-through on slow movers through three levers that stack well together: promotional discounts, price adjustments, and product page improvements to increase sales.

Target the slowest 20% of your catalog first. That's where sell-through has the most room to climb and where the excess penalty is hitting hardest.

Small price drops to match the Buy Box often do more than big promotional discounts. The key is increasing sales velocity on slow movers, not destroying margin.

4. Mark Non-Replenishable SKUs Correctly

Any SKU you don't plan to restock needs to be flagged as non-replenishable inside Seller Central. This is a 2-minute fix with a permanent benefit.

Why it matters: in-stock rate only tracks replenishable ASINs. A SKU you're winding down shouldn't count as a stockout against your score when it naturally runs out.

Most sellers never flip this setting and let phantom stockouts tank this metric for months on end.

5. Tighten Restock Timing for Best-Sellers

Use Amazon's restock recommendations combined with your own demand forecasts to prioritize replenishment for top-velocity SKUs. Amazon's restock recommendations pull from its own demand model but should always be cross-checked against your actual 90-day velocity and average units sold per week.

The goal is zero stockouts on your highest-movers. Every day a best-seller sits at zero inventory hurts the in-stock rate metric and signals poor inventory management to the algorithm.

Forecasted demand beats reactive restocking every time, and a rolling forecasted demand model will catch seasonal swings your gut would miss. Treat this as inventory planning, not guesswork, and your IPI management stays on autopilot the rest of the quarter.

6. Get Pricing Right (The Hidden Lever)

This is the fix nobody writes about. Your repricing strategy directly drives three of the four IPI components, yet most IPI guides treat pricing as an afterthought.

Items stuck above the Buy Box price don't sell. That drags sell-through, which inflates your excess percentage, which tanks IPI. Pricing discipline is an IPI lever.

Smart repricing (covered in detail in the next section) is the most underused move in this list. It keeps velocity up, which keeps the score up, without requiring liquidations or markdowns.

7. Use AWD or 3PL for Overflow

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) or a third-party prep center can absorb overflow inventory that still has demand but is dragging your FBA footprint.

This is a structural fix rather than a score-moving fix. It keeps your warehouse footprint lean without forcing you to liquidate SKUs that will sell eventually, just not in the next 90 days.

Good fit if you're in seasonal categories or moving into new SKUs where demand is still being validated.

How Your Repricing Strategy Quietly Tanks Your IPI Score

Three of the four IPI components are downstream of your pricing strategy. That's the part nobody tells you.

Walk through the chain. Overpriced items don't win the Buy Box, so they don't sell, so sell-through rate drops. That same stock keeps sitting, so your excess share climbs. Both metrics move against you from the same root cause.

Pricing errors can also strand listings entirely. An automated price flag from Amazon (price gouging, high-lister) suspends the listing, and suddenly you have stranded inventory racking up storage fees.

The sellers who run tight IPI scores almost universally run tight pricing. The ones who let prices drift are the ones who end up in penalty zones.

An AI repricer like Aura keeps you competitive without racing to the bottom. Velocity protects IPI as a downstream effect of pricing discipline, which is why this angle beats chasing each IPI metric individually.

Here's the part nobody tells you: if you fix pricing first, three of the four IPI metrics improve on their own. Stranded drops because listings stay buyable. Excess drops because velocity clears stock. Sell-through climbs because you're actually winning the Buy Box.

That leaves only the replenishable stock metric to monitor manually, and that one's a restock-timing problem, not a pricing problem.

How to Manage Inventory Health Weekly (Under 30 Minutes)

The sellers who keep inventory health in the green all do the same thing. They manage FBA inventory on a weekly 25-30 minute review built around three reports, every single week without skipping.

Inventory Performance Dashboard (10 min)

Open the inventory performance dashboard inside Seller Central. Check three things:

• Current IPI score and the week-over-week trend
• Which of the four metrics is flagged red
• Amazon's suggested quick-win actions

If the score dropped, the dashboard usually shows you which metric caused it. Start there before digging into the detailed reports.

Manage Inventory Health Report (10 min)

Pull the Manage Inventory Health report. Review three lists: excess units, aged inventory, and stranded inventory.

Take 1 or 2 concrete actions per report. Liquidate the biggest excess SKU, submit a removal order on the oldest aged lot, or relist five stranded items. Small actions compound.

Don't try to fix everything in a single session. Consistency beats heroics for IPI management.

Capacity Monitor + Restock Reports (10 min)

Confirm your current capacity limits and how much headroom you have against them. Then review restock reports to plan the next inbound shipment.

This is where you catch capacity cuts before they turn into blocked inbound shipments. If your capacity shrank by 30% overnight, you want to know on Monday, not when your next shipment gets rejected.

One action per week compounds. In 8-12 weeks of sustained effort, you'll be above 500 with a system that keeps you there, and ongoing IPI management stops feeling like a fire drill.

Realistic Recovery Timeline by Starting Score

The score updates weekly, so you'll see movement fast, but the full recovery path depends on where you're starting from.

• Starting below 300: 12-16 weeks to clear penalties. Aggressive removal orders, heavy markdowns, and full stranded cleanup required.
• Starting 300-400: 6-10 weeks to the safe zone. Focus on stranded items and aged stock first, then pricing and restock timing.
• Starting 400-500: 2-4 weeks to the healthy zone. Tighten restock discipline and pricing, and the score usually climbs on its own.
• Starting 500+: Ongoing maintenance only. The weekly routine keeps you there.

Most sellers underestimate how much of the recovery happens in the last 3 weeks of the window. Early weeks feel slow because stranded fixes and removal orders take time to reflect in the calculation.

Amazon IPI Score FAQs

How is the IPI score calculated?

The IPI score is calculated from four metrics: excess inventory percentage, sell-through rate, stranded inventory percentage, and in-stock rate for replenishable ASINs. Amazon updates the score weekly and uses a weighted model that adjusts based on account size and category mix.

What is a good IPI score in 2026?

A good Amazon IPI score in 2026 is anything 500 or above. Scores of 500 to 800 put you in the healthy zone with full FBA benefits and no capacity penalties. Above 800, qualifying sellers unlock unlimited FBA storage space during peak periods like Q4 and Prime Day.

Do stockouts lower my IPI score?

Stockouts don't directly lower your IPI score, but they hurt the in-stock rate metric for replenishable ASINs. If your top sellers go out of stock repeatedly, in-stock rate drops, which drags the overall IPI score. SKUs flagged as non-replenishable are excluded from this calculation.

Can I sell on other sales channels while fixing my IPI?

Yes. Selling on your own website or other sales channels is one of the fastest ways to move excess inventory without training the Amazon algorithm to expect permanent price drops. Liquidation platforms and Walmart Marketplace both work well for clearing FBA overflow while you rebuild your score.

What's the minimum IPI threshold Amazon enforces?

Amazon's minimum IPI threshold is 400. Drop below 400 and your account triggers FBA storage limits, overage charges on any stored inventory exceeding those limits, and potential ASIN-level restock caps on specific SKUs. Recovery usually takes 6 to 10 weeks from a 350 starting point.

Ready to stop chasing IPI metric by metric? A smart AI repricer fixes three of the four components as a side effect of keeping your pricing right. See how Aura builds pricing discipline into your FBA account.