Buyers ask for "AQL 2.5" the way they ask for "express shipping" — as a known quantity. Most could not tell you what the 2.5 measures, and that gap is where costly surprises live.
AQL is a sampling plan, not a promise
Acceptance Quality Limit is the worst tolerable defect rate in the inspected sample. At AQL 2.5 on a typical lot, you are accepting that roughly one in forty units may carry a minor defect, and the inspection only checks the sample it draws.
- It tells you the lot is probably fine, not that every unit is perfect.
- The sample size is fixed by the lot size, so a bigger order is not inspected unit by unit.
- "Critical" defects — safety, labelling law — are usually zero-tolerance regardless of AQL.
Matching the level to the channel
A fashion brand shipping to its own site can often live with AQL 2.5. A retailer with its own incoming inspection and a returns threshold may require AQL 1.5 or tighter, and will reject the lot on their terms, not yours.
Specifying the AQL your customer actually requires — before bulk, not at the port — is cheaper than arguing about it after a rejection.
How we run it
We set the AQL to your retail or brand requirement, run in-line checkpoints so defects are caught at source, and ship the inspection record with the order. The number on the report is the number your auditor will check.