---
title: "Weight-Based Customer Limits"
description: "Cap how much total weight a single customer can buy over a period — storewide, per product, or per collection."
contentType: "docs"
locale: "en"
localized: true
source: "https://orderrules.com/docs/customer-rules/weight-based-limits"
slug: "customer-rules/weight-based-limits"
---
## Limit Customers by Total Weight

A weight limit caps how many pounds (or kilograms, ounces, or grams) a single customer can buy over a period. It's the right rule when the constraint is physical rather than numerical — a flat-rate box that tops out at 40 lb, a fair-share allocation of a limited harvest, or a regulated product measured by weight rather than by unit.

Weight limits are a **per-customer** rule: they count across every order a customer places in the period, not just the current cart.

## How to Set Up

1. Confirm your product variants have a **weight** set in Shopify
2. Go to **Customer Limits**
3. Click **Add Customer Limit**
4. Choose **Total weight** as the limit type
5. Enter the maximum and pick the unit — **lb**, **kg**, **oz**, or **g**
6. Choose the scope — storewide, a product, or a collection
7. Choose the period — **Rolling 30 days**, daily, weekly, monthly, or lifetime
8. Click **Save**

## Example: Fair-Share Coffee

```
Rule:    Max 5 kg per customer, rolling 30 days
Scope:   Collection "Single Origin"

Order 1 (Mar 3):  3 x 1 kg bags     -- OK (3 kg / 5 kg used)
Order 2 (Mar 9):  3 x 1 kg bags     -- Blocked (would reach 6 kg)
Order 2 (revised): 2 x 1 kg bags    -- OK (5 kg / 5 kg used)
Apr 3: the March 3 order ages out -- 3 kg becomes available again
```

## Example: Flat-Rate Shipping Budget

```
Rule:    Max 40 lb per customer per month
Scope:   Storewide

Order 1: 25 lb  -- OK (25 lb / 40 lb used)
Order 2: 20 lb  -- Blocked (would reach 45 lb)
Order 2 (revised): 15 lb -- OK (40 lb / 40 lb used)
Resets on the 1st, in your store's timezone.
```

## Scopes

| Scope | What it counts | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Storewide | Total weight across everything the customer buys | Shipping and packaging budgets |
| Per product | Weight of one product across the customer's orders | A single heavy or allocated item |
| Per collection | Weight across every product in a collection | Fair-share drops, regulated categories |

## Units and Conversion

Rules accept **lb, kg, oz, and g**. OrderRules converts automatically, so the unit on your rule and the unit on each product don't have to match — a 40 lb cap compares correctly against a 450 g product. Set the rule in whatever unit your team thinks in.

## Periods

**Rolling 30 days** counts backwards from the moment of checkout, so a customer's allowance frees up gradually instead of all at once. **Daily, weekly, monthly, and lifetime** work exactly as they do for other customer limits, resetting in your store's timezone — see [Limit Periods](/docs/customer-rules/limit-periods).

## What Customers See

**On product pages (logged in):**
- "You can add 15 lb more this month"

**At checkout:**
```
"This order would exceed your 40 lb monthly limit (already ordered: 25 lb)."
```

Every one of these messages is customizable, and shoppers see them in their own language — see [Languages & Translations](/docs/languages).

## Tips

- Audit your catalog for variants with **no weight set** — they count as zero
- Turn on [strict login enforcement](/docs/guides/guest-checkout-blocking) so weight is tracked per customer, not per guest checkout
- Combine a weight cap with a quantity cap when you need both a "how much" and a "how many" rule — whichever is reached first blocks checkout