What Is AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit)?

A statistical sampling standard used to inspect a bulk shipment without checking every unit.

AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit) is a statistical sampling standard used in garment quality inspection. Rather than inspecting every single unit in a bulk order — impractical at wholesale volume — a properly sized random sample is pulled and inspected against the standard; the shipment is rejected if the sample's defect count exceeds the threshold for the chosen AQL level (2.5 is the common level used for garments). It's standard, defensible industry practice, not a shortcut, provided the sample size and inspection criteria are agreed and documented before production runs.