How the repricing cycle works

RepriceLab runs a continuous repricing cycle that evaluates all of your active products on a scheduled basis. Each cycle:

  1. Fetches the latest competitor offers from Amazon for each active SKU
  2. Applies your repricing rule logic to determine the optimal price
  3. Submits price updates to Amazon via SP-API for any products where the price should change
  4. Logs the decision (including reason and competitor data) to the Repricing Activity page

Each entry in your Repricing Activity log corresponds to one evaluation within a cycle for one product.

Default cycle interval

By default, RepriceLab runs repricing cycles every 10 minutes. This means your prices can be updated up to 6 times per hour in response to competitor price changes. The 10-minute interval balances responsiveness with Amazon's SP-API rate limits.

The 10-minute cycle applies to all products with repricing enabled. Products with repricing turned off are skipped entirely.

Real-time vs. scheduled repricing

RepriceLab uses a scheduled approach (polling-based) rather than true event-driven real-time repricing. Here is the practical difference:

  • Scheduled (RepriceLab's approach): Prices are checked and updated every 10 minutes. If a competitor drops their price at minute 1, your price adjusts at the next scheduled cycle (up to 10 minutes later).
  • Event-driven real-time: Prices update instantly the moment a change is detected. This approach requires a more expensive SP-API integration tier and is generally reserved for enterprise-level repricing tools.

In practice, a 10-minute cycle is sufficient for the vast majority of Amazon sellers. Buy Box rotation itself operates on a similar timescale, meaning faster repricing does not always translate to meaningfully more Buy Box time.

Repricing intervals and SP-API throttling

Amazon limits how frequently third-party tools can submit price updates via SP-API — this is called API throttling. RepriceLab manages these limits automatically. If your catalog is large, RepriceLab prioritizes products with the most competitive pressure within each cycle.

If you notice some products being repriced less frequently than others, this is normal for large catalogs. All products will receive at least one pricing evaluation per cycle.

When price changes take effect on Amazon

After RepriceLab submits a price update to Amazon:

  • Amazon typically applies the price change within 1–5 minutes
  • The updated price becomes visible on the product listing shortly after
  • The Buy Box algorithm re-evaluates based on the new price

In total, from when RepriceLab decides to change a price to when the Buy Box winner updates, expect up to 15 minutes end-to-end in normal conditions.

Monitoring cycle activity

You can see the output of every repricing cycle in the Repricing Activity page. Each row shows:

  • The product (SKU/ASIN) that was evaluated
  • The timestamp of the evaluation
  • The old price and new price (or "No Change")
  • The rule/strategy applied
  • The reason for the decision (Buy Box target, min price block, no competition, etc.)

If you notice your prices are not updating at all, see the Why Prices Are Not Updating troubleshooting guide.