ChatGPT
Gemini
Claude
Perplexity
Copilot
Deepseek
If you log into Seller Central and try to create Premium A+ Content, it either appears as an option or it does not. Most sellers in the second situation assume they do not qualify, wait around, and eventually stop thinking about it.
The actual criteria are specific. Most people just never find them explained accurately in one place.
This guide covers both the standard A+ Content approval process and the Premium requirements as they stand in 2026, including what changed when Amazon updated its eligibility rules in September 2024.
What Is Amazon A+ Content (And Why It Matters in 2026)
A+ Content replaces the plain product description on your listing with designed modules: image blocks, comparison charts, infographics, brand storytelling, and more. According to Amazon’s own data, adding A+ Content can lift conversion rates by up to 10% for Basic and up to 20% for Premium. Amazon publishes these as observed averages across sellers who made the switch, not marketing projections.
There are two tiers.
Basic A+ Content is available to all Brand Registry sellers. You get standard modules: product features, text-and-image combinations, comparison charts, and a Brand Story section. Since January 2024, Amazon also extended Basic A+ to generic ASINs sold by Professional Sellers without Brand Registry. That matters for private-label sellers still working through the registration process.
Premium A+ Content (also called A++) is the advanced tier. The modules are more interactive: hotspot images where shoppers tap or hover to reveal product details, auto-play video, enhanced comparison tables with dynamic scrolling, and carousel modules built for multi-step storytelling. The 20% conversion lift Amazon cites applies to sellers who switched from Basic to Premium on comparable listings, not from a cold start.
Desverto’s Amazon A+ Content service handles the full build for brand-registered sellers.
Who Can Access Amazon A+ Content: Eligibility Breakdown
Basic A+ Content requires two things: a Professional Selling plan and an approved brand through Amazon Brand Registry. If you have not enrolled yet, our Amazon trademark registration service can help you get your brand protected and registered. If you have both, you can create Basic A+ on any ASIN registered to your brand.
Amazon’s Brand Registry requirements are strict. As of 2026, the primary trigger for Free Premium A+ access is having an active “Brand Story” module published on all ASINs in your catalog, along with 15 approved A+ Content modules. If you are missing the Brand Story, you will remain ineligible regardless of your sales volume.
Premium A+ has additional requirements on top. Getting Brand Registry does not automatically give you access. Amazon evaluates Premium eligibility at the account level, separately, on a rolling weekly basis.
Here is what sellers frequently get wrong. A+ content approval and Premium eligibility are not the same system. Amazon runs them independently. You can have 20 approved and published A+ projects and still see zero Premium modules in your dashboard, because the eligibility check happens at the account level, not the content level. If you do not know this, you will spend time troubleshooting the wrong thing.
A note on the January 2024 change: Basic A+ is now available for some generic ASINs without Brand Registry. Premium, however, still requires Brand Registry. There is no path to Premium without it.
The Hidden Steps to Free Premium A+ Content (2026 Update)
You do not need 15 unique products to meet the eligibility threshold. You can create 15 different versions of A+ content (such as different language versions or slight layout variations) for a single ASIN to hit the “15 approved projects” requirement quickly.
Premium A+ Content costs nothing. No subscription, no tier upgrade, no fee. But you need to hit two specific conditions before the system activates it for your account.
Step 1: Publish a Brand Story on every ASIN in your catalog
This is a hard gate as of September 2024. Every ASIN registered to your brand must have a published Brand Story. Not just your top sellers. Not just recently updated listings. All of them. One ASIN without a Brand Story blocks the entire account.
Check your A+ Content Manager and look for any products without a Brand Story applied. The “From the brand” section on product detail pages confirms whether it is live.
Step 2: Get 5 A+ Content projects approved and published within the past 12 months
The number that circulates most online is 15. That was the requirement in 2023. Amazon reduced it to 5 in September 2024, and that is where it stands now.
To check your own eligibility: open A+ Content Manager, review your submitted projects, and confirm that at least 5 have been approved and published within the last 12 months. Drafts and pending submissions do not count toward the threshold.
Step 3: Wait for automatic access. No application needed
No form to submit. No Amazon rep to contact. Once both conditions are met, a banner appears in your A+ Content Manager confirming Premium access. Amazon re-evaluates eligibility weekly, at the start of each week. If you hit the criteria on a Wednesday, the banner will typically appear by the following Monday.
Global access comes with it. Once you qualify in one marketplace, Premium A+ is available in every country where you sell. No separate threshold per region.
Step 4: Check eligibility status in A+ Content Manager
Go to Advertising > A+ Content Manager. If you qualify, a Premium banner appears at the top of the dashboard. If it is not there, check Brand Story coverage across your full catalog first. One uncovered ASIN is the most common reason sellers miss the threshold even after building the required projects.
Myth vs Reality: The ’15-Submission Hack’ and Other SERP Myths
Most advice circulating about Premium A+ eligibility is either outdated or was never confirmed. The table below covers the claims that appear most often.
| The Claim | The Reality |
| You need 15 approved submissions to access Premium | Outdated. Amazon reduced the requirement to 5 in September 2024. |
| Duplicating A+ projects gets you to 15 faster | Unnecessary under current rules. Five genuine approved projects is all you need. Bulk-duplicating adds noise to your account and addresses a problem that no longer exists. |
| Premium A+ is invite-only | Was partially true in earlier years. Since 2023, any Brand Registry seller who meets the eligibility criteria can access it. |
| Contacting Amazon support speeds up eligibility checks | It does not. The system evaluates automatically on a fixed weekly cycle. Support cannot override it. |
| High sales volume is required to qualify | Sales volume is not a published eligibility requirement. Meeting the Brand Story and 5-project threshold is sufficient. |
If your Premium access is still not showing after you have met both requirements, check Brand Story coverage first. Go through your full catalog, not just the active listings you recently optimized.
How Amazon Actually Reviews A+ Content (The Approval System Explained)
The approval process has two layers. Miss either one and you will not know where the problem came from.
The first pass is automated. Amazon runs a compliance check the moment you submit. This scan covers prohibited words and phrases, image specifications (dimensions, resolution, file size), alt text, and structural issues like missing required fields. Most rejections that come back within a few hours start here.
If the automated check passes, your content goes to a human reviewer. This is where contextual judgment applies: whether images add new information or just repeat the gallery, whether copy makes claims that technically avoid the prohibited word list but still violate policy intent, and whether the ASIN-brand mapping is clean.
Approval typically takes 7 to 10 business days. Outside of Q4, most submissions clear in under 24 hours. If you submit between October and early December, budget the full 10 days.
One thing sellers frequently misread: the A+ approval clock starts when you submit, not when you start building. Edit a submission after it goes to review and the clock resets.
Important: A+ content approval and Premium eligibility are evaluated by separate systems. Getting content approved does not move you closer to Premium access. They do not interact.
Amazon A+ Content Rejection Reasons: Complete List
Do not delete and republish your A+ modules in a single day to hit the eligibility count. Amazon’s automated review system may flag this as “spammy” behavior, which can lead to longer approval times or a temporary lock on your A+ Content Manager.
Rejections fall into three categories.
Category 1: Content and Policy Violations
Prohibited claims are the most common rejection trigger. Health claims without an FDA disclaimer, energy or efficiency claims without verified data, and direct comparisons to named competitors all get flagged. Amazon does not distinguish between a vague implication and a direct statement. If the claim is unverified, it fails.
Overly promotional language falls in the same category. Phrases like “best on the market” or any unattributed superlative will cause a rejection. The content should inform, not pitch.
Customer reviews and testimonials are not allowed anywhere in A+ Content. All copy must be brand-generated. If you are pulling in quotes or star ratings, remove them before submitting.
Trademark and copyright symbols (TM, R, C) are prohibited even if your brand is legitimately registered. Amazon flags them regardless. Remove all instances from visible copy and from image alt text. Alt text is where sellers most often miss this.
Amazon listing copywriting service can clean it up before resubmission.
Category 2: Image and Technical Issues
Image reuse is one of the fastest rejection triggers. Amazon detects when the same image appears in your product gallery and in your A+ Content. A+ images must be built specifically for A+, not pulled from your standard listing gallery.
Watermarks and small text overlays get caught in the automated scan. Check your image text at 375px width before submitting. If you cannot read it, Amazon will reject it.
Wrong image dimensions or file size per module. Requirements vary by module type. Check the specifications for each module in A+ Content Manager before uploading. Wrong dimensions waste a full review cycle.
Alt text violations are missed more often than any other technical issue. Amazon applies the same compliance rules to alt text as to visible copy. Prohibited phrases buried in alt text will cause a rejection even if everything visible is clean.
Amazon listing images team builds A+ assets that are sized correctly and spec-compliant from the start.
Category 3: Brand and ASIN Issues
ASIN-brand mismatches are most common for sellers managing multiple brands. The brand name on the ASIN must match your Brand Registry name exactly: same spacing, same capitalization, same hyphens. Amazon runs a string match. No human judgment is applied here.
External links of any kind are not allowed. No URLs, email addresses, phone numbers, or QR codes that take shoppers off Amazon. All product information must stay within the A+ Content.
Pro Tips for Faster Approval and Better Performance
Read the rejection reason before resubmitting. Go to Advertising > A+ Content Manager > Content Status. Amazon’s message is usually short, but it points to the specific problem. Resubmitting without fixing the root cause just resets the clock.
Use the preview feature before first submission, not after. Check desktop and mobile both. A design that looks fine at full width can have a broken layout or unreadable text at mobile size. Five minutes here saves a week of review time.
Proofread for policy violations before submitting. If prohibited language makes it through and gets approved, you still have to go back in, edit the live content, and resubmit the entire piece.
Run an A/B test once A+ Content has been live for two weeks. Amazon’s Manage Your Experiments tool (Seller Central > Brands > Manage Your Experiments) lets you test two versions of your A+ Content and let actual traffic determine which one converts better. Most sellers ignore it entirely. The tool does not require a minimum sales threshold, though lower-traffic ASINs will take longer to produce reliable results.
Basic A+ vs Premium A+ Content: Quick Reference Table
| Basic A+ Content | Premium A+ Content | |
| Eligibility | Brand Registry + Professional Seller plan | Brand Story on all ASINs + 5 approved A+ projects in 12 months |
| Cost | Free | Free (auto-unlocked when criteria met) |
| Approval time | 7-10 days (often under 24 hrs off-peak) | 7-14 days |
| Conversion lift (Amazon data) | Up to 10% | Up to 20% |
| Interactive modules | No | Yes (hotspots, Q&A modules, carousels) |
| Video | No | Yes (auto-play supported) |
| Global access | Per marketplace | All marketplaces simultaneously on qualification |
What to Do Next
Start with Brand Story coverage. It is the easiest blocker to clear and the one most sellers overlook. Once every ASIN is covered and you have 5 approved projects, wait for the weekly refresh.
Desverto’s A+ Content service delivers brand-registered sellers Premium-quality designs from day one.
