Short answer: Account Health Rating (AHR) is the compliance score that replaced TikTok Shop’s old Violation Points system in July 2026. Every shop sits on a 0 to 1,000 scale, starts at 200 points, and is judged on a rolling 180-day window. Score 200 or above and you are Healthy. Drop to 0 and your shop is deactivated. Unlike the old system, which counted strikes upward until you were banned, AHR counts a balance that you can actively rebuild.
What is TikTok Shop Account Health Rating?
AHR is a single number that represents how compliant your shop is with TikTok Shop policy. TikTok began previewing it in Seller Center in May 2026 and rolled it out platform-wide in July 2026, retiring Violation Points in the process.
The important shift is conceptual. Violation Points accumulated against you. You started clean, picked up points for infractions, and got deactivated when you crossed a threshold. There was no realistic way to work your score back down other than waiting for points to expire.
AHR inverts this. You hold a balance. Violations subtract from it, scaled to how severe and how frequent they are. Compliant operating behaviour adds back to it. That means a shop that made mistakes early can demonstrably recover, which was much harder under the old model.
How is the AHR score calculated?
Every shop enters the system at 200 points on a 0 to 1,000 scale. The score reflects a rolling 180-day window, so infractions age out of the calculation roughly six months after they occur.
Two forces move the number:
- Deductions for policy violations, weighted by severity and by how often the same issue repeats. A single minor listing error is not treated like repeat counterfeit reports.
- Additions for healthy operating signals, including completed orders and passing the policy quizzes TikTok offers in Seller Center.
That second mechanism matters more than most sellers realise. Volume alone slowly repairs your score, and the policy quizzes are the fastest deliberate way to add points back.
What are the AHR tiers?
| Score | Tier | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 200 to 1,000 | Healthy | Normal operation. No compliance-driven restrictions. |
| 151 to 199 | Needs Improvement | Warning band. Fix open violations before enforcement begins. |
| 1 to 150 | At Risk | Deactivation risk. Escalating enforcement applies. |
| 0 | Deactivated | Shop closed. Reactivation is at TikTok Shop’s sole discretion. |
Note that 200 is both the starting score and the floor of the Healthy tier. A new shop has no cushion. One serious violation in your first weeks can push you straight into Needs Improvement, which is why new sellers should treat compliance as a launch task rather than something to deal with later.
At what score does TikTok take action?
Enforcement is stepped rather than all-or-nothing. TikTok may take additional action as your AHR crosses 150, 100, 50 and 0. In practice, the consequences escalate along these lines:
- 150: First formal enforcement band. Expect restrictions on promotional tools and reduced eligibility for campaigns.
- 100: Tighter limits, often affecting product publishing and affiliate access.
- 50: Severe restriction. Your shop is close to closure and remaining privileges are limited.
- 0: Deactivation.
Because the bands are known in advance, AHR is a metric you can manage. The failure mode is not checking it. If you look at your score once a quarter, you can pass through two enforcement bands without ever reading the notification.
Two shops, same violation, different outcome
A new shop sitting at 200 and an established shop at 600 can take an identical deduction and land in different tiers. Your point balance, not the violation itself, decides what happens next. That is why trading history is a form of protection.
What causes AHR point deductions?
Deductions come from policy violations, and the largest categories for US sellers are consistent:
- Prohibited and restricted products. The single most common cause of severe deductions. Listing something in a banned category, or in a restricted category without the required qualification, is treated harshly. Our guide to what you cannot sell on TikTok Shop covers the current list.
- Intellectual property infringement. Counterfeit reports, unlicensed brand names, and using another seller’s product imagery.
- Misleading listings. Inaccurate titles, exaggerated claims, wrong category placement, and images that do not match the product.
- Order fulfilment failures. Late dispatch, high cancellation rates, and invalid tracking.
- Content and claims violations. Health, medical, or income claims in your listings or shop content that you cannot substantiate.
Severity scaling means repetition is punished disproportionately. Three separate minor listing corrections cost far less than the same violation three times, because the second and third instances are read as a pattern rather than an accident.
How do you earn AHR points back?
This is the part of the new system worth exploiting, and it has no equivalent under Violation Points.
- Complete orders cleanly. Ordinary, successful fulfilment adds back to your score over time. Consistent volume is itself a recovery mechanism.
- Pass the policy quizzes. Seller Center offers policy quizzes that credit points on completion. They take minutes and are the fastest deliberate way to add points.
- Let violations age out. The 180-day rolling window means old infractions eventually stop counting against you.
- Appeal anything incorrect. A successful appeal removes the deduction rather than merely offsetting it.
How do you appeal an AHR violation?
Appeals now run directly through Seller Center without needing to open a support ticket. The flow is:
- Open the Account Health page in Seller Center and locate the specific violation.
- Submit an appeal with evidence. Invoices, supplier authorisation letters, brand permission, and carrier records are the documents that actually change outcomes.
- TikTok moderation reviews, typically around three business days.
- If approved, the metric is corrected in roughly one business day and your score updates automatically.
Appeals are time-limited. This is the single most expensive detail sellers miss, because a valid appeal filed after the window closes is worth nothing. Check your Account Health page weekly rather than reacting to email, since notification delivery is not reliable enough to depend on.
If your shop has already been restricted, our guide on what to do when your TikTok Shop account is restricted covers the recovery path in more detail.
AHR vs Shop Performance Score: what is the difference?
Sellers routinely confuse these two, and they measure different things.
| Account Health Rating | Shop Performance Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Policy compliance | Operational and customer experience quality |
| Punishes | Violations | Poor service metrics |
| Worst outcome | Shop deactivation | Reduced reach and campaign eligibility |
| Replaced | Violation Points, July 2026 | Not replaced |
You can hold a perfect AHR and still have your distribution throttled by a weak Shop Performance Score, and the reverse is also true. Both need monitoring. Our breakdown of the seller metrics that actually matter covers the operational side.
How to protect your AHR before you list
Most severe deductions trace back to a product choice, not a process failure. You cannot get an IP strike on a product you never listed, and you cannot get a restricted-category deduction on a category you never entered.
That makes product research a compliance activity as much as a profit activity. Before committing to a product, check whether the category carries qualification requirements, whether the item is brand-adjacent enough to attract IP complaints, and whether existing listings in that space are already drawing enforcement.
The Delzonic Chrome extension shows live sales and competition data on TikTok Shop listings as you browse, so you can see which categories are crowded with near-identical listings before you commit inventory. Crowded, undifferentiated categories are exactly where counterfeit reports and listing disputes cluster.
Frequently asked questions
Does AHR reset?
There is no manual reset. The 180-day rolling window means deductions age out on their own, and completed orders plus policy quizzes add points back.
What AHR score is safe?
Anything at 200 or above is Healthy. Since 200 is also the starting score and the bottom of the tier, treat anything below roughly 250 as worth active attention rather than comfortable.
Can I check AHR before I get a violation?
Yes. The Account Health page in Seller Center is visible at all times, not only after enforcement. Check it weekly.
Did old Violation Points carry over to AHR?
TikTok migrated shops onto the new scale during the July 2026 rollout rather than wiping history. If your shop had unresolved violations under the old system, review your Account Health page to confirm your current standing.
Does a deactivated shop ever come back?
Reactivation at 0 is at TikTok Shop’s sole discretion. Treat deactivation as permanent for planning purposes.
Pro tip
Open your Account Health page on the same day each week. Appeal windows are time-limited, and a valid appeal filed after the window closes is worth nothing. Email notification is not reliable enough to depend on.
The bottom line
AHR is more forgiving than Violation Points, but only for sellers who engage with it. The recovery mechanisms are real, and a shop that takes the policy quizzes and appeals incorrect strikes promptly can climb back from a bad quarter. The sellers who get deactivated under this system are almost always the ones who never opened the Account Health page.
Check it weekly, appeal fast, and choose products that do not invite violations in the first place. Delzonic gives you the sales and competition data to make that last part deliberate rather than accidental. The free plan is enough to explore live product data, and paid plans unlock historical trends and deeper category analysis.