<p>OK, the three figures you care about here are:</p>

<pre><code>"msatoshi_total": 1600000,
"msatoshi_to_us": 1599884,
"their_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,
</code></pre>

<p>They have 1600000 - 1599884 millisatoshis, ie 116.  But they need to keep at least 546 <em>satoshis</em> reserve, ie. 546,000.  Until they do, we won't let them spend any.</p>

<p>Hence the warning when you created an invoice: there's no way someone can pay it with the current channel configuration!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-04T02:39:48.533Z
Welcome to Bitcoin SE, @Rusty!
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-08T18:43:19.277Z
while the answer is on the spot (as expected if Rusty answers it) I would like to add that the reserve is needed to pay fees in case of a close and / or to have a minimum amount for punishment to deincentivise you for cheating. This amount is usually 1 % of the total capacity.
Rene Pickhardt
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-04T01:32:56.943Z
2018-12-04T01:32:56.943Z
Rusty Russell
<p>I'm using c-lightning to experiment with sending micropayments backwards and forwards between 2 separate nodes. </p>

<p>One area I am experiencing great difficulty with is being able to generate an invoice and receiving this warning:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"warning_capacity": "No channels have sufficient incoming capacity"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The command that received the warning above was:</p>

<pre><code>$ lightning-cli invoice 1 l1 d1
</code></pre>

<p>The peer hash a single connection and a single channel:</p>

<pre><code>$ lightning-cli listpeers
 {
  "peers": [
    {
      "id": "03eb6cac804699e4d941d4d170d088e37e67abc27b39e483fc5b68c423135cc3d4",
      "connected": true,
      "netaddr": [
        "192.168.1.11:9735"
      ],
      "global_features": "",
      "local_features": "8a",
      "globalfeatures": "",
      "localfeatures": "8a",
      "channels": [
        {
          "state": "CHANNELD_NORMAL",
          "scratch_txid": "7c621a81ed27b5e05a3e55acb5928e74f9c111bfa26f7a07660af6613e1a4453",
          "owner": "lightning_channeld",
          "short_channel_id": "1446307:37:0",
          "channel_id": "eb6227c6ff872c09b55897f49d3394dbd129b8839d05a32f6d5f93c510c3199f",
          "funding_txid": "9f19c310c5935f6d2fa3059d83b829d1db94339df49758b5092c87ffc62762eb",
          "msatoshi_to_us": 1599884,
          "msatoshi_to_us_min": 1599884,
          "msatoshi_to_us_max": 1600000,
          "msatoshi_total": 1600000,
          "dust_limit_satoshis": 546,
          "max_htlc_value_in_flight_msat": 18446744073709551615,
          "their_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,
          "our_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,
          "spendable_msatoshi": 1053884,
          "htlc_minimum_msat": 0,
          "their_to_self_delay": 6,
          "our_to_self_delay": 6,
          "max_accepted_htlcs": 483,
          "status": [
            "CHANNELD_NORMAL:Reconnected, and reestablished.",
            "CHANNELD_NORMAL:Funding transaction locked. Channel announced."
          ],
          "in_payments_offered": 0,
          "in_msatoshi_offered": 0,
          "in_payments_fulfilled": 0,
          "in_msatoshi_fulfilled": 0,
          "out_payments_offered": 4,
          "out_msatoshi_offered": 116,
          "out_payments_fulfilled": 4,
          "out_msatoshi_fulfilled": 116,
          "htlcs": [
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
</code></pre>

<p>My question is how can I determine what a channel's capacity is? I have made payments of 116 msatoshi from this node. Doesn't that mean I should now have that much incoming capacity to receive payments? Is the maximum incoming capacity of the channel <strong>msatoshi_total - msatoshi_to_us</strong>?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-04T18:41:21.493Z
And here's a good explanation of the channel_reserve_satoshis referred to by Rusty https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-to-spend-all-funds-from-a-lightning-channel-44eded09a6dc.
sipsorcery
<lightning-network><core-lightning>
c-lightning determine channel capacity
sipsorcery
# c-lightning determine channel capacity

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-03)

I'm using c-lightning to experiment with sending micropayments backwards and forwards between 2 separate nodes.

One area I am experiencing great difficulty with is being able to generate an invoice and receiving this warning:

> "warning\_capacity": "No channels have sufficient incoming capacity"

The command that received the warning above was:

```
$ lightning-cli invoice 1 l1 d1

```

The peer hash a single connection and a single channel:

```
$ lightning-cli listpeers
 {
  "peers": [
    {
      "id": "03eb6cac804699e4d941d4d170d088e37e67abc27b39e483fc5b68c423135cc3d4",
      "connected": true,
      "netaddr": [
        "192.168.1.11:9735"
      ],
      "global_features": "",
      "local_features": "8a",
      "globalfeatures": "",
      "localfeatures": "8a",
      "channels": [
        {
          "state": "CHANNELD_NORMAL",
          "scratch_txid": "7c621a81ed27b5e05a3e55acb5928e74f9c111bfa26f7a07660af6613e1a4453",
          "owner": "lightning_channeld",
          "short_channel_id": "1446307:37:0",
          "channel_id": "eb6227c6ff872c09b55897f49d3394dbd129b8839d05a32f6d5f93c510c3199f",
          "funding_txid": "9f19c310c5935f6d2fa3059d83b829d1db94339df49758b5092c87ffc62762eb",
          "msatoshi_to_us": 1599884,
          "msatoshi_to_us_min": 1599884,
          "msatoshi_to_us_max": 1600000,
          "msatoshi_total": 1600000,
          "dust_limit_satoshis": 546,
          "max_htlc_value_in_flight_msat": 18446744073709551615,
          "their_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,
          "our_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,
          "spendable_msatoshi": 1053884,
          "htlc_minimum_msat": 0,
          "their_to_self_delay": 6,
          "our_to_self_delay": 6,
          "max_accepted_htlcs": 483,
          "status": [
            "CHANNELD_NORMAL:Reconnected, and reestablished.",
            "CHANNELD_NORMAL:Funding transaction locked. Channel announced."
          ],
          "in_payments_offered": 0,
          "in_msatoshi_offered": 0,
          "in_payments_fulfilled": 0,
          "in_msatoshi_fulfilled": 0,
          "out_payments_offered": 4,
          "out_msatoshi_offered": 116,
          "out_payments_fulfilled": 4,
          "out_msatoshi_fulfilled": 116,
          "htlcs": [
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]

```

My question is how can I determine what a channel's capacity is? I have made payments of 116 msatoshi from this node. Doesn't that mean I should now have that much incoming capacity to receive payments? Is the maximum incoming capacity of the channel **msatoshi\_total - msatoshi\_to\_us**?

**Tags:** lightning-network, core-lightning

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: And here's a good explanation of the channel_reserve_satoshis referred to by username_1 https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-to-spend-all-funds-from-a-lightning-channel-44eded09a6dc.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-12-04. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

OK, the three figures you care about here are:

```
"msatoshi_total": 1600000,
"msatoshi_to_us": 1599884,
"their_channel_reserve_satoshis": 546,

```

They have 1600000 - 1599884 millisatoshis, ie 116. But they need to keep at least 546 *satoshis* reserve, ie. 546,000. Until they do, we won't let them spend any.

Hence the warning when you created an invoice: there's no way someone can pay it with the current channel configuration!

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Welcome to Bitcoin SE, @username_1!  
> **username_3**: while the answer is on the spot (as expected if username_1 answers it) I would like to add that the reserve is needed to pay fees in case of a close and / or to have a minimum amount for punishment to deincentivise you for cheating. This amount is usually 1 % of the total capacity.  

---

