<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 Rusty 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, @Rusty!  
> **username_3**: 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.  

---

