"Capacity" was widely interpreted as an anthem exploring exhaustion and occupational burnout, and attracted positive notices from music critics.

[1] The song's music video, directed by Michelle Zauner of the band Japanese Breakfast, depicts a heist gone awry.

Steffanee Wang, writing for The Fader, said that the tune "blooms in its softness — a reminder that recovery can be as joyful and euphoric as self-destruction.

"[3] Lindsay Zoladz, writing about the band in a profile for The Ringer, praised its lyrics as "biting and insightful," perceiving it as a "shot fired at the normalized exhaustion of late capitalism and the conditioning of 'triple-overtime ambition.

"[5] Rolling Stone's Jonathan Bernstein listed it among the magazine's "Songs You Need to Know", similarly referring to it as a "catchy, smart synth anthem for twentysomething burnouts.