Aluminum anodes and quinone-based organic cathodes couple as earth abundant, sustainable, and safe battery electrodes. However, different numbers of galvanostatic discharge plateaus have been observed in aluminum-quinone cells depending on the experimental conditions, a phenomenon that has not yet been explained and furthermore affects cell energy density. Here, in aluminum-anthraquinone batteries, we show that ion mass transport affects the electrochemical reaction pathway and controls the occurrence of either one or two reduction plateaus during galvanostatic discharge. The effects of electrode mass loading, porosity, rest periods, and cycling rates were analyzed on the reduction potential and relative specific capacity of the galvanostatic plateaus. When AlCl2+ cations charge compensate the electrochemically reduced carbonyl groups concurrently, a single reduction plateau is observed. When ion mass transport is limiting, sequential reduction and charge compensation of each carbonyl group results in two distinct reduction plateaus. The second plateau occurs at a potential approximately 0.3 V lower than the first, thus decreasing the cell energy density. The potential of the electrochemical oxidation reaction where AlCl2+ cations dissociate, however, is not affected. Ion mass transport is thus shown to be a critical variable that can control the electrochemical reaction pathway, redox potentials, and practical energy densities of aluminum-quinone batteries.