The parameters obtained from the quantity‐intensity (Q/I) isotherms have been used by several authors as criteria to estimate the immediate availability of labile potassium (K) in a soil. The aim of this work was to study how these parameters have been modified in four agricultural soils in Argentina by the addition of K (0 to 936 kg K2O ha‐1) in an incubation trial simulating K fertilizers application. In two of the soils, the increase in the labile forms of K was proportional to the amount of added K and the recovery percentages were high. In the other soils, a contrasting behavior was found. This difference might be due to different fixing capacity of the soils, which was related to the clay content and mineralogical composition of this fraction. The slopes of the Q/I curves for each soil indicate that the potential buffer capacity (PBC) was similar for the different treatments over the range of K added. The addition of K produced proportional increases in ARe and ?Ko values. This could be attributed to the presence of non saturated planar sites at the highest rates of K applied.