Import Cost Calculator

What the Import Cost Calculator Adds Up

Landed cost is the amount a shipment costs once it reaches your warehouse: the goods, the international transport, the insurance, the duty, and the fees collected at the border. A factory price list covers only the first item. The gap between that price and the landed number is often 20 to 40 percent, and it decides whether the product can be sold at a profit.

The calculator combines the inputs that make up one entry: goods value, quantity, international freight, insurance, duty rate, the merchandise processing fee, the harbor maintenance fee, broker and inland charges, and any other per-shipment cost. It returns total landed cost, landed cost per unit, the uplift over the goods value, and a selling price at your target margin.

Landed cost = goods value + freight + insurance + duty + MPF + HMF + broker + inland + other

Landed cost per unit = landed cost / quantity

Every input is a per-shipment figure. If one container holds three products with three duty rates, run the calculator three times and add the results, or enter a value-weighted duty rate and accept a small error. The tool is a planning estimate, not an entry summary: it does not classify goods, apply quota, or replace a broker's invoice.

Customs Value Is Not the Same as Landed Cost

Duty is not charged on the landed total. It is charged on the customs value, and for most U.S. imports that value is the transaction value of the goods: the price paid or payable for them, as defined under 19 U.S.C. 1401a. International freight and insurance are not part of that base. Packing costs, assists such as tooling or free materials you supply to the factory, and some royalties are added to it.

This is the most common source of error in a landed cost estimate. Suppliers in Asia and Europe often quote CIF, with freight and insurance included. That number looks like the customs value because it is the number on the invoice, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection assesses duty on the goods value alone. A CIF quote of $14,000 that includes $1,800 of freight and $200 of insurance carries a customs value near $12,000, and duty at 6.5 percent is $780 rather than $910.

Freight and insurance still belong in landed cost. They just do not belong in the duty calculation.

The reverse mistake costs money in the other direction: a buyer who forgets that the broker bills a flat fee per entry, or that trucking from the port is billed separately, ends up with a per-unit cost that is short by a dollar or two. On a 1,000 unit order that is a four-figure surprise.

The Merchandise Processing Fee: 0.3464 Percent With Limits

The merchandise processing fee is an ad valorem charge on formal entries. The rate is 0.3464 percent of the customs value, and it is subject to a floor and a ceiling that CBP adjusts every October 1 under the FAST Act. For fiscal year 2027, which began on October 1, 2026, the formal-entry limits are $34.58 minimum and $670.86 maximum, with a $4.15 surcharge for a manual entry. CBP publishes the same figures in its user fee table, and the adjustment appears in Federal Register notice 91 FR 48398 of July 31, 2026.

Two consequences follow. Small shipments pay the floor, which is a much higher effective rate than 0.3464 percent. Large shipments pay the cap, which is a much lower one. The fee is charged per entry, not per unit, so splitting one purchase into four entries quadruples the fee and can cost more than the duty saved by spreading the value.

Below roughly $9,980 of customs value the $34.58 floor applies; above roughly $193,666 the cap applies. Between those points the fee is a straight 0.3464 percent. Informal entries use fixed fees of $2.77, $8.30, or $12.45 instead of the ad valorem calculation, which is one reason small parcels are handled differently from container freight.

The Harbor Maintenance Fee Depends on Mode

The harbor maintenance fee is 0.125 percent of the value of commercial cargo loaded or unloaded at a port covered by the Army Corps of Engineers, as set out in 19 CFR 24.24. On a $300,000 ocean shipment the fee is $375. It has no floor and no ceiling, so it scales with value in a way the merchandise processing fee does not.

Mode matters. HMF is collected on vessel cargo. It is not collected on cargo that arrives by air or by mail, which is why an air shipment and an ocean shipment of the same value can differ by 0.125 percent of that value in fees. The calculator applies HMF only when the ocean box is checked.

The fee is also charged on foreign trade zone admissions and on domestic shipments by water, but those are separate entries with their own rules. For a straightforward import entry unloaded at a U.S. port, 0.125 percent of the appraised value is the whole calculation.

Worked Example: 1,000 Units by Ocean Freight

A buyer orders 1,000 units at $12.00 each, pays $1,800 for ocean freight and $180 for cargo insurance, and faces a 6.5 percent duty rate. The broker charges $150 per entry and inland delivery from the port is $450.

Step by step:

1. Customs value: $12,000. Freight and insurance stay out of the duty base.
2. Duty: $12,000 x 6.5% = $780.00.
3. MPF: $12,000 x 0.3464% = $41.57, between the floor and the cap.
4. HMF: $12,000 x 0.125% = $15.00.
5. Duties and fees: $780.00 + $41.57 + $15.00 = $836.57.
6. Landed cost: $12,000 + $1,800 + $180 + $836.57 + $150 + $450 = $15,416.57.
7. Per unit: $15,416.57 / 1,000 = $15.42.
8. Uplift over goods: ($15,416.57 - $12,000) / $12,000 = 28.47%.

The $12.00 unit cost became $15.42, and duty was only $0.78 of that. Freight added $1.80 per unit, while the fixed charges added $0.64. A 35 percent margin requires a price of $15.42 / 0.65 = $23.72, not $15.42 x 1.35 = $20.81, which yields only a 25.9 percent margin.

Worked Example: A High-Value Air Shipment

A second order covers 250 units at $1,200 each, shipped by air at a 3.1 percent duty rate. Freight is $6,000, insurance is $1,500, the broker charges $185, and inland delivery is $600.

The uncapped fee would have been $1,039.20, so the ceiling saved $368.34 on this entry. On high-value cargo the MPF stops behaving like a percentage and starts behaving like a flat charge, while HMF disappears entirely because the cargo never touches a port. The two examples show why a single "about 5 percent for fees" rule of thumb fails at both ends of the value range.

Tariff Layers, De Minimis, and What Quotes Leave Out

Three items sit outside the arithmetic and can move the answer more than any input in the form.

Tariff layers. The rate you enter has to include every ad valorem layer that applies to the product and the country of origin: the base rate from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, Section 301 duties, Section 232 duties, and the IEEPA tariffs introduced in 2025. Layers can stack, and specific rates such as cents per kilogram need to be converted to a percentage of value before they fit this calculator. A licensed customs broker should confirm classification and the combined rate before you commit to a purchase order.

The end of de minimis. Since August 29, 2025, the $800 duty-free threshold is suspended for shipments from all countries under Executive Order 14324, as CBP guidance explains. Low-value parcels that used to enter free now owe duty, taxes, and fees, with narrow exceptions for personal gifts under $100 and similar items. A model that assumes the old threshold understates cost on every small direct-to-consumer order, and for a $600 parcel the MPF floor of $34.58 alone is 5.8 percent of the value.

Costs after arrival. Detention and demurrage, exam fees, FDA or USDA holds, currency conversion, and payment processing are not among the inputs. Add them as a percentage allowance or as an "other" line when they are material. Demurrage in particular can exceed the duty on a container that sits at the terminal for a week.

Turning Landed Cost Into a Selling Price

The per-unit landed cost is the number to price from, not the factory quote. Set a target margin and divide, rather than multiplying by a markup: price = landed cost per unit / (1 - margin). At a 35 percent target the $15.42 unit needs $23.72. Multiplying by 1.35 gives $20.81 and a 25.9 percent margin, a common and expensive mistake.

Cash timing deserves a line in the model. Duty, MPF, and HMF are paid at entry, weeks before the goods sell. On the ocean example $836.57 is paid per entry, and an importer running six containers a month finances roughly $5,000 of fees at any moment. That working capital belongs in the landed cost review even though it does not change the per-unit figure.

Finally, compare quotes on the same basis. A supplier quoting FOB and a supplier quoting DDP are offering different products: the DDP price includes duty, fees, and delivery, and it usually carries a margin for the forwarder who arranges them. Convert both to landed cost per unit before choosing, and check which party is named as importer of record, because that party owes the duty and carries the compliance risk.