Landed cost is the total cost of getting a shipment to your door: the goods value plus origin charges, international freight, insurance, customs duty and fees, brokerage, destination handling, delivery and accessorial charges.

Is import duty calculated on FOB or CIF value?

The United States assesses duty on the FOB value of the goods alone. The European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and most other customs territories assess duty on the CIF value, which includes freight and insurance, so the same goods carry more duty there.

Does import VAT count in landed cost?

Import VAT or GST must be funded at clearance, but a registered business normally reclaims it, so it belongs in the cash-flow figure rather than in the cost of goods. Duty is never recoverable and always belongs in landed cost.

Landed cost & import duty calculator

Free, no sign-up. Enter the invoice value, freight, insurance, duty rate and the clearance charges, and get the total landed cost, the cash you need at clearance and a per-unit figure you can price against. Copy the link to share the same breakdown with your supplier, broker or finance team.

Shipment

Goods value (commercial invoice)Units in the shipmentUsed to give you a per-unit landed cost.Origin charges & export handlingInternational freightCargo insurance premiumCurrency

Duty & tax

Duty is assessed on the FOB value. Add MPF (0.3464% of value, min/max applies) and HMF (0.125%) at sea ports.

Look up the duty rate

Loading full US tariff schedule…

Chips are the highest-volume chapters — search reaches every chapter from 1 to 97.

Column 1 — General rate of duty, HTS Revision 2026 basic edition (US International Trade Commission — public domain), full schedule at the 8-digit tariff line. Excludes Section 301 and 232 remedies, AD/CVD orders and trade-agreement preference rates. Confirm the 10-digit statistical line before you file.

Duty rate (%)Search above by product or HTS code, or type the rate from your tariff line.Customs valuation basisImport VAT / GST rate (%)VAT / GST is recoverable

Clearance & delivery

Customs fees (MPF / HMF)Customs brokerage & entryIncludes ISF and the bond charge on the entry.Destination handling & deliveryAccessorials (chassis, per diem, storage)The line most importers under-budget.

Landed cost breakdown

Goods value (commercial invoice)	$48,000.00
Origin charges & export handling	$450.00
International freight	$3,200.00
Cargo insurance	$190.00
Customs duty	$2,016.00
Customs fees (MPF/HMF or equivalent)	$180.00
Customs brokerage & entry	$165.00
Destination handling & delivery	$640.00
Accessorials (chassis, per diem, storage)	$385.00

Dutiable value$48,000.00

Cash needed at clearance$55,226.00

Per-unit landed cost$46.02

Total landed cost$55,226.00

Non-goods costs are 13.1% of the total landed cost.

Paying more than this per box?

The gap between a modelled landed cost and the invoiced one is almost always in the accessorial and surcharge layer — chassis splits, per diem after free time, storage, duplicated congestion fees. Send us the invoices and we run a blind audit: you pay only on what we recover.

Run a free blind audit

What goes into landed cost

Landed cost is not the invoice plus freight. It is every cost that has to be paid before the goods are sellable: origin handling, ocean or air freight and its surcharges, insurance, customs duty, statutory entry fees, brokerage, destination terminal handling, drayage and the accessorial layer that arrives weeks later.

The single biggest modelling error is the duty basis. US entries are valued on FOB, while the EU, UK and Canada value on CIF — the same shipment at the same duty rate costs more in duty on a CIF territory because freight and insurance sit inside the dutiable value. The second biggest is treating recoverable VAT or GST as a cost when it is really a cash-flow item.

Step through the full method in how to calculate landed cost. If you post a continuous bond, the bond charge in your brokerage line is priced from your annual duty and fees — see customs bonds. For the charges that appear after clearance, read the accessorial decoder and the demurrage calculator. Which of these lines is yours at all depends on the trade term — check the Incoterms who-pays matrix. And if any of these goods are later exported or destroyed, 99% of the duty is recoverable — see duty drawback.

Indicative planning figures only. This calculator is not a customs filing and does not replace your broker or declarant.