Landed cost & customs duty calculator
Build an import cost from goods, freight, commodity-specific duty, tax and clearance. See the calculation sequence, shipment total and landed cost per unit.
$13.00 per unit across 100 units
- Goods−$1,000.0076.9%
- Freight & insurance−$180.0013.8%
- Customs duty−$120.009.2%
| Step | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Goods value | $1,000.00 | |
| International freight | $180.00 | |
| Customs value (FOB basis)This country assesses duty on the transaction value of the goods alone. Freight does not increase the duty.Source: The White House (Executive Order 14324) (effective 2025-08-29) | 1000 goods only | $1,000.00 |
| Customs duty at 12%The rate depends on your commodity code, not your product category. Confirm it in the destination tariff before you commit to a price. | 1000 × 12% | $120.00 |
| Total import charges | 120 duty + 0 levies + 0 sales & use tax (state level) + 0 clearance | $120.00 |
| Total landed cost | 1180 delivered value + 120 charges | $1,300.00 |
| Landed cost per unitThis is the number to carry into your profit calculation as cost of goods — not the invoice price from your supplier. | 1300 ÷ 100 | $13.00 |
Step 3 of 3 — I am importing stock
What will a unit actually cost me, landed and cleared?
- Step 1CBMHow much space the shipment takes
- Step 2Billable weightWhat the freight leg gets billed on
- You are here Landed cost
The number your margin should actually be built on
Landed cost is everything it takes to move one unit from your supplier's door onto your own shelf: the goods, international freight, insurance, duty, any import tax you cannot reclaim, clearance and brokerage, and inland delivery. It is the figure that belongs in your cost of goods. The supplier's invoice price is not, and building a price list on it is how a product that shows 40% margin in a spreadsheet turns out to make 11%.
The compounding is what makes the gap so large. On a CIF-basis destination the freight sits inside the customs value, duty is charged on that total, and import tax is charged on the value plus the duty. A 12% duty rate and 20% VAT on a consignment with meaningful freight can add well over a third to the invoice price before a single unit has been picked.
Whether VAT belongs in the number depends on who you are
Import VAT is a cost to one seller and a cash-flow item to another. A VAT-registered business in the UK or EU recovers it, so it should sit outside the cost base and inside the working-capital plan. A seller who is not registered pays it and never sees it again, so it belongs in the cost of goods. The same shipment therefore has two correct landed costs, and which one applies to you is a fact about your registration rather than about the import — which is why this calculator asks rather than assuming.
The last step is the one people skip: divide by units, not by cartons. Fixed costs — the customs entry, the brokerage, the inland leg — do not scale with order size, so the per-unit landed cost of a 200-piece order and a 2,000-piece order can differ by more than the unit price the supplier quoted for each.
Questions people ask about this
Answers written from the published rules, not from other people's summaries of them. Every figure quoted below is listed with its source at the foot of this page.
Every formula on this siteWhat is landed cost?
Everything it takes to get one unit from your supplier's door to your warehouse shelf: the goods, international freight, insurance, duty, import tax where you cannot reclaim it, clearance and brokerage, and inland delivery. It is the number that belongs in your cost of goods, not the supplier's invoice price.
Should VAT be included in landed cost?
Only if you cannot reclaim it. A VAT-registered business in the UK or EU recovers import VAT, so it is a cash-flow cost rather than a margin cost. A non-registered seller pays it and keeps it in the cost base. This is why the same import has two different landed costs for two different sellers.
Why is my landed cost so much higher than the invoice?
Because duty, VAT and freight compound. On a CIF-basis country, freight is inside the customs value, duty is charged on that, and VAT is charged on the total including the duty. A 12% duty rate and 20% VAT on a shipment with meaningful freight can add well over 35% to the invoice price.
How do I allocate freight across a mixed shipment?
By whichever basis actually drove the freight bill. If the consignment was billed on volume — which most consumer-goods freight is — allocate by each SKU's share of total CBM, not by its share of value or of unit count. Allocating a volumetric freight bill by invoice value systematically overcharges your dense, expensive items and undercharges the bulky cheap ones, which then look artificially profitable and get promoted.
Should I include the cost of returns and damage in landed cost?
Keep them separate, and model both. Landed cost is what it costs to get sellable stock into position, and mixing a returns rate into it hides which of the two is the problem. A high landed cost is a sourcing and freight question; a high return rate is a listing, sizing or packaging question. They need different fixes, so they need different lines. Where they meet is the break-even price, which has to carry both.
Does landed cost change when the exchange rate moves?
Yes, and in more than one place at once. The supplier invoice converts at the rate you actually pay, but customs converts the declared value at its own published rate on the entry date — which is not the same rate and not the same day. On a thin margin, a few per cent of currency movement between order and clearance is a real change in cost of goods, which is why importers on tight margins price in a currency buffer rather than the spot rate.
Does landed cost include the cost of getting stock into a fulfilment centre?
It should. Landed cost is the cost of putting sellable stock in position, and for a marketplace seller that position is the fulfilment centre, not your own door. Inbound freight to the warehouse, prep and labelling, and any inbound placement fee all belong in it. Stopping the calculation at your own premises understates cost of goods for anyone who never handles the stock there, which is most FBA sellers.
Further reading
Related calculators
Want this on your own site? Embed the landed cost calculator — one iframe, free, no account. We ask only that you keep the credit link.
Where these numbers come from
Rates and rules change, and a calculator running on stale data is worse than no calculator. Every figure below carries the date we last checked it and a confidence level, so you can judge how much weight to put on it.
| Source | Publisher | Effective | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries Signed 2025-07-30, effective 2025-08-29, applying to all countries rather than only China and Hong Kong. The $800 exemption that most duty calculators still assume no longer exists. | The White House (Executive Order 14324) | 2025-08-29Checked 2026-08-17 | Primary source |
| How to calculate UK duty and VAT UK import VAT is charged on the customs value plus duty plus freight, at 20% standard or 5% reduced. Duty relief applies below £135 but VAT does not. | Customs Support | Not specifiedChecked 2026-08-17 | Secondary source |
| De minimis values by country The most complete public table of per-country duty and tax thresholds we found, but it carries no publication date. Every threshold sourced from it is editable in the calculator and flagged in the results. | Zonos | Not specifiedChecked 2026-08-17 | Secondary source |
| EU low-value distance sales: duty per declaration line The temporary EUR 3 charge applies per declaration line to eligible distance sales up to EUR 150. Line grouping differs by H1/H6/H7 declaration, classification, description and origin. Enter a broker-confirmed line count. | European Commission | 2026-07-01Checked 2026-09-21 | Primary source |
| Courier Imports Remission Order thresholds and exclusions General CAD 20 threshold; eligible US/Mexico courier shipments have CAD 150 duty and CAD 40 tax thresholds, inclusive. Shipment origin is different from origin of manufacture. Exclusions and separate surtaxes remain relevant. | CBSA | Not specifiedChecked 2026-09-21 | Primary source |
| Customs Notice 26-23: United States Surtax Order Certain US-origin goods incur separate surtax, including eligible low-value shipments. The worksheet does not classify these goods or calculate that additional surtax. | CBSA | 2026-09-08Checked 2026-09-21 | Primary source |
Page updated . Spotted something out of date? Tell us — corrections are published with the date they were made.
More on the working: every formula on this site, the full source register, what the terms mean, and how we decide what to publish. What an estimate here can and cannot support is set out in the accuracy notes.