PortCost

Landed Cost Calculator

The supplier's price is the smallest part of what a unit costs to get onto your shelf.

Units in shipment

Unit price ($)

Freight, total ($)

Insurance, total ($)

Duty rate (%)

Additional tariff (%)

Import VAT / GST (%)

Brokerage & fees, total ($)

Is import VAT recoverable?

Landed cost per unit

$18.69

55.8% above the $12.00 unit price

Total landed cost: $18,694.25
Duty + tariff: $4,394.25
Customs value: $13,950.00
Tariff per unit: $4.39

What you entered

Units: 1,000Unit price: $12.00Freight: $1,800.00Insurance: $150.00Duty: 6.5%Additional tariff: 25%Import VAT: 0% (Recoverable)Brokerage: $350.00

1
Customs value (goods + freight + insurance)
1,000 × $12 + $1,800 + $150= $13,950
2
Duty 6.5% + additional tariff 25%
$13,950 × 31.50%= $4,394.25
3
Import VAT 0% on duty-inclusive value
$18,344.25 × 0%= $0 (recoverable)
4
Total landed cost
$18,344.25 + $350 brokerage= $18,694.25
5
Landed cost per unit
$18,694.25 ÷ 1,000= $18.69 (+55.8% over goods)

Result

Landed cost per unit: $18.69

Each unit lands at $18.69 — 55.8% above the $12.00 you pay the supplier, with $4.39 of that being duty and tariff. Price from this figure, not the invoice price. Duty rates depend on your product's classification and country of origin — confirm both with a licensed customs broker.

Landed cost per unit at common duty and tariff rates

Every row imports the same shipment: 1,000 units at $12 from the supplier, $1,800 of freight, $150 of insurance and $350 of brokerage, with import VAT treated as recoverable and excluded from cost. That gives a customs value of $13,950 on every row, because duty is charged on goods plus freight plus insurance, not on the goods alone. Only the duty and tariff rates change.

Duty rate	Additional tariff	Duty + tariff on the shipment	Landed cost per unit	Uplift over the $12 invoice price
0%	0%	$0.00	$14.30	19.2%
2.5%	0%	$348.75	$14.65	22.1%
4.2%	0%	$585.90	$14.89	24.0%
6.5%	0%	$906.75	$15.21	26.7%
6.5%	7.5%	$1,953.00	$16.25	35.4%
6.5%	25%	$4,394.25	$18.69	55.8%
10%	25%	$4,882.50	$19.18	59.9%
6.5%	50%	$7,881.75	$22.18	84.8%

The duty-free row still lands 19.2 percent above the invoice price, purely on freight, insurance and brokerage, which is why pricing from a supplier quote under-costs a product before any tariff exists. Because duty applies to the CIF value, the $1,950 of freight and insurance is itself taxed: at a combined 31.5 percent that adds $614 of duty to the shipment for the shipping alone, so an air freight decision costs more than the airline quote suggests. Import VAT is set to zero and recoverable in this table. If you cannot reclaim it, it applies on top of the duty-inclusive value and belongs in your cost; if you can, it is a working-capital requirement rather than a cost. Tariff classification and country of origin drive the two rate columns and are legal determinations with compliance consequences. Illustrative only; confirm your product's classification, origin and current rates with a licensed customs broker before pricing from any of these figures.

A landed cost calculator works out what an imported unit actually costs by the time it reaches your warehouse, which is the only figure you can safely price and set margin from. Importers who price off the supplier invoice consistently under-cost their products, because the invoice captures the goods and nothing else. Freight, insurance, duty, trade-remedy tariffs, import VAT, and customs brokerage all land afterwards, and together they routinely add a third or more to the unit cost.

The calculation follows the order customs authorities actually apply. First it builds the customs value: goods plus freight plus insurance, the standard CIF basis used in most jurisdictions — note that duty is charged on the shipping too, which surprises first-time importers. Duty is then applied at the rate for your product's tariff classification, and any additional trade-remedy tariff is applied on the same base. Import VAT or GST, where charged, applies on top of the duty-inclusive value rather than on the goods alone, so duty effectively gets taxed. Because that VAT is usually reclaimable by a VAT-registered business, the calculator lets you mark it recoverable so it appears in the working but is excluded from real cost — an important distinction, since treating recoverable VAT as a cost badly overstates your landed figure while ignoring it entirely hides a genuine cash-flow requirement. Brokerage and clearance fees are added last, and the total is divided by units to give landed cost per unit alongside the percentage uplift over the supplier price.

Two inputs carry disproportionate weight and are worth professional attention. Tariff classification determines your duty rate, and the difference between two plausible codes for the same product can be several percentage points on every unit forever; misclassification is also a compliance exposure, not just a cost one. Country of origin determines which trade-remedy tariffs apply and whether a free-trade agreement gives preferential treatment, and origin is a legal determination about where a product was substantially transformed rather than simply where it shipped from. The source research recommends using official tariff sources with dated rules and evidence links rather than generic estimates, which is exactly right: enter rates you have confirmed against your jurisdiction's current tariff schedule for your specific classification. This calculator does the arithmetic reliably; it does not classify your product, determine its origin, or constitute customs advice — confirm both with a licensed customs broker before relying on the result.

Duty is charged on freight too

Most jurisdictions assess duty on the CIF value — goods plus insurance plus freight — not on the goods alone. A shipment with expensive air freight therefore attracts more duty than the same goods sent by sea, even though the products are identical. That interaction makes the freight decision more expensive than the freight quote alone suggests.

Classification and origin drive everything

The tariff code sets the duty rate, and country of origin determines which trade-remedy tariffs apply and whether an FTA gives preferential treatment. Two defensible-looking codes for the same product can differ by several points on every unit indefinitely. Both are legal determinations with compliance consequences — get them confirmed rather than assumed.

Frequently asked questions

1,000 units at $12 with $1,800 freight, $150 insurance, 6.5% duty plus a 25% tariff and $350 brokerage — what's my landed cost?

Customs value is $12,000 + $1,950 = $13,950. Duty and tariff at 31.5% add $4,394. With $350 brokerage the total is $18,694, or about $18.69 per unit — roughly 56% above the $12 invoice price, with $4.39 of that being duty and tariff.

Should I include import VAT in my landed cost?

Only if you can't reclaim it. A VAT-registered business normally recovers import VAT, so counting it as cost overstates your landed figure and can make viable products look unprofitable. It still matters for cash flow, because you pay it at the border and recover it later — model it as a working-capital requirement rather than a cost.

Why is duty charged on my shipping cost?

Because most customs regimes assess duty on the CIF value — goods, insurance, and freight together — rather than the goods alone. Higher freight therefore increases duty on identical products, which is one reason air freight costs more than the airline's quote implies.

How is this different from the tariff margin impact calculator?

This one builds your total cost to import — every component from freight to brokerage. The tariff margin calculator starts from a landed cost you already know and shows how a tariff change erodes gross margin and what price restores it. Use this to establish cost, then that to defend margin when rates move.