Instant U.S. Import Duty & Landed Cost Calculator

How U.S. import duty is calculated

Every U.S. entry is priced the same way, whether you file it yourself or through a broker. The calculator above runs these steps against the current Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The arithmetic is set out here so you can sanity-check any estimate before you commit to a purchase order.

Step 1. Classify the goods under an HTS code

U.S. duty rates attach to the 10-digit HTS number, not to the product name. The first six digits are the international HS heading and subheading; digits seven and eight are the U.S. tariff line that carries the rate, and digits nine and ten are the statistical suffix. Classification is the importer's legal responsibility, and the difference between two neighbouring lines is often several percentage points. Search by product description in the tool above, or start from the HS codes table in the relevant commodity guide.

Step 2. Apply the duty rate to the customs value

Duty is assessed on the customs value, which for most imports is the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods. International freight and insurance are excluded from that value where the terms of sale allow, so the duty base is usually the FOB value rather than the CIF value.

Each HTS line carries up to three rates. Column 1 "General" is the rate for normal-trade-relations origins. Column 1 "Special" is Free or reduced for origins that qualify under a listed preference programme or free trade agreement, and qualification has to be documented, not assumed. Column 2 applies to the small group of countries that do not have normal trade relations with the United States.

Step 3. Add any additional tariffs that apply

Trade-remedy duties sit on top of the Chapter 1 to 97 rate and are reported on a separate Chapter 99 line. The simulator reads the origin scope and effective dates of each line from the tariff schedule itself, so it applies a measure only to the origins and entry dates it covers. Section 301 on goods of Chinese origin is still the programme that affects the most importers: List 3 adds 25% under HTS 9903.88.03 and List 4A adds 7.5% under HTS 9903.88.15. Since 24 July 2026 a second Section 301 action adds 10% or 12.5% to goods from 60 economies, including India, China, Vietnam and the EU, under HTS 9903.05.20 to 9903.05.84. Section 232 duties apply by product rather than origin: steel, aluminum and copper articles, passenger vehicles and parts, medium and heavy trucks, and softwood lumber, upholstered wooden furniture and kitchen cabinets. Quartz surface products carry a Section 201 safeguard from 15 August 2026. For entry dates between 24 February and 23 July 2026 the 10% Section 122 surcharge applies, with its product exemptions for electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy and other goods; a court has since held that surcharge unlawful, and the Section 122 refund calculator covers what that ruling did and did not do and which filing windows are still open. IEEPA tariffs are no longer collected: the Supreme Court held on 20 February 2026 that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs, and collection ceased on 24 February 2026. If you paid IEEPA duties on earlier entries, the IEEPA tariff refund calculator walks through the claim. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties are driven by product-specific scope rulings and are never part of a generic estimate.

Step 4. Add the CBP user fees, MPF and HMF

Two federal fees apply to most commercial ocean entries:

• Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) is 0.3464% of the customs value on formal entries. For fiscal year 2026 it is subject to a floor of $33.58 and a ceiling of $651.50 per entry, effective 1 October 2025. Because of those limits, the percentage only moves between roughly $9,694 and roughly $188,077 of customs value: below that you pay the floor, above it you pay the ceiling.
• Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) is 0.125% of the customs value, with no floor and no ceiling. It applies to cargo loaded or unloaded from a commercial vessel at a subject port, so an air or land border arrival pays no HMF at all.

Step 5. Total the landed cost

Customs value plus duty, plus any Chapter 99 additional tariff, plus MPF and HMF gives the customs side of your landed cost. That is what the calculator returns. Ocean or air freight, insurance, terminal handling, drayage, warehousing and brokerage fees sit outside it and have to be added separately before you can price a sale.

Worked examples

Three commodities Airlift moves regularly, calculated at a $0 freight assumption so only the customs arithmetic is visible. Every rate below is the Column 1 General rate from the current HTSUS for the heading named; check your own 10-digit line, because statistical suffixes within one heading can carry different treatment.

Example 1: Polished granite slabs from India, HTS 6802.23.00

Worked monumental or building stone of granite falls in HTS 6802.23.00 at a Column 1 General rate of 3.7%. Rough granite blocks that have only been sawn into rectangular slabs classify earlier, under HTS 2516.12.00 at 2.8%, so how far the stone has been processed before export changes the duty.

Example 2: Cotton knit T-shirts, HTS 6109.10.00

T-shirts and singlets of cotton fall in HTS 6109.10.00 at a Column 1 General rate of 16.5%, one of the highest normal rates in the schedule. Apparel is where origin matters most: the same goods of Chinese origin also carry Section 301 List 4A at 7.5% under HTS 9903.88.15 and, since 24 July 2026, the 12.5% Section 301 action under HTS 9903.05.31, taking the effective duty to 36.5%. Goods of Indian origin carry the 10% line under HTS 9903.05.44 instead, for an effective 26.5%.

Example 3: Stone polishing machinery, HTS 8464.20.01

Machine tools for working stone are in heading 8464. Grinding or polishing machines classify in HTS 8464.20.01 at 2%, while sawing machines in HTS 8464.10.01 are Free. This example also shows the MPF ceiling in action: at a $200,000 customs value the uncapped calculation would be $692.80, so the fee is limited to the fiscal year 2026 maximum of $651.50.

What the simulator does and doesn't cover

What it covers

• The Column 1 General, Special or Column 2 rate for your HTS code and origin
• Chapter 99 additional tariff lines the engine holds for that code, shown as separate rows in the breakdown
• Merchandise Processing Fee and Harbor Maintenance Fee at the published statutory rates
• A customs landed cost of value plus duty plus those fees
• Historical U.S. import statistics showing the largest supplying countries for the same HTS code

What it doesn't cover

• Anti-dumping and countervailing duties, which depend on product-specific scope rulings
• Free trade agreement or preference qualification, which needs origin documentation rather than a rate lookup
• Quota, licensing, partner government agency holds (FDA, USDA, EPA, CPSC) and other admissibility questions
• Duty drawback, foreign trade zone treatment and bonded warehouse deferral
• Ocean or air freight, insurance, terminal handling, drayage, demurrage, warehousing and brokerage fees
• The final amount payable. CBP determines that at entry, and classification remains the importer's responsibility

Trade-remedy coverage changes often, and the simulator is updated as the tariff schedule changes. Its additional-duty lines have been checked against Airlift's own broker-filed entry summaries and against Census records of the duty CBP collects, so the Chapter 99 lines you see are the ones brokers file. Classification remains the importer's responsibility, so have a borderline code checked before you file. Airlift arranges customs clearance through our licensed broker network and can put that check in front of a licensed broker for you.

Developers: embed this calculator on your own site or call the same engine directly. The tariff API and embeddable widget page has the endpoints, request and response shapes, rate limits and a two-line embed snippet.

Last updated: September 3, 2026. Duty rates cited on this page were checked against the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, and the MPF and HMF amounts against the CBP fiscal year 2026 customs user fee notice, on that date.