What landed cost includes
Landed cost brings the supplier purchase price together with the costs of bringing the goods to the selected destination. It can include international freight, insurance, duty, import tax, brokerage, clearance, port charges, inspections and domestic delivery. This model sums the amounts you enter and divides by quantity. The destination and scope are your assumptions: a warehouse-delivered total and a port-arrival total are different cost definitions even when both are described informally as landed cost.
The formula
Keep currency, units and time periods consistent. Percentage inputs use percentage points (enter 5 for 5%). Results are rounded only for display; tiny nonzero values may use scientific notation. Undefined ratios are shown as unavailable.
For 1,000 units at $5 each, goods cost $5,000. Add $1,000 freight and $100 insurance. A 5% duty on goods plus freight and insurance is $305. With no import tax and $200 local costs, total landed cost is $6,605, or $6.605 per item. This is a 32.1% uplift over supplier cost. The rates here are illustrative, not official customs rates.
Separate the quote from missing charges
Start by checking the supplier and freight documents for included services. A freight quotation may already contain local handling, insurance or delivery, and adding those again would double-count them. Conversely, a low headline freight price may omit customs clearance and destination charges. Brokerage and clearance are separate fields so you can represent distinct invoices; set one to zero if a bundled charge covers both. Use the same currency for goods and every other amount before calculating.
Supply the correct duty and tax bases
Duty and import tax can be entered as fixed amounts or as percentages of selected bases. The available bases include goods alone, goods plus freight and insurance, and a custom base. Import tax also offers a base that includes the modeled duty. These options make your arithmetic explicit; they do not identify which rule applies to a product or destination. Rates, exemptions, valuation adjustments and the treatment of transport costs must come from the relevant documentation or a qualified adviser.
Cash outlay versus economic cost
Import tax is included in the displayed cost stack when you enter it. In some business circumstances, a tax payment may later be recoverable, making the initial cash outlay different from the eventual inventory cost. This calculator does not decide eligibility or model recovery timing. Prepare separate scenarios if you need to distinguish cash required at import from the cost used for pricing. Do not silently omit a required cash payment just because you expect a future credit or recovery.
Per-unit allocation and uplift
Import uplift per unit subtracts supplier unit cost from landed unit cost. The uplift percentage divides that difference by supplier cost, revealing how much the selected import expenses add. Equal unit allocation is most defensible for similar products. A mixed shipment may need weight, volume or value-based allocation before entering each product group. The quantity sensitivity holds unit purchase cost and entered total logistics constant; changing quantity may require a new quote and can also change the goods-based duty calculation.
Carry the result into pricing carefully
Optional selling price shows gross profit and gross margin against landed cost. It does not deduct downstream selling fees, advertising, refunds or operating overhead. The target-margin price therefore describes a gross-margin boundary, not final net profitability. Use Product Pricing to add the remaining sale-side costs, or Wholesale Pricing to examine maker and retailer margins. Check that landed freight is not added a second time. Revisit the calculation when costs, quantities or customs assumptions change instead of treating an old per-unit amount as permanent.
Method and reference sources
Method and content checked 2026-09-20. These sources provide background, not endorsement or professional certification. The formula and limitations above define this calculator.
- CBP — Determining duty ratesOfficial US duty-rate guidance. Other jurisdictions and customs valuation bases must be verified separately.
Frequently asked questions
Which customs valuation base should I select?
Use the base applicable to your goods and destination. Goods-only, freight-inclusive and custom bases are alternatives, not universal legal rules. Verify the base and rates before calculating.
What is a worked example for Landed Cost?
For 1,000 units at $5 each, goods cost $5,000. Add $1,000 freight and $100 insurance. A 5% duty on goods plus freight and insurance is $305. With no import tax and $200 local costs, total landed cost is $6,605, or $6.605 per item. This is a 32.1% uplift over supplier cost. The rates here are illustrative, not official customs rates.