How to Use the US Tariff Calculator: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Invoice × Tariff editorial
Who this is forImporters, e-commerce sellers and anyone pricing goods for the U.S. market — no technical background needed.
Pick the origin country and transport mode, enter your declared value (RMB works), and find the HTS code by product name or code. The calculator stacks MFN, Section 301/232 duties and MPF/HMF fees into a per-unit landed cost, with every layer traceable to its official source. Free, no sign-up, runs entirely in your browser.
What you will need
Nothing but a browser. The calculator — like every tool on this site — runs entirely on your machine: no account, no upload, and your inputs are never sent anywhere. Before you start, have three facts ready:
- Where the goods ship from (country of origin — usually where they were manufactured, not where you bought them).
- The customs value of the shipment in USD, RMB or any major currency.
- The HTS code, if you know it. If not, don't worry — Step 3 finds it from a product description.
Step 1: set origin, destination and transport mode
Open the tariff calculator. The origin country auto-detects from your location (you can change it in one click); the destination defaults to the United States. Then pick the transport mode — sea, air, express or postal — because fees differ by mode: the Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) applies to sea freight only, and postal shipments under $2,500 use informal-entry flat fees.
Step 2: enter the shipment value
Type the declared value. The input accepts RMB and converts it with a live reference rate, so you can price straight off a 1688 or supplier quote. For a per-unit answer, also enter the number of units — the result splits duties and fees per piece.
Step 3: find the HTS code
Search the HTS box by code prefix, English description or Chinese keyword — "保温杯", "cotton t-shirt" or "6109" all work. Each hit shows the MFN base rate; pick the line whose description matches what the product is made of, not its marketing name. If you are unsure how to classify, read How to Find the HTS Code for Your Product first, or browse the HTS lookup by official chapter.
Step 4: read the stacked result
The result is not one number — it is the full stack, one row per layer:
- MFN base duty (the USITC Column 1 general rate)
- Section 301 surcharge for China-origin goods (and the 2026 global 301 program for other economies)
- Section 232 sector measures (steel, aluminium, autos, and others) when the chapter scope hits
- MPF / HMF entry fees, plus postal informal-entry fees where applicable
Every row carries its legal basis and a link to the official source (USITC, Federal Register or CBP), and rows not yet verified against the Federal Register text are labelled as such — you always know which numbers are solid. Here is a live example for $10,000 of cotton t-shirts from China by sea — recomputed from the current ruleset every time this page loads:
| HTS 6109.10.00 · origin CN · $10,000.00 · ocean formal entry · 1,000 units | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Base duty (MFN) HTS Column 1 general rate · source | 16.5% | $1,650.00 |
| China Section 301 (List 4A) Trade Act 1974 §301 (USTR action, 9903.88.01 series) · source | 7.5% | $750.00 |
| Global Section 301 (CN, 12.5% tier) Trade Act 1974 §301 (global forced-labor program; FR 2026-15181 §1(a)(iii)) · source | 12.5% | $1,250.00 |
| Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) fee, not a duty · charged on the same value | 0.125% | $12.50 |
| Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) fee, not a duty · charged on the same value | 0.3464% (once per entry, min $34.58 / max $670.86) | $34.64 |
| Total duties + fees owed to CBP | $3,697.14 | |
| Effective tariff rate (duties + fees ÷ customs value) | 36.97% | |
| Duties + fees per unit | $3.70 |
Computed live from ruleset v0.3.4 (data as of 2026-10-07, entry date 2026-10-07). Each row's verification status is shown on the HTS 6109.10.00 page; estimates only, not customs advice.
Step 5: get per-unit landed cost and back-solve your price
Below the stack, the calculator spreads total duties and fees per unit, and can back-solve the suggested selling price from your target gross margin. This is the number to take into your pricing sheet — not the bare MFN rate, which routinely understates the real burden by a factor of two or more for China-origin goods.
From estimate to paperwork
The estimate is step one; the site carries the workflow the rest of the way:
- Invoice generator — turn the priced line into a compliant commercial invoice, proforma or packing slip and export the PDF in-browser.
- Batch calculator — upload a whole XLSX/CSV sheet (up to 200 rows) and price every SKU with the same engine.
- Tariff Radar — track the rule changes that will move your numbers, each entry dated and sourced, with an RSS feed and email alerts.
Prefer tools that live outside the browser? The same engine ships as an npm package and CLI, a browser extension, and an offline desktop app.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the tariff calculator really free?
- Yes — every tool on the site is free with no sign-up and no watermark. There is no usage cap on the calculator; the batch tool self-limits to 200 rows per file and 5 files per day as a sanity guard. Everything runs in your browser, and your inputs never leave your machine.
- How accurate are the results?
- Each duty layer comes from a versioned ruleset snapshot built from official sources (USITC tariff schedule, Federal Register actions, CBP fee bulletins), and every row shows its legal basis and source link. Rows not yet verified against the Federal Register text are labelled as sample or unverified. Results are planning estimates — CBP determines the final duty at entry.
- Can I use RMB instead of USD?
- Yes. The value input accepts RMB and converts it using a live reference rate shown next to the field, so you can price directly from a supplier quote in yuan. The stacked duties themselves are always computed on the USD customs value.
- Can I use the result for my customs declaration?
- Use it for pricing, margin and scenario planning. The entry itself is signed by your customs broker, who confirms the final classification and value — treat the calculator's stack as the best available estimate, then have your broker confirm the 10-digit line before filing.
- How current is the data?
- The ruleset snapshot is versioned and updated as announcements take effect, and the Tariff Radar changelog tracks every change with old and new values plus official sources. The data-as-of date is shown on every result, so you always know which snapshot produced your numbers.
Free, no sign-up. Set origin, enter value, find the code — the full stacked cost lands in seconds.