About PortEntry

The moment a shipment crosses a border, it turns into a small stack of numbers worked out under a deadline — usually just before you place an order, book freight, or answer a supplier. What will this really cost once duty, VAT, and clearance fees are added to the invoice? Is the landed cost per unit still workable after freight and insurance? Which value does the duty rate actually apply to — the goods alone, or the goods plus shipping? Will the cartons be billed on their weight or their volume, and how many of them fit a container? None of it is difficult arithmetic, but doing it in your head, with real money and a supplier waiting, is exactly when a costing goes wrong. PortEntry was built to do that maths for you so you can spend the attention on the decision.

The site is a set of small, single-purpose calculators, each aimed at one real question an importer or exporter asks. The Import Duty Calculator turns a customs value and a duty rate into the duty owed, with an optional VAT or GST layer on top. The Landed Cost Calculator adds goods, freight, insurance, duty, and fees into a true total and a cost per unit. The Customs Value Calculator fixes the dutiable value on an FOB, CFR, or CIF basis, which is the figure the duty rate is applied to in the first place. The Trade Currency Converter converts an invoice at a rate you set, with room for a bank or FX margin. The Volumetric Weight Calculator turns carton dimensions into dimensional weight and compares it with the actual weight to find the chargeable weight a carrier bills. And the Container Load Calculator shows how many cartons fit a 20ft, 40ft, or high-cube container and how full the load is.

Beyond the calculators, the blog and learn section cover customs and clearance, duties and tariffs, HS classification, freight and containers, and the reasoning behind the numbers the tools produce. The Trade & Customs Museum is a browsable collection of the ports, containers, customs houses, and trade routes that built global commerce, with every entry, image, and fact drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

A few things worth stating plainly. PortEntry is an independent site, not a customs broker, a freight forwarder, a tax adviser, or a law firm, and it is not affiliated with any customs authority or carrier. It is supported by advertising, which is how the tools stay free with no account required. Every result — a duty figure, a landed cost, a customs value, a chargeable weight — is a general estimate built on the numbers you enter and on standard formulas, not a customs ruling or professional advice. Duty rates, valuation rules, and taxes are specific to your goods, their HS code, and their country of origin and destination, so treat anything duty- or tax-related as a starting point and confirm it with the official customs authority or a licensed broker. If a tool looks off, or you think a calculator is missing that would help, the contact page is the place to say so.