A customs broker bill is built from four layers: the broker's own charge, government fees, the customs bond, and add-on service fees. The headline number, the broker's entry fee, is only one line on the invoice, and the add-ons are where quotes that looked identical stop being identical. Most US customs brokers charge between $100 and $250 per entry for full-service clearance, and the range depends on line count, complexity, and the volume relationship. A 40-line entry priced off a $100 base fee is not a $100 entry.
The broker's entry fee is the charge for preparing and transmitting a customs entry to CBP: classifying the goods, calculating the duties, filing the documentation, and managing the release. Fees typically range from $75 to $200 per entry for standard work, and $150 to $500 for a formal ocean entry depending on complexity. Entries with many tariff lines, FDA or USDA goods, or antidumping duties sit at the top of the range. Informal entries under $2,500 cost less, $75 to $150, and complex or partner government agency entries run $250 to $800.
Duty itself sits on top of all of this and depends entirely on the HTS classification and country of origin. In 2026 it is often the largest number on the invoice by a wide margin. The clearance cost is not the duty, and a broker quote that blends the two hides the number that matters.
Some of what appears on a customs broker invoice is not the broker's fee at all. It is government-assessed fees that the broker collects on behalf of federal agencies and passes through without markup. The Merchandise Processing Fee is assessed by CBP on formal entries at 0.3464 percent of the entered value, with a minimum of $34.58 and a maximum of $670.86 per entry from October 1, 2026, under the FY2027 customs user fee adjustment. On a $50,000 shipment the MPF is $173.20. On a $500,000 shipment it hits the maximum.
The Harbor Maintenance Fee is assessed on shipments arriving by sea at US ports at 0.125 percent of cargo value, with no cap. On a $100,000 ocean shipment the HMF is $125. Like the MPF, it is government-mandated and not negotiable, and it applies only to ocean cargo. An air shipment pays no HMF, which is one of the quieter differences between air and ocean landed cost.
The bond is the third government-adjacent layer. A continuous bond covers unlimited entries at all US ports for 12 months and costs $300 to $600 a year, with a bond amount of at least 10 percent of the duties, taxes, and fees paid in the prior year and a $50,000 minimum. A single entry bond costs $75 to $275 and covers one shipment. The continuous bond pays for itself after roughly five to eight shipments, and it also covers the ISF requirement for ocean freight, which a single entry bond does not.
Add-on fees run $15 to $100 each and have the widest variance on the list. ISF filing runs $30 to $75 per filing. Document handling, bill of lading, commercial invoice, and packing list processing runs $15 to $50 per shipment. Duty disbursement runs 2 to 3 percent of the duty advanced. Partner government agency filings run $25 to $75 each. Some brokers charge fees that are neither government-mandated nor clearly tied to a specific service: document storage fees, communication fees, portal access fees, annual account fees.
The landed cost formula makes the stakes clear. Landed cost is the total cost of a product at the point it arrives at the warehouse, ready to receive: product cost plus freight, insurance, customs duties, import taxes, port handling, customs broker fees, and financing costs. The broker fee is often overlooked because it is small relative to freight and duties, but at low unit counts it becomes meaningful per unit. A $350 broker and entry charge on 5,000 units is $0.07 a unit. On 200 units it is $1.75.
Read the invoice line by line, and compare it against the quote before paying. The most productive approach is to separate the layers: the broker's fee, which is negotiable at the time the relationship is established; the government fees, which are fixed and checkable against CBP's published rates; the bond, which is annual; and the add-ons, which are where the variance lives. An invoice that blends them into one number is an invoice that cannot be audited, and an invoice that cannot be audited is where the money leaks.
Keep reading: Currency conversion at entry: CBP uses its own rate, not your bank's, Freight allocation: weight, value, or units, pick one and defend it.
Most US customs brokers charge between $100 and $250 per entry for full-service clearance. Importers who self-file with their own software typically pay far less per entry, around $30 with some providers. The range depends on line count, complexity, and volume: many brokers quote a base fee covering three to five HTS lines and charge per additional line beyond that.
The Merchandise Processing Fee is 0.3464 percent of entered value, floored at $34.58 and capped at $670.86 from October 1, 2026. The Harbor Maintenance Fee is 0.125 percent of value, ocean shipments only, with no cap. Both are set by CBP and passed through without markup.
The ISF filing fee covers the Importer Security Filing, the 10+2 data submission required for ocean shipments before the vessel departs the foreign port. Most brokers charge $25 to $75 per filing, and it is rarely included in the entry fee. A continuous bond covers the ISF requirement, which is one reason it pays for itself.
Yes. A continuous bond typically costs $300 to $600 a year from most brokers, while a single entry bond runs $50 to $150 per entry. The economics of a continuous bond become favorable after roughly five to six shipments a year, and the bond also covers ISF filings that would otherwise be billed separately.