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Landed Cost Calculator

Work out the true per-unit cost once freight, duties and fees are in.

The invoice price is the smallest part of what an imported unit costs you. Freight, duty, clearing, insurance and handling routinely add 10–30% on top — and every margin, price list and valuation built on the invoice price alone is wrong by exactly that amount.

Your numbers

per unit
units
total
total
total

Landed cost per unit

Use this as the cost basis for valuation and margin.

Total landed cost
Uplift over purchase price

Updates as you type · nothing leaves your browser

The formula

Landed cost = (Unit cost × Qty) + Freight + Duties + Fees

Divide by quantity for the true per-unit cost basis used in COGS and margin.

What it means

Landed Cost — full definition

Read in the glossary

How to use it

  1. 1

    Total the shipment-level costs: freight, duty, clearing agent, port charges, insurance, inland transport.

  2. 2

    Allocate them across the shipment. Splitting by unit works for uniform goods; split by value or by weight when the shipment is mixed.

  3. 3

    Push the resulting per-unit figure into your item cost so margin, valuation and reorder decisions all use the same basis.

Where it goes wrong

  • Allocating shipment costs evenly per unit across a mixed container overstates the cost of cheap items and understates the expensive ones. Use value or weight instead.

  • Exchange-rate movement between order and clearance is a real component of landed cost. Book it at the rate you actually paid, not the rate on the PO.

Worked example

A 13% invisible cost

500 units at 20 each is a 10,000 invoice. Add 1,200 freight, 800 duty and 300 in fees and the landed total is 12,300 — 24.60 per unit, an uplift of 23%. Priced at 30 against the invoice cost, the item looks like a 33% margin. Against landed cost it is 18%.

Common questions

Should VAT be part of landed cost?

Only if you cannot reclaim it. Recoverable input VAT is a cash-flow item, not a cost; irrecoverable duty and levies genuinely belong in the unit cost.

How do I handle a shipment with many different items?

Allocate by customs value for duty-driven costs and by weight or volume for freight. Splitting everything evenly per unit is the most common error in landed-cost workings.

Does landed cost change my stock valuation?

It should. Under most accounting standards, inventory is carried at the cost of bringing it to its present location and condition — which is landed cost, not invoice price.

Let AWRA do this on your live data

This calculator works on one set of numbers. AWRA OpsHub keeps landed cost calculator results current across every item, supplier and location — automatically.