Are these freight rates real quotes?

No — they're typical market-range defaults, fully editable. Get a real quote from a freight forwarder; this tool only does math on the numbers you enter (or the typical defaults).

Should I choose air or sea?

It's not just cost — transit time matters too: air is typically 3–7 days, sea 25–45 days. Air tends to win for small/urgent orders, sea for high-volume ones. This calculator only shows the cost side.

How do I carry this into the Landed Cost Calculator?

Take the air or sea total you get here and enter it as "Total freight" in the Landed Cost Calculator — you'll get your true per-unit cost including duty and other fees.

✈️International Shipping Calculator

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From order quantity, unit weight and volume: compare air and sea freight cost per unit side by side. No signup.

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Freight modes compared

$/kg vs $/R-ton

Weight- and volume-based

Tool cost

✈️ International Shipping Cost

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Order quantity

Weight per unit (kg)

Volume per unit (m³)

Air freight rate ($/kg) · using an express quote? set the divisor to 5000

🔴 THE TWO DEFAULTS DESCRIBED DIFFERENT SERVICES (2026-09-16, tester): this field’s note says “typical EXPRESS air $5–9/kg” and the 6.5 default comes from there, while the volumetric divisor defaults to 6000 — IATA GENERAL CARGO. Express carriers (DHL/FedEx/UPS) bill on 5000, so the same box weighs MORE on express. Set both to the service you actually buy: express → divisor 5000; general cargo → divisor 6000 and your own $/kg quote.

Sea freight rate ($/revenue ton) · typical LCL $150–250 — LCL bills the GREATER of m³ and tonnes (the W/M rule), minimum 1 ton

Air minimum charge ($, opt.) · most forwarders bill a minimum for AWB + handling; type the figure from your quote. Left at 0, small shipments make air look CHEAPER than it is.

Volumetric divisor · IATA general cargo 6000 (1 m³ = 167 kg); DHL/FedEx/UPS express bills on 5000 (1 m³ = 200 kg)

Full container (FCL)

The container VOLUMES are built in (20' 33.2 m³ · 40' 67.7 m³ · 40' HC 76.4 m³) because they are physical constants; the FREIGHT is not, because it swings several-fold with route, season and carrier — type your own quote. How many containers you need comes from the USABLE volume, not the nominal one: palletising and stacking loss mean a container never fills completely.

Transit time

ⓘ Freight is quoted in US dollars in the market, so the $ figures here are USD — enter your own quote in USD too.

ⓘ Rounding: money lines are rounded to the nearest cent, and the total on screen is the sum of the lines on screen. The marketplace's own rounding can differ by a cent per line; in tiered rate cards the direction of that difference is not guaranteed.

Cheaper option / unit🚢 $0.36

Air chargeable weight: 166.7 kg ⚠Air total: $1,083.33Sea revenue tons: 1.00Sea total: $180.00Difference: $903.33

⚠ This shipment is light but bulky: the airline bills volumetric weight, not gross, so air costs more than the kilos suggest. On the sea side LCL bills the greater of m³ and tonnes, with a 1-ton floor. Import duty, customs clearance, port/terminal (THC/CFS), insurance and the air fuel/security surcharge are NOT in here — carry the total into the Landed Cost Calculator’s “Total freight” field.

Inputs are stored only in your browser, and the link carries the calculation itself.

Full analysis with real data → sign up

10 September 2026 we made a correction to this calculator that changed its results: outside USD the amounts were not converted, and import duty used the US rule; some fields accepted zero or above-100% values without warning.

The problem

Before the freight quote you're budgeting blind.

You can't budget a launch without a freight quote — but you can't request the right quote without knowing whether air or sea makes sense first.

❓

Air vs sea is a guess

Air can be cheaper for small/light orders, sea wins on volume — but nobody runs the actual crossover math.

⚖️

Weight vs volume confusion

Air prices by kg, sea prices by revenue ton (the greater of m³ and tonnes) — comparing the two by hand is error-prone.

🧮

Unclear how it feeds landed cost

Once you have a freight estimate, folding in duty and other costs is a separate step.

Open the Landed Cost calculator →

Features

Seven inputs, side-by-side comparison.

✈️

Air freight (per kg)

Enter your own quote or start from a typical express rate.

🚢

Sea freight (per revenue ton, W/M)

Start from a typical LCL rate, adjust with your own quote.

⚡

Instant result

Recalculates as you type.

💰

Savings amount

See the exact gap between the two options.

🔗

Feed into Landed Cost

Take the freight total you find here into the Landed Cost Calculator to get your true per-unit cost with duty included.

Open the Landed Cost calculator →

🌙

No signup

The calculator on this page is completely free.

How it works?

1️⃣

Enter order details

Quantity, unit weight (kg) and unit volume (m³).

2️⃣

Enter freight rates

Use your own forwarder quote if you have one, otherwise start from the typical rate.

3️⃣

See the cheaper option

Air and sea totals, per-unit cost and savings amount, instantly.

Related Tools

🚢

Landed Cost Calculator

True per-unit cost with freight + duty

🚀

Launch Cost Calculator

Total launch capital

🏭

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Supplier and product research

Frequently Asked Questions

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