China to USA shipping cost by weight: what 1 kg to 1,000 kg really costs
Costs & pricing · Updated
Shipping from China to the USA? With Plain Freight, 5 kg by air is $111.89 door to door with US duty included, in 6 to 12 working days. Your own price shows on screen in seconds.
See my price for my weightShipping from China to the USA by air costs $29.02 for 1 kg and $422.69 for 20 kg, door to door with US duty included. That is $21.13 per kg at 20 kg, against $29.02 per kg at 1 kg. Sea door to door starts at 10 kg and runs $5.89 per kg there. These are the prices from our own pricing engine, priced 2026-10-30, for general goods, and they are the same figures a quote uses.
Below is the full weight ladder from 0.5 kg to 1000 kg, total and per kg, rendered straight from the rate card. The rest of the guide explains why the per-kg price falls as weight rises, how chargeable weight can make a light box cost like a heavy one, and the weight where sea stops being the cheaper lane. If you want the raw numbers as a dataset to cite or download, that is the shipping price index. This page is the explainer for someone about to ship. Selling on Amazon and thinking in units? See freight cost per unit for Amazon FBA.
Key takeaways
- Air door to door with duty included: $29.02 at 1 kg, $111.89 at 5 kg, $422.69 at 20 kg, priced 2026-10-30.
- The per-kg rate falls from $29.02 at 1 kg to $21.13 at 20 kg, a drop of 27%.
- Sea door to door is quoted from 10 kg of chargeable weight and is cheaper in total than air at every priced weight below 200 kg.
- You are billed on the larger of actual weight and volumetric weight, so measure the carton before you compare prices.
- Nothing is payable until your cartons are weighed at our China warehouse.
The weight ladder: air and sea, total and per kg
Every row is one weight we price, for general goods, from our China warehouse to a US door. Air up to 20 kg is our door-to-door service with US duty included. From 35 kg the air row is air consolidation, and the table says plainly that duty is paid at import on that service, so compare it with the sea column, which includes duty, with that in mind. Prices as of 2026-10-30.
| Weight | Air service | Air total | Air per kg | Sea total | Sea per kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $18.65 | $37.30 | Sea from 10 kg | n/a |
| 1 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $29.02 | $29.02 | Sea from 10 kg | n/a |
| 2 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $49.73 | $24.86 | Sea from 10 kg | n/a |
| 5 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $111.89 | $22.38 | Sea from 10 kg | n/a |
| 10 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $215.49 | $21.55 | $58.89 | $5.89 |
| 20 kg | Air, door to door, duty included | $422.69 | $21.13 | $117.78 | $5.89 |
| 35 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $498.22 | $14.23 | $206.11 | $5.89 |
| 50 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $546.43 | $10.93 | $294.45 | $5.89 |
| 100 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $707.15 | $7.07 | $588.88 | $5.89 |
| 200 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $986.31 | $4.93 | $1,117.94 | $5.59 |
| 500 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $1,826.34 | $3.65 | $2,618.44 | $5.24 |
| 1000 kg | Air consolidation, duty paid at import | $3,137.46 | $3.14 | $4,936.93 | $4.94 |
Air door to door arrives in 6 to 12 working days. Air consolidation arrives in 10 to 14 days. Sea door to door arrives in 28 to 32 days, and sea prices are marked indicative until the cartons are weighed. The table only lists weights the engine prices; for anything between two rows, the quote form gives the exact number for your weight. To see air and sea side by side at your own weight, use the air vs sea cost calculator.
How much is it per kg to ship 20 kg from China?
Twenty kilograms is the weight most small importers ask about, because it is a typical single carton or two. By air, door to door, 20 kg is $422.69 with US duty included: $21.13 per kg, in 6 to 12 working days. By sea, the same 20 kg is $117.78 ($5.89 per kg) in 28 to 32 days, which is 72% less than air for the same chargeable weight.
Two cautions when you read a per-kg number. First, a per-kg figure is only meaningful next to a weight: the same service is $29.02 per kg at 1 kg and $7.07 per kg at 100 kg. Second, check what the number includes. Ours at 20 kg includes freight, US customs clearance and duty, and delivery to your door. A per-kg figure that leaves duty or delivery out is not comparable.
Why the price per kg falls as the weight goes up
The ladder shows the effect clearly. By air, the per-kg price goes from $29.02 at 1 kg to $22.38 at 5 kg, $21.13 at 20 kg and $7.07 at 100 kg: 27% lower at 20 kg than at 1 kg, and 76% lower at 100 kg.
Three things cause that fall. Each shipment carries handling that does not scale with weight: booking, customs entry, paperwork, the first and last move. A light parcel spreads those fixed costs over very few kilos, a heavy one over many. Carriers also price in weight bands, so the rate steps down as the shipment moves into a heavier band. And at higher weights the cargo moves in bulk lanes, such as air consolidation, built for larger loads rather than parcels.
The practical lesson is that sending one 10 kg carton costs less per kg than sending two 5 kg parcels a week apart. If your supplier can ship together, or you order from several suppliers that can be gathered in one place, consolidating before the shipment leaves China is usually the largest saving available, and it costs nothing but a little planning.
Chargeable weight: the weight you are actually billed on
Air freight is billed on chargeable weight, which is the larger of the actual weight on the scale and the volumetric weight, worked out from the carton's size. The engine behind this page divides the carton volume in cubic centimetres by 6,000. A carton of 60 by 40 by 40 cm has a volume of 96,000 cubic centimetres, so its volumetric weight is 16 kg. If that carton holds 5 kg of goods, you are billed as a 16 kg shipment, not a 5 kg one.
Light, bulky goods are where this hurts: pillows, foam, plastic housewares, large soft toys, empty bags. Dense goods such as tools, metal parts and books bill on actual weight. Before you compare any two prices, measure the outer carton, not the product, and work out both numbers. The CBM and chargeable weight calculator does the arithmetic for you, and the chargeable weight data page shows the same rule in tables.
Packing is the other lever. Removing air from a carton, taking goods out of rigid retail boxes where your buyers accept it, and vacuum-packing soft goods all lower volumetric weight without changing what you ship. It is common for the same order to move down a whole price band after a repack.
Where sea beats air, and where it stops
We quote sea door to door from 10 kg of chargeable weight. From there it is the cheaper lane in the ladder: at 10 kg, sea is $58.89 against $215.49 by air, 73% less, in exchange for a wait of 28 to 32 days instead of 6 to 12 working days.
The crossover is computed from the same table. Sea has the lower total at every priced weight up to 100 kg. At 200 kg the air total, $986.31, is lower than the sea total, $1,117.94. The air row at that weight is air consolidation, with duty paid at import, so the two are not like for like. Between 100 kg and 200 kg we do not publish a price point, so the exact switch is somewhere in that gap for your goods; the quote form shows both lanes for your weight.
Cheaper is not the whole decision. Sea takes 28 to 32 days against 6 to 12 working days, so it ties up cash in stock for weeks longer, and a missed season costs more than the freight saved. Our air vs sea guide walks through that trade-off, and the ocean freight cost guide covers the sea side in more detail. Below 10 kg sea is not offered, so air is the only lane for small loads.
Black Friday peak season: what it adds to the ladder
A carrier peak surcharge is in force since 2026-10-16: Black Friday peak season. For general goods by air door to door up to 22 kg, it lifts the price by 12.7 to 26 percent, with the heaviest uplift at the weights near the top of that band. The prices in the table above are priced on 2026-10-30 with that surcharge already included, so you do not add anything to them.
When the surcharge ends, the same weights come down. Booking ahead of a peak and shipping in a quieter week is one of the few ways to pay less for the same cargo, which is why the date at the top of this page matters: a weight ladder without a date is a guess.
What is in the price and what is not
The air door-to-door price covers freight from our China warehouse, US customs entry, US duty and delivery to your address, up to 20 kg. Above that the air row is consolidation, where duty is paid at import, so work out the duty before you compare. The landed cost guide shows how to add duty, fees and the goods themselves into one number, and the tariffs guide explains why duty now matters on even the smallest parcel.
The price does not include the courier leg from your supplier to our China warehouse, which is arranged on the China side. It also does not include the goods or anything you buy from the supplier.
Get your own price, and what happens after
The ladder shows our rate card, not your quote, because your goods, carton size and ZIP code decide the final figure. Put your goods, weight and carton size into the form on this page and your price appears on screen, with air and sea side by side where both apply. Nothing is payable until your cartons are weighed at our China warehouse.
- Look at your price and pick the option you want. Book it with the Book button under the price, or reply to the offer email.
- We send you our China warehouse address and a carton mark. Your supplier ships the cartons to that address.
- We weigh and measure the cartons. If the chargeable weight is within 5% of what you entered, your price stands. If it is not, you see the weigh ticket and the new number before anything moves.
- You receive one invoice and pay by bank transfer in US dollars. The cartons ship and you get a tracking link.
How this guide differs from the price index
The China to USA shipping price index is a dataset: dated figures with a CSV and a JSON file, meant to be cited and tracked over time. This guide is the explanation: how to read the ladder, what drives the per-kg price, and how to choose between air and sea for your own shipment. The pricing page covers what the service includes, and the shipping time guide covers how long each lane takes.
FAQ
How much does it cost to ship 20 kg from China to the USA?
By air, door to door with US duty included, 20 kg is $422.69 ($21.13 per kg), priced 2026-10-30. By sea, door to door, it is $117.78 ($5.89 per kg). Your own price depends on your goods and carton size.
What is the cost per kg to ship from China to the USA?
It depends on weight. By air door to door it runs from $29.02 per kg at 1 kg to $21.13 per kg at 20 kg, with duty included. Sea door to door from 10 kg is $5.89 per kg at 10 kg. Per-kg figures are only comparable at the same weight and with the same things included.
Why is the price per kg lower for heavier shipments?
Fixed handling is spread over more kilos, carriers price in weight bands, and heavier loads use bulk lanes. On our ladder the air per-kg rate at 20 kg is lower than at 1 kg by the percentage shown in the table section above.
What is chargeable weight?
It is the larger of the actual weight and the volumetric weight, which is carton length times width times height in centimetres divided by 6,000. Air is billed on it. Use the CBM and chargeable weight calculator to work it out before you compare prices.
Is sea or air cheaper from China to the USA?
On our ladder sea has the lower total from 10 kg up to 100 kg, and at 200 kg the air consolidation total is lower, although duty is paid at import on that air service. Sea takes 28 to 32 days against 6 to 12 working days by air door to door.
Do I pay anything before my goods are weighed?
No. Nothing is payable until your cartons are weighed at our China warehouse. If the chargeable weight is within 5% of what you entered the price stands, and if not you see the weigh ticket and the new price first.