How to get a China to USA shipping quote in ChatGPT

Add the Plain Freight app in ChatGPT

Open this link while you are signed in to ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6ab9164c46e88191b167d3e50cfcedb3. It is the official Plain Freight listing. Add the app from that page and follow the prompts ChatGPT shows you. You do not need a Plain Freight account, a password or an API key at any point.

Once the app is added, go back to a chat and ask about your shipment. Our example prompts below all name Plain Freight, which makes it clear to ChatGPT which service you mean when you have several apps switched on.

Which ChatGPT plans, regions and devices can use apps is decided by OpenAI and can change. If the listing does not open for your account, you lose nothing: the quote form on our home page and an email to info@plainfreight.com reach the same pricing engine. People who build with ChatGPT's developer mode can also add https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp by hand, as described on the page for AI agents.

What the app can do in ChatGPT today

The app gives ChatGPT four tools. You never type their names; ChatGPT chooses one from what you ask. Knowing them is useful mainly for one reason: it tells you exactly when anything is saved on our side.

Three of the four only read. generate_offer is the one that writes, and what it writes is a quote request, never a booking. None of the tools can book a shipment or take a payment.

Word the request for the answer you want

ChatGPT decides between a rough estimate and a real offer from your wording, so it pays to be direct about which one you need.

• For a budget number, say rough, roughly or about: "About how much would Plain Freight charge to ship 60 kg of silicone phone cases from Shenzhen to a ZIP code in Florida, air and sea?"
• For a priced offer, say firm or real offer: "Get me a firm Plain Freight offer for 5 cartons of bamboo cutting boards, 72 kg in total, each carton 55x35x30 cm, picked up in Guangzhou, delivered to ZIP 30303."
• To follow up on an offer in the same chat: "Has the check on that Plain Freight offer finished? Do you need anything from me?"
• To track: "Where is my Plain Freight shipment?" followed by the tracking link from your booking email.

If ChatGPT gives you an estimate when you wanted an offer, just say "make that a firm offer" and add the cartons and the ZIP code.

Rough estimates: what you get back

An estimate needs only the total weight. Add the product, the carton sizes or the total volume in cubic meters and the figure gets more useful, because ChatGPT can then report the chargeable weight: the higher of the real weight and the volume in cubic centimeters divided by 6,000. Pillows, plush toys and lampshades usually pay on volume, which our chargeable weight reference works through carton by carton.

The reply carries an air price for the whole shipment, plus a sea price once the chargeable weight reaches 10 kg, each with a transit estimate, a note on whether US import duty is inside the price, and the date our engine produced the figures. Without carton sizes the estimate assumes compact, dense cartons and tells you so. For a sense of scale: Plain Freight's own price, from our pricing engine (2026-10-17): 20 kg of general goods by air is $384.53 door to door with duty included ($14 to $20 per kg up to 35 kg), and air consolidation from 50 kg runs $4 to $11 per kg plus import duty.

An estimate is a planning number. The exact ZIP code, the pickup city and the real cartons can all move the price, so ask for an offer before you pay a supplier on the strength of it. The same figures are published as a table in our price index and on the pricing page.

Real offers, and goods that need a person

A real offer needs to know what the product is and how much it weighs in kilograms. We carry shipments from 100 g to 2,000 kg from a warehouse in China to any US address. Everything else improves the answer: carton count and size, the pickup city, the US ZIP code, how soon the goods must arrive, an HS code if you have one, and any Amazon FBA or delivery requirements.

Your email address is optional. Give it and the written offer is mailed to you once the follow-up check finishes, at most one offer email per address per day. Leave it out and nothing is mailed; you can still book from the card.

Prices are door to door in US dollars, and every option spells out what it includes: freight, US customs clearance and delivery, and whether import duty is in the price or paid at import. Door to door air for general goods up to about 35 kg (6 to 12 working days) and sea (28 to 32 days) include the duty; heavier air shipments travel as air consolidation, with the duty paid at import. DDP shipping from China explains the difference, and air vs sea freight helps you choose a mode.

Some goods are not priced by a machine alone. Batteries and anything with a battery inside, chemicals and aerosols, food, supplements, cosmetics and similar restricted goods are flagged in the offer: the prices are held, the card says a person checks these goods first, and we follow up by email with what we need, such as the battery type or a safety data sheet. Describe the product plainly so the flag can do its job. For the rules behind it, see which certifications US imports need and shipping electronics from China.

Reading the offer card

ChatGPT shows the offer as a card inside the conversation. Reading from the top:

• The shipment summary: product, declared weight, chargeable weight when it is higher, cartons and destination ZIP code.
• One panel per shipping option with the price and transit time. Options marked "Estimate, confirmed before booking" are still estimates; options marked "Duties included" carry the import duty. A line under each says what the price covers.
• A note that prices follow chargeable weight, and for how many days the offer holds.
• While the follow-up check runs, a line saying so. The card updates itself when it finishes.
• Any questions whose answers could change the price.
• A Book with Plain Freight button, next to the start of the quote reference.

The follow-up check starts as soon as the offer exists and takes a few seconds. It looks again at volumetric weight, how the goods are classified, branded goods and certifications. It can add questions, or it can hold the prices for a person to review. Ask ChatGPT whether the check has finished and it reads the outcome by the quote reference, without creating a new quote.

From offer to booking

Nothing is booked or charged in the chat. When you are ready, press Book with Plain Freight on the card, which opens the quote form on plainfreight.com with your shipment and quote reference already filled in. You can also reply to the offer email, if you asked for one, or write to info@plainfreight.com with the quote reference.

Nothing is paid before your goods are weighed at our warehouse in China, so the bill follows the real cartons rather than a guess. Before you commit to any forwarder, us included, how to choose a freight forwarder lists the questions worth asking.

Tracking a shipment from ChatGPT

Every booking email carries a tracking link. Paste it into ChatGPT with a question like "where is my Plain Freight shipment?" and the tracking tool reads the record. The link works like a key: only people you share it with can read the shipment.

The tracking card shows the shipment reference and status, a ten-stage progress bar from Booking to Delivered with your current stage and the next one, the route, the goods and weight, the most recent dated events, and an Open full tracking record button for the complete page on plainfreight.com.

To see it before you ship anything, paste our public demo link: https://plainfreight.com/track/ccbd92bd158325e0b25c8ad1209d2abe. The record says plainly that it is a demo shipment. Tracking only reads; to change a booking, email info@plainfreight.com with the shipment reference.

Prefer Claude?

The same tools are available as a Claude connector, plus a goods check that tells you whether a product is priced at once or reviewed first. The setup differs a little, and it is covered step by step in how to get a China to USA shipping quote in Claude. Whichever assistant you use, the prices come from the same engine.