Landed Cost API — HS Subheading & Duty Range

The problem

Before a sourcing or procurement team commits to a supplier or a price, it needs a rough answer to one question: what will this cost to land? Answering it means knowing the product's HS subheading and the duty attached to it — and nearly every tool assumes you already know the code. The alternative is guesswork, or paying a customs broker for a classification on every SKU you are only considering.

Who it's for

Sourcing and procurement teams comparing suppliers across countries, importers of hardware, electronics, housewares, machinery, and similar manufactured goods, and 3PL or logistics product teams building landed-cost estimates into their own tools. It is a poor fit for apparel and footwear sellers — see "Where this works, and where it doesn't" below, which is measured, not a hedge.

Use cases

• Estimating landed cost during sourcing, pricing, or margin planning
• Comparing duty exposure across candidate suppliers in different countries
• Checking China Section 301 list exposure for goods of Chinese origin
• Pre-screening a catalog of SKUs before handing the real classification work to a broker

What it does

Send a plain-English product description — optionally with a country of origin — and get back the 6-digit international HS subheading, a confidence score (the AI model's own 0–1 rating of the match it picked, null when the model gives none; it is not a measured accuracy), an estimated general duty rate range across the U.S. tariff lines under that subheading (with the rate most of them carry and how many 8- and 10-digit numbers the schedule lists there), China Section 301 exposure for goods of Chinese origin, reported as whether all or only some of the subheading's rate lines appear on the China lists (Lists 1–4A), and alternate subheadings when the description is ambiguous. Reference data is the U.S. International Trade Commission's official Harmonized Tariff Schedule, chapters 1–97 (chapters 98 and 99 hold special and temporary provisions, not product classifications) — 23,193 8- and 10-digit numbers aggregated into 5,612 subheadings — bundled rather than read live per request, and the date our copy was taken is stated on each estimate.

Example

Request

POST /estimate
{
  "description": "stainless steel undermount kitchen sink",
  "country_of_origin": "CN"
}

Response

Captured live 2026-09-18 from the request above, values unedited and nothing omitted.

{
  "hs_code": "7324.10",
  "classification_level": "6-digit HS subheading (international Harmonized System)",
  "description": "Sanitary ware and parts thereof, of iron or steel > Sinks and wash basins, of stainless steel",
  "confidence": 0.95,
  "duty_estimate": {
    "basis": "Range of published USITC General (Column 1) rates across the U.S. tariff lines within this HS subheading. An estimate for landed-cost planning, not a duty determination.",
    "min_pct": 3.4,
    "max_pct": 3.4,
    "most_common_rate_pct": 3.4,
    "most_common_rate_text": "3.4%",
    "lines_at_most_common_rate": 3,
    "tariff_lines_in_subheading": 3,
    "distinct_published_rates": 1,
    "single_rate_across_subheading": true,
    "includes_non_ad_valorem_rates": false,
    "precision_note": "All 3 8- and 10-digit U.S. numbers listed under this subheading carry the same published general rate (3.4%), so this estimate is not a range — it is the rate for the whole subheading. It is still not an entry classification. These figures are General (Column 1) rates only: they EXCLUDE Section 301 and Section 232 additional duties, AD/CVD, and every other additional duty (see surcharge_coverage)."
  },
  "applicable_surcharges": [
    {
      "type": "section_301",
      "label": "Every duty-rate line under this subheading appears on Section 301 List 3 (25%) for products of China",
      "note": "A \"duty-rate line\" is one of the subdivisions the U.S. schedule creates below the 6-digit subheading; Section 301 lists are published against those. Membership is a fact about the subheading, not a determination that a particular shipment owes the duty: USTR grants product-specific exclusions narrower than a subheading. For a landed-cost estimate, add this rate on top of the general rate as the planning case, and verify exclusions and current rates at ustr.gov. This is the China-list duty only: the forced-labor action and any other Section 301 or Section 232 duty are additional and NOT assessed (see surcharge_coverage).",
      "coverage": "all",
      "lists": [
        {
          "list": "Section 301 List 3",
          "additional_rate": "25%"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "alternate_subheadings": [
    {
      "hs_code": "7323.93",
      "description": "Table, kitchen or other household articles and parts thereof, of iron or steel; iron or steel wool; pot scourers and scouring or polishing pads, gloves and the like, of iron or steel > Other > Of stainless steel",
      "confidence": 0.35
    }
  ],
  "surcharge_coverage": "Section 301, China lists: every duty-rate line under this subheading appears on one or more of the China Section 301 lists (Lists 1, 2, 3 and 4A, U.S. Note 20); see applicable_surcharges. Product-specific USTR exclusions are NOT applied here. Section 301 forced-labor action: NOT ASSESSED for any origin. Effective 2026-07-24, it imposes duties of 10% or 12.5% on products of 60 economies, China included (for China, in addition to the China lists above; for EU member states, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan, as a combined rate with the column 1 rate), under the 9903.05 headings of HTSUS Chapter 99, subject to the exemptions in U.S. Note 52. Verify at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/421d887 (CBP guidance \"Section 301 Forced Labor Import Duties\", issued 2026-07-23, read 2026-09-11). Section 232: NOT ASSESSED for any origin. Section 232 duties are product-specific and are not in this estimate; verify at cbp.gov. No other Section 301 action is assessed either. AD/CVD: NOT ASSESSED for any origin. Antidumping and countervailing duties are specific to the product, the country and the exporter, can far exceed the general rate, and are not in this estimate, so nothing here indicates whether an order applies; verify at access.trade.gov.",
  "tariff_schedule_snapshot": "2026-09-14",
  "disclaimer": "This is a general landed-cost estimate, not a customs-entry classification. Output is capped at the 6-digit international HS subheading; Aervik Labs does not determine the 8- or 10-digit U.S. tariff line, and this result must not be used as the classification on a customs entry. Duty figures are an estimate range across the U.S. tariff lines that sit under this subheading, taken from the USITC's Harmonized Tariff Schedule as it stood on the snapshot date shown (the date our copy was made), and are intended for landed-cost budgeting, sourcing comparison, and pricing — not for filing. The classification and duty actually applicable to a specific shipment must come from a licensed customs broker or your own qualified importer-of-record compliance staff.",
  "provider": "aervik-ai-v1"
}

Key features

• Plain-English input — no need to already know a starting HS chapter
• Duty returned as an honest range, with a plain-language note on how tight or wide that range is
• China Section 301 list exposure at subheading level: all, some, or none of the rate lines listed, with the one rate each list carries (25% or 7.5%)
• Confidence score plus alternate candidate subheadings when a description is ambiguous
• Hard-capped at 6 digits: never returns an 8- or 10-digit tariff line, by design

Pricing

Free to start: 500 requests a month, hard-capped, no card required — sized against what this category actually gives away. Every call to any endpoint counts as one request. Paid plans are $9.99 for 2,000 requests and $29.99 for 10,000, both hard-capped so calls stop at the limit rather than billing you; the top plan carries 50,000 requests on a soft limit with overage at 1¢ per additional request.

See exact current pricing tiers on RapidAPI →