A domestic box is priced on distance, bulk and speed, and stops there. Send the same box across a border and a fourth cost layer appears on top of all three: a government duty or tax nobody assessed before, a carrier fee for clearing it through customs, and a formal entry charge once its value crosses a threshold. None of that is a carrier markup. It is a separate bill from a separate party, and it is why an international quote rarely resembles a domestic one at the same weight. Sources below were read 2026-08-28.
Distance, bulk and speed still matter. Crossing a border adds a charge none of the three explains.
Before any carrier fee is added, the destination country's own government takes a share, and it is calculated on the value of the goods rather than on the box. UPS explains the mechanism plainly on its own tariffs page, read 2026-08-28.
“A customs duty (AKA tariff) is a charge imposed by a government on goods imported into a country.”UPS, Tariffs and Their Impact on International Shipping, ups.com, read 2026-08-28
A tax, usually VAT or its local equivalent, often rides alongside the duty on the same shipment, calculated as a standard percentage the destination government sets to fund public spending. Once the declared value of a formal entry passes 2,500 USD, UPS names a third charge on top of both: the Merchandise Processing Fee, a US government charge that applies regardless of which carrier moves the box. Three separate bodies, in effect, each with a claim on the same shipment, and none of them is the carrier.
Collecting a government's duty is itself a service, and the carriers that do it bill for it separately from the duty. That distinction shows up in how both USPS and UPS describe the process.
USPS requires its own Post Office facilities to collect a fee on every dutiable item, under section 712 of its International Mail Manual — a charge that exists purely because the item needed clearing, separate from the tax or duty itself.
UPS names its own "customs brokerage fees" as a distinct line from duties and taxes on formal and informal entries alike, billed for the work of moving a shipment through clearance rather than the tariff on the goods.
DHL states that it "manages the majority of queries from the customs authority" on a shipper's behalf, work a purely domestic parcel never generates because no customs authority is ever involved.
A domestic label pays for pickup, sorting and delivery. An international one pays for all of that plus a second job: standing between the shipment and a foreign government's clearance process. That second job is billed, and it is billed by the carrier, not the country.
Inside the United States, USPS, UPS and FedEx all publish a counter price anyone can pay without an account. Crossing a border narrows that field, and narrower competition tends to sit on the expensive side.
USPS keeps a published retail price for its international products the same way it does domestically. UPS does not extend that to every international service: Worldwide Economy, for one, is sold only against a signed contract rather than at a counter, which puts it out of reach for a one-off personal shipment regardless of what the rate itself might be. Fewer sellers willing to quote a walk-up price is its own kind of cost, even before duty enters the picture. Our cheapest way to ship overseas guide works through which of the remaining options actually fits a given box.
Cheap parcels used to skip most of this. A recent change removed that shortcut, and UPS states the date plainly on its own tariffs page, read 2026-08-28.
“President Trump signed an executive order suspending the de minimis exemption for all low-value (under $800) shipments to the United States, effective August 29, 2025.”UPS, Tariffs and Their Impact on International Shipping, ups.com, read 2026-08-28
Before that date, a shipment under 800 USD could enter the country without triggering a formal duty assessment at all. After it, that same low-value parcel goes through the same paid clearance process as an expensive one, which is a large part of why a cheap item bought from overseas costs more to land today than it did a year earlier. This is a US import rule specifically; the value thresholds that decide the same question for parcels leaving the US toward Canada, Mexico or the UK are covered on our Canada, Mexico and UK duty page.
Distance, package bulk and delivery speed price an international shipment exactly the way they price a domestic one; nothing above replaces that, it sits on top of it. Our domestic price breakdown works through those three drivers with live quote evidence, and it is worth reading alongside this page rather than instead of it — an international total is the domestic price plus everything described above, not a different calculation entirely.
Duty rates, exemption thresholds and carrier fees are all set by parties other than SMKlog and change on their own schedules. Treat the figures above as what each source stated on the date shown.
Distance, bulk and speed still apply, but a fourth layer stacks on top of them that a domestic parcel never carries: a government duty or tax, a carrier fee for clearing the item through customs, and, once value crosses a threshold, a formal entry fee on top of both. None of that exists on a box that never leaves the country.
A US government charge on formal customs entries, which UPS states apply to shipments valued over 2,500 USD. It sits alongside the duty itself and any carrier brokerage fee, so a higher-value parcel can carry three separate charges where a cheap one carries none.
Yes. UPS names its own customs brokerage fee separately from the duties and taxes a government assesses. USPS requires its delivery offices to collect a fee on every dutiable item under its own International Mail Manual, again separate from the duty itself. The carrier's cut for handling the clearance is not the same charge as the tariff.
A rule that used to let low-value shipments in without an entry is gone. UPS states that an executive order suspended the de minimis exemption for shipments under 800 USD to the United States, effective August 29, 2025, so a class of parcel that once cleared free of duty now goes through the same paid process as an expensive one.
No. Our checkout prices parcels moving inside the United States only, so none of the fees on this page ever reaches our pricing. What we can price is the domestic leg of a cross-border order, and our cheapest way to ship overseas guide covers how that leg fits into the full trip.