Free tool · Canada · 2 minutes

What will it really cost to bring it in from the USA?

The price on a US website is rarely the price at your door. Duty, GST or HST, shipping, and the carrier's own clearance fee all land on top of it, and the order in which they apply matters: tax is charged on the value plus any duty, not on the shelf price alone. Enter your own numbers below and the calculator adds the border lines in that order, so you can compare the delivered cost against buying the same thing in Canada.

The thresholds that decide whether duty or tax applies at all

Before any rate is looked up, the route and the value decide whether duty and tax are even in play. These are the Canada Border Services Agency lines for goods you buy for yourself and have shipped to you. They are in Canadian dollars, and they turn on the value of the whole shipment, not on each item inside it.

How it arrives	Value	What applies
By mail, from any country	$20 or less	No duty, no tax
By mail, from any country	Over $20	Duty and tax can both apply
By courier from the USA or Mexico	$40 or less	No duty, no tax
By courier from the USA or Mexico	Over $40, up to $150	No duty; GST or HST still applies
By courier from the USA or Mexico	Over $150	Duty and tax both apply
By courier from anywhere else	$20 or less	No duty, no tax
By courier from anywhere else	Over $20	Duty and tax can both apply

The middle band is the one people miss. A $100 parcel sent by courier from the USA owes no duty, but it still owes tax. The same $100 sent by post owes both, because mail does not get the courier bands. And duty-free is not the same as tax-free: a shipment can sit under the duty line and still be taxable. Tobacco, alcohol, and gifts sent by a business sit outside these lines entirely, and this calculator does not cover them.

How is it arriving?

By courier from the USA or Mexico By mail (Canada Post) By courier from another country

The route picks the thresholds above. Courier from the USA gets the $40 tax-free and $150 duty-free lines; mail and other-country couriers get the $20 line for both.

Value of the goods, in Canadian dollars

$

The price you paid, converted to Canadian dollars. Use the whole shipment's value. Splitting one order into smaller parcels to stay under a threshold does not change how the CBSA treats it.

Duty rate for your goods (%)

%

Look this up for your product and where it was made, on the CBSA duty and taxes estimator or in the Canadian Customs Tariff. Where the goods were made matters as much as where you bought them: goods made in Canada, the USA, or Mexico may qualify for duty-free treatment under CUSMA, while goods made elsewhere face the regular tariff rate even when bought from a US store. If you do not know the rate, leave it at 0 and treat the result as a floor, not a quote.

Where in Canada is it being delivered?

Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut — 5% GST Ontario — 13% HST Nova Scotia — 14% HST New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island — 15% HST British Columbia — 5% GST (PST separate, see below) Saskatchewan — 5% GST (PST separate, see below) Manitoba — 5% GST (retail sales tax separate, see below) Quebec — 5% GST (QST separate, see below)

The delivery province sets the federal tax rate. In the HST provinces the single rate replaces GST. The rate fills the next field, and you can change it there.

GST / HST rate (%)

%

Charged on the value plus any duty. The CBSA's own example works the same way: $137.00 of goods plus $5.48 of duty is $142.48, and 5% GST on that is $7.12.

Other provincial tax on imports, if collected (%)

%

British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec each have a separate provincial tax, and whether the CBSA collects it on a given import depends on the goods. This calculator does not assume it. Enter the rate only if it applies to your shipment; otherwise leave it at 0.

Shipping to Canada

$

What the seller or carrier charges to get it to you. Entered here as its own line, added after duty and tax, so it does not inflate either one in this estimate. Check your CBSA assessment if freight was included in the declared value.

Brokerage or handling fee

$

The carrier's own charge for clearing the parcel, separate from duty and tax. Couriers set their own fees and they vary widely; ask before the parcel clears, because on a low-value parcel the fee can exceed the tax. Canada Post charges a flat $9.95 when duty or tax is assessed on a mailed item, and nothing when it clears free — pick the mail route above and the default fills in.

Work out the landed cost

How to read the result

Compare the landed total with the price of buying the same item from a Canadian seller, delivered. A Canadian price usually arrives with no separate duty, brokerage, or border-delay bill, so the comparison that matters is delivered against delivered. If the imported total only just beats the Canadian price, the Canadian option is usually the safer buy: a reassessment, a surtax on certain US goods, or a brokerage fee higher than the one you entered can erase a small gap. If you are importing to resell rather than for yourself, this tool is the wrong shape for the job — commercial imports use a business number and the CARM portal, and our guide to importing and exporting goods covers those accounts.