Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF): How It Is Calculated and Who Is Exempt

What is the merchandise processing fee?

The merchandise processing fee (MPF) is a U.S. customs user fee, charged under 19 CFR 24.23, that CBP collects on most imports to fund entry processing. For formal entries it is 0.3464 percent of the entered value, subject to a per-entry minimum and maximum. It is a fee, not a duty, but it lands on the same entry summary and belongs in every landed-cost model.

How much is MPF in FY2026?

For entries on or after October 1, 2025, the ad valorem rate stays 0.3464 percent, the minimum is $33.58, and the maximum is $651.50 per formal entry, per the Federal Register user-fee adjustment, CBP Dec. 25-10. You can check any entry in seconds with our free MPF calculator.

The merchandise processing fee for FY2026 is 0.3464 percent of entered value, clamped between $33.58 and $651.50 per formal entry. The rate has not moved since 2017; only the floor and cap adjust for inflation each October. The base excludes duty, freight, and insurance, so Section 301, Section 232, and other stacked tariffs never increase MPF. For an importer filing 1,000 mid-size entries a year, MPF alone is a five-to-six-figure line item.

Last updated: July 2026

How MPF is calculated, with worked examples

The formula is one multiplication and one clamp, but the clamp does all the interesting work. MPF applies to entered value: the customs value of the goods, excluding duty, international freight, and insurance.

Entered value	0.3464% raw	What you actually pay	Why
$5,000	$17.32	$33.58	Below $9,694, the floor binds
$50,000	$173.20	$173.20	Between the bounds, the rate applies as-is
$188,078	$651.50	$651.50	The exact value where the cap starts binding
$500,000	$1,732.00	$651.50	Cap: everything above $188,078 rides free

Three practical consequences fall straight out of that table:

1. Small entries overpay by design. A $5,000 entry pays an effective 0.67 percent, nearly double the nominal rate, because of the floor.
2. Large entries pay a vanishing rate. At $1 million entered value, $651.50 works out to 0.065 percent, about a fifth of the nominal rate.
3. Stacked tariffs do not touch it. Duty is not part of the base, so a 50 percent Section 301 plus Section 232 load changes your duty bill, never your MPF. Our customs fees hub walks the full fee sheet line by line.

Informal entries (generally low-value shipments) pay a flat MPF instead: $2.69 automated, $8.06 manual, or $12.09 if CBP prepares the entry, per 19 CFR 24.23(b)(2) at FY2026 amounts.

Which imports are exempt from MPF?

Goods that qualify as originating under most U.S. free trade agreements skip MPF entirely under 19 CFR 24.23(c). CBP's MPF and preferential trade programs table is the authoritative list; confirmed exempting programs include:

Program	MPF exempt for originating goods?
USMCA (Canada, Mexico)	Yes, since July 1, 2020
U.S.-Chile FTA	Yes
U.S.-Singapore FTA	Yes
U.S.-Australia FTA	Yes

Two traps to note. First, not every preference program exempts MPF, so check the CBP table for yours rather than assuming. Second, the exemption is MPF-only: the harbor maintenance fee, 0.125 percent on vessel-borne cargo with no floor and no cap under 19 CFR 24.24, still applies to ocean shipments. On a $2 million sea entry, HMF ($2,500) is nearly four times the capped MPF, the fee most importers forget to model.

The preference claim has to be earned: the goods must actually satisfy the rule of origin, with support on file. If you are qualifying products across a catalog, automating FTA qualification at scale covers how to do that defensibly. GingerControl is a trade compliance AI platform that helps importers, exporters, and customs brokers classify products, simulate tariff costs, and track policy changes, and its landed-cost math keeps fees like MPF and HMF separated from the duty stack so each line is right for the right reason.

How do high-volume importers reduce MPF?

Quotable insight: MPF is the only line on a 7501 with both a floor and a ceiling, which makes it a volume game rather than a rate game. Below $9,694 of entered value you overpay the 0.3464 percent rate by definition; above $188,078 the effective rate collapses, hitting 0.065 percent at $1 million. The lever is consolidation: ten capped entries a week cost $6,515, one weekly FTZ entry costs $651.50, a $304,900 annual difference on identical goods.

The cap rewards fewer, larger entries. Three legitimate routes, in increasing order of commitment:

1. Consolidate shipments into fewer formal entries. Two $100,000 entries pay $346.40 each ($692.80 total); one $200,000 entry pays the $651.50 cap. Small, but it compounds across a year.
2. Claim the FTA preferences you already qualify for. Originating USMCA goods pay zero MPF; unclaimed preference is a pure giveaway at 0.3464 percent of every uncapped dollar.
3. Weekly entry from a foreign-trade zone. All withdrawals in a 7-day period file as a single entry, one cap per week no matter how many shipments. At ten capped entries a week, that is about $304,900 a year, and it is usually the largest single FTZ benefit for high-frequency importers, bigger than the duty math itself. We walk the full zone economics, duty streams plus the MPF play, in our FTZ duty savings guide, and you can price the duty side with the FTZ savings estimator.

What does not work: splitting values artificially, misdeclaring entered value, or leaning on de minimis thresholds that no longer exist. MPF sits on the entry summary CBP audits, and the fee saved is never worth the 19 U.S.C. 1592 exposure.

Checking your own entries for the MPF math

Start with the free MPF calculator: entered value in, MPF and HMF out, with the FY2026 bounds and informal-entry fees built in from the Federal Register figures. It takes ten seconds per entry and shows which bound, if any, is binding.

For the bigger picture, fees are the small line next to the duty stack. GingerControl's Tariff Calculator covers the full U.S. tariff stack, base duty, Section 232, Section 301, Chapter 99, and Section 122, across 200+ countries, with fees modeled separately so your landed cost adds up the way CBP's invoice will. Calculate your duties

References

[REF 1] U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Customs User Fees To Be Adjusted for Inflation in Fiscal Year 2026, CBP Dec. 25-10 Data cited: FY2026 MPF minimum $33.58, maximum $651.50, rate 0.3464 percent, effective October 1, 2025 Source: 90 FR 34665 Published: July 23, 2025

[REF 2] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 19 CFR 24.23, Fees for processing merchandise Data cited: MPF mechanics, informal entry flat fees, FTA exemption provision in 24.23(c) Source: 19 CFR 24.23

[REF 3] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 19 CFR 24.24, Harbor maintenance fee Data cited: 0.125 percent HMF on vessel-borne cargo, no minimum or maximum Source: 19 CFR 24.24

[REF 4] U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Merchandise Processing Fee and Preferential Trade Programs Data cited: which preference programs exempt originating goods from MPF Source: CBP MPF and preferential trade programs

[REF 5] U.S. Government, Expanded weekly entry procedure for foreign trade zones Data cited: single entry for all merchandise withdrawn from a zone during a 7-day period Source: Federal Register, 19 U.S.C. 1484(i) implementation (PDF) Published: July 25, 2002