Size your customs bond before CBP does.

A customs bond is a surety obligation guaranteeing CBP that an importer will pay all duties, taxes, and fees and follow the import rules. CBP needs one before it releases goods on a formal entry: shipments over $2,500, or over $250 when the goods carry a Chapter 99 duty such as Section 301 or 232 (19 CFR 143.21). You can buy a single entry bond for one shipment or a continuous bond that covers every entry for a year.

For most commercial shipments, no. CBP releases goods on a formal entry only once a single entry or continuous bond is on file (19 CFR 142.4), and formal entry covers shipments over $2,500, or over $250 when the goods carry a Chapter 99 duty such as Section 301 or 232 (19 CFR 143.21). Low-value informal entries generally clear without one.

A continuous bond covers every entry you make for a year and starts at $50,000; a single entry bond covers one shipment, usually its value plus all duties, taxes and fees. If you import more than a few times a year, one continuous bond is usually simpler than buying a bond for every shipment. Both tabs of the calculator show CBP's minimum.

Take the duties, taxes and fees you paid in the last 12 months, subtract any paid on excluded entry types, and take 10%. Round up to the next $10,000 if the result is $100,000 or less, or to the next $100,000 above that. The bond is that figure or $50,000, whichever is greater. An importer who paid $780,000 needs $78,000, which rounds up to an $80,000 bond (CBP, How CBP Sets Bond Amounts, February 2024).

By the kind of goods. A dutiable, unrestricted entry needs the entered value plus all duties, taxes and fees. Duty-free, unrestricted goods need 10% of the entered value. Restricted, quota or certain PGA goods need three times the value of the restricted goods only, not the whole entry, and at least $100. AD/CVD goods have no formula: CBP sets the amount case by case.

Always up. A 10% figure of $100,000 or less rounds up to the next $10,000; above $100,000 it rounds up to the next $100,000. So $105,000 becomes a $200,000 bond. Some older pages put the switch at $1 million of duties; CBP's February 2024 guide puts it at $100,000 of bond.

CBP leaves out entry types 05, 11, 12, 26, 31, 32, 34, 38, 47, 51, 86, which include informal entries, warehouse withdrawals, drawback (47) and Section 321 de minimis (86). Subtract the duties paid on those before you size the bond, or you will size it too high.

Because 10% of your last 12 months of duties, taxes and fees grew past your bond amount. Tariff increases do this without any change in how you import. CBP counted 27,479 bond insufficiencies worth almost $3.6 billion in fiscal year 2025, the most on record (CBP data reported by CNBC, February 12, 2026).

If your duties are rising, it helps. CBP's minimum looks back 12 months, so a growing duty bill can make a new bond insufficient within months. The projection field sizes a bond on your estimate for the next 12 months, so one bond can last the year instead of being replaced partway through it.

Not if you hold a continuous import bond (Activity Code 1): under 19 CFR 149.5 it already covers Importer Security Filing. A standalone ISF bond is for parties without one, and is at least $50,000 continuous or $10,000 for a single shipment (CBP, How CBP Sets Bond Amounts).

CBP sets only the bond amount, which this calculator works out. What you pay for that bond, the premium and any collateral, is set by your surety from your finances and history, and there is no published formula for it, so ask a surety or your broker for a quote on the amount shown here.

Only while 10% of your last 12 months of duties, taxes and fees stays at $50,000 or less, which means up to $500,000 a year. Above that, the bond has to grow with your duties.