Customs Bond Calculator
This free calculator sizes a U.S. customs bond the way CBP does. A continuous import bond is the greater of $50,000 or 10% of the duties, taxes, and fees you paid in the previous 12 months, rounded up in $10,000 increments to $100,000 and $100,000 increments above that. Single-transaction bonds follow separate category rules. The math is ported directly from CBP's published February 2024 methodology and verified against it. We output CBP minimums only — we build compliance software, not bonds, so there is no premium quote at the end.
Primary sources: CBP, “A Guide for the Public: How CBP Sets Bond Amounts” (February 2024) — whose bond formulas this tool ports exactly — 19 CFR 113.13, and 19 CFR 149.5.
Continuous bond (Activity Code 1)
Single transaction bond (one entry)
These are CBP minimums under the February 2024 methodology — what the bond amount must be, not what a bond costs. Surety premiums and collateral are underwriting decisions we deliberately do not estimate: we build compliance software and have no bond to sell you.
Why customs bonds are surging in 2026
Bond sizing is mechanical: 10% of your trailing 12 months of duties. So when the 2025 tariff actions multiplied many importers' duty bills, bond requirements followed on a lag — and CBP's monthly sufficiency reviews turned the lag into notices. Fiscal year 2025 recorded 27,479 bond insufficiencies worth nearly $3.6 billion, the highest count and value ever, per CBP data reported by CNBC in February 2026. Sureties reported individual bond increases above 200%. And because the formula is trailing, the Supreme Court's February 2026 ruling striking the IEEPA reciprocal tariffs (our guide to what it changed) does not shrink bonds immediately — duties already paid stay in the sizing window until they age out. Size once, correctly, with a forward projection, and you avoid both repeat notices and stacking liability.
Read before relying on the number
- These are CBP minimums. CBP retains discretion to require more (19 CFR 113.13), and sufficiency add-ons apply for delinquent bills and unpaid debit vouchers.
- What a bond costs is a surety underwriting decision — premiums, collateral, financials. We don't estimate premiums because published multipliers for them don't exist; calculators showing premium ranges are guessing.
- PGA and quota/visa “special class” amounts come from CBP's Appendix A tables and vary by program; the 3x restricted-value rule here is the general case. AD/CVD single-transaction bonds have no formula at all.
- For the bond basics behind this math, start with our customs bonds guide and the full import-fee breakdown.
Customs bond FAQ
How is a continuous customs bond amount calculated?
CBP sizes a continuous Activity Code 1 import bond at the greater of $50,000 or 10% of the duties, taxes, and fees you paid during the previous 12 months, then rounds up: in $10,000 increments up to a $100,000 bond, and $100,000 increments above that. An importer who paid $780,000 in duties last year needs 10% = $78,000, rounded up to an $80,000 bond. The formula comes from CBP's 'A Guide for the Public: How CBP Sets Bond Amounts' (February 2024), which remains the governing methodology.
What duties count toward the bond sizing base — and what's excluded?
The base is duties, taxes, and fees on your formal entries over the trailing 12 months, but CBP excludes eleven entry types from the computation, including Section 321 de minimis (type 86), drawback (47), informal entries (11, 12), vessel repair (05), and warehouse withdrawals (31, 32, 34, 38). This matters: an importer whose raw duty total includes excluded-type entries will oversize their bond if they — or their calculator — skip the netting step. Our calculator takes the exclusion as an input.
How does CBP round bond amounts, exactly?
Always up, never to the nearest. A computed 10% figure at or below $100,000 rounds up to the next $10,000 multiple; anything above $100,000 rounds up to the next $100,000 multiple. So 10% of $1,050,000 in duties is $105,000, which becomes a $200,000 bond — the tier jump nearly doubles it. Beware stale references: an old CBP formulas page put the tier switch at $1 million and some third-party calculators still copy it; the February 2024 guide sets it at $100,000.
Why did CBP say my bond is insufficient?
Because your trailing-12-month duties grew until 10% of them exceeded your bond. CBP's Revenue Division re-runs this check on every active continuous bond monthly (CSMS #18-000664), so a tariff-driven duty surge triggers a notice mechanically — nothing about your compliance record has to change. Fiscal year 2025 saw 27,479 bond insufficiencies totaling nearly $3.6 billion, the highest ever recorded, per CBP data reported in February 2026. The notice states your deadline — commonly 30 days, sometimes 15 — and obtaining a replacement bond can itself take 10 or more days.
How often does CBP review bond sufficiency?
Monthly, for every active Activity Code 1 continuous bond — CBP's Revenue Division stated the cadence in CSMS #18-000664 and it remains in effect. The practical consequence: a bond increase you post today does not lock in for the year. If your duties keep climbing, next month's review can flag the new bond too, which is why CBP and sureties both advise sizing to your next-12-month projection rather than curing one notice at a time.
Do higher tariffs mean a bigger customs bond?
Yes, with a lag in both directions — call it the bond lag. Your bond is sized on trailing 12-month duties, so a new tariff pushes your required bond up months after it starts biting, and a repealed one keeps your bond elevated until its duties age out of the window. The 2025 IEEPA reciprocal tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2026, but duties paid under them stay in importers' trailing windows into early 2027. A 25% duty on $10 million of annual imports adds roughly $250,000 to the required bond.
What is bond stacking liability?
When you terminate a bond and post a larger one, the old bond stays open for every entry made during its term until those entries liquidate — typically around a year, and far longer under AD/CVD suspension. Each mid-year replacement therefore stacks another layer of open surety exposure, which is why sureties tighten collateral demands on importers who up-size repeatedly. CBP itself flags this in CSMS #18-000664 and recommends forecasting 12 months forward so one right-sized bond covers the year.
How is a single transaction bond calculated?
By category, not one formula. A general dutiable consumption entry needs entered value plus all duties, taxes, and fees. Unconditionally duty-free, non-restricted merchandise may need only 10% of entered value. Restricted, quota/visa, and certain PGA-regulated merchandise needs three times the value of the restricted merchandise — the restricted portion, not the whole entry, a distinction oversized quotes often miss. AD/CVD merchandise has no published multiplier at all: CBP sets those bonds case-by-case, 'reasonably tailored to the evidence of additional risk.'
Do I need a separate ISF bond?
Not if you hold a continuous Activity Code 1 import bond — under 19 CFR 149.5 it already covers Importer Security Filing obligations. Standalone ISF bonds exist for parties without one: a continuous ISF-only bond must be at least $50,000 and a single-shipment ISF bond at least $10,000. If you're paying for a separate ISF bond while holding a continuous import bond, you're double-covered for no reason.
Is a $50,000 continuous bond still enough in 2026?
Only if 10% of your trailing-12-month duties, taxes, and fees stays at or under $50,000 — that is, up to $500,000 in annual DTF. The 2025-26 tariff surge pushed thousands of importers past that line for the first time: a hypothetical importer whose duties jump from $210,000 to $1.9 million now needs a $200,000 bond. Surety companies reported individual bond increases upward of 200% in early 2026, with continuous bonds ranging from the $50,000 minimum to as high as $450 million.
Should I get a continuous bond or single transaction bonds?
A continuous bond covers unlimited entries at all ports for a year plus ISF, so the crossover is driven by entry count and filing overhead: most importers with more than a handful of formal entries a year, ocean shipments requiring ISF, or any CBP-flagged merchandise come out ahead on continuous. STBs make sense for genuinely occasional imports. Run both numbers above — the sizing math is the objective half of the decision; the premium quotes you'll get from a surety are the other half, and we deliberately don't fake those.
For general reference only. See compliance disclaimer.