QUICK ANSWER General air freight from China to the US runs roughly $3.50 to $6.50 per chargeable kilogram in 2026, with the low end at the 1,000-kilo weight break and the high end on small shipments, plus a minimum charge of about $100 to $200 for anything tiny. Express courier runs $6 to $10 per kg. The tariff rate covers airport to airport; pickup, clearance, and delivery build on top.
Published air freight cost figures contradict each other because they quote different weight breaks and service tiers without saying so. The bands below sort that out by slab and lane, show what sits inside the rate and what builds on top, and end with a worked shipment. We review the figures on this page quarterly against market indices and carrier tariffs.
The 2026 per-kilo bands by weight break
Air rates price per chargeable kilogram in weight slabs, the mechanics our chargeable weight guide covers, and the same lane prices very differently across them.
China to US general cargo, 2026 planning brackets
| Weight break | Typical per-kg band | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum charge | $100 to $200 flat | Small shipments pay this, not the math |
| Under 100 kg | $5.50 to $6.50 | Courier competes here, sometimes wins |
| 100 to 300 kg | $4.50 to $6.00 | The common importer band |
| 300 to 1,000 kg | $4.00 to $5.50 | Consolidation territory |
| Over 1,000 kg | $3.50 to $5.00 | The published "cheap" quotes live here |
| Peak season (Q4) | Add $1 to $3 across bands | Capacity, not costs, sets the premium |
Treat the bands as planning brackets to verify against live quotes at booking; spot air moves weekly. When a published figure sits outside them, the first question is which weight break and which service tier it was quoting.
What the tariff covers, and the door-to-door build
Inside the rate vs on top of it
| In the airport-to-airport rate | Added to build door-to-door |
|---|---|
| Base freight per chargeable kg | Origin pickup and export handling |
| Fuel surcharge (FSC) | Export customs formalities |
| Security surcharge | US customs entry and duty |
| Standard terminal handling | Delivery from the arrival airport |
| Storage past free days, both ends | |
| Dangerous goods and battery documentation |
FSC: the fuel line that moves monthly
The fuel surcharge passes jet fuel costs through per chargeable kilogram, adjusted by the carrier on published schedules, often monthly. On long transpacific sectors it can run a meaningful share of the total rate, which is why an all-in per-kg quote is easier to compare than a base-plus-FSC pair from two different carriers on two different fuel schedules.
Security and screening: fixed but not optional
The security surcharge covers mandated cargo screening, priced per kilogram and stable through the year. Cargo that cannot be screened by standard methods, dense mixed pallets, some battery configurations, routes to slower screening paths, which costs time rather than money and belongs in the transit plan.
The battery and DG layer
Lithium batteries and anything classed as dangerous goods add declaration paperwork, certified packing, and handling premiums, and not every flight accepts every class. Battery-heavy consumer goods should be declared to the forwarder at quote stage; discovering them at the export screening point costs days, and misdeclaring them is the one mistake in air freight with genuinely serious consequences.
The clearance layer stays yours regardless of mode: customs clearance with duty is the same entry an ocean shipment would file, just filed sooner.
TAKEAWAY Compare door-to-door totals, never tariff rates. A $4.20 tariff with $700 of build costs more than a $4.80 all-in on most shipments, and the cheap-looking quote is usually the incomplete one.
Lane rates: Asia and Europe to the US
Per-kg planning brackets to the US, 2026
| Origin | General cargo band | Note |
|---|---|---|
| China (Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong) | $3.50 to $6.50 | Deepest capacity, most volatile demand |
| Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City) | $4.00 to $7.00 | Fewer freighters, growing volumes |
| India (Delhi, Mumbai) | $4.00 to $7.00 | Strong belly capacity on passenger routes |
| Europe (Frankfurt, Amsterdam) | $2.50 to $5.00 | Shorter sector, steadier market |
The China lanes carry the deepest capacity, dedicated freighters plus wide-body belly space, and the widest swings: the same Shanghai kilo can reprice by a dollar between a soft week and a charter squeeze. Vietnam moves growing volumes on thinner freighter coverage, so peak weeks bite harder out of Hanoi than out of Shanghai. India rides strong passenger-belly capacity through Delhi and Mumbai, steadier but with less room for oversized freight. And the Europe lanes behave like a different product: shorter sectors, mature schedules, and bands that move quarters apart rather than weeks apart.
Why the rate moves under you
Air cargo capacity is two markets stacked: belly space on passenger flights and dedicated freighters. When passenger schedules thin or freighters get chartered away, supply drops fast, and transpacific demand has run hot since the de minimis path closed and pushed former parcel volumes into air cargo. On top of that structural pressure sit the seasonal waves, the Q4 peak above all, fuel through the FSC, and security requirements that tighten by product and by year. None of this is your forwarder's mood; it is why quotes carry validity dates measured in days.
A worked example: 300 kg from Shanghai to Chicago
A 300 kg chargeable shipment, 1.5 CBM of electronics accessories, books at $4.80 per kg mid-band: $1,440 of air freight. The build: origin pickup and export handling around $150, US entry with bond share around $150 to $300, airport-to-door delivery in Chicago around $250. Call it roughly $2,000 door to door before duty, which lands on the goods value separately. The same cargo by ocean LCL lands around $800 to $1,000 door to door and five weeks later; whether those weeks are worth the roughly $1,000 to $1,200 difference is the air versus ocean question, and it has a different right answer in March than in October.
TAKEAWAY The slab ladder is the cheapest lever on the page. Moving a lane from four 90-kg shipments a month to two 180-kg consolidations changes the weight break, the handling count, and the per-unit freight cost, with no negotiation involved.
Pulling the per-kilo number down
The rate is a market; your inputs are not. Consolidating weekly orders into fewer, larger shipments moves you down the slab ladder, where the per-kg difference between 90 and 350 kg can exceed a dollar. Denser packaging cuts chargeable weight directly, worth real money at 167 kg per CBM. Deferred air products, three to five days instead of one to three, price meaningfully below express uplift. And booking against a forecast instead of a stockout buys you the calm-market rate; panic freight always flies at the top of the band.
How Platton prices air freight
Air quotes go wrong through omission, so ours are built to leave nothing for the invoice to reveal.
Door-to-door numbers, not tariff numbers
A Platton air freight quote itemizes the airport-to-airport rate and every build line, pickup, export handling, entry, delivery, so the comparison you make is the comparison you pay.
Consolidation out of the Asian gateways
Weekly air freight consolidations from Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and the Vietnam gateways put smaller shipments into better weight breaks than they could book alone.
The quote that shows its math
Chargeable weight, the slab applied, and the as-agreed check near breakpoints are stated on the quote, so you can audit the arithmetic before anything flies.
Get an itemized air quote for your lane
Common Questions About Air Freight Cost
How much is air freight per kilogram in 2026?
From China to the US, general cargo runs about $3.50 to $6.50 per chargeable kg depending on the weight break, with peak season adding $1 to $3. Europe to the US runs $2.50 to $5.00. Express courier services price higher, $6 to $10 per kg, in exchange for door-to-door simplicity on small shipments.
How much does it cost to ship 1 kg from China?
Below roughly 30 to 45 kg the flat minimum charge, $100 to $200, is the price, so the per-kg rate never applies. For single kilograms a courier account is almost always the right tool, at $6 to $10 per kg plus their own minimums. Air freight starts making sense in the tens of kilograms.
How do I calculate the total air freight cost from China?
Chargeable weight times the per-kg rate for your slab, plus the build: pickup, export handling, US entry, delivery, and any battery or DG premiums. Duty calculates separately on goods value. How the chargeable weight itself comes out is covered in our chargeable weight guide.
How much is air shipping from China to the US per shipment?
A realistic mid-size example: 300 kg chargeable at mid-band with full door-to-door build lands near $2,000 before duty. Small shipments compress toward the minimums; container-scale volumes stop flying and go ocean. The per-shipment answer always assembles from the same parts: rate, build, duty.
Why did my air freight rate jump this month?
Capacity moved. Belly space thinned, a freighter left the lane, e-commerce demand surged, or the Q4 peak arrived, and spot rates repriced in days. This is normal on transpacific air; it is why quotes carry short validity windows and why forecast-based booking beats stockout-driven booking on price every time.
Is express courier cheaper than air freight for small shipments?
Often, below roughly 50 to 100 kg: courier door-to-door pricing beats air freight minimums plus build costs, and the integrator handles clearance inside its fee. The crossover flips as weight grows and the courier's per-kg premium compounds. In the 50-to-150 kg range, quoting both takes minutes and regularly pays.
Related Air Freight Guides
Chargeable weight explained: the kilogram the rate actually multiplies.
Air vs ocean freight: whether those kilograms should fly at all.
Air freight transit times: what the money buys in days.
Section 321 and de minimis: the policy change still pushing air demand.
