CBP can open your container, and you pay for it. Here is what each type of exam costs.

Key takeaways

• Under 19 USC 1467, CBP may examine any shipment entering the United States, and the importer bears the cost of that examination. This applies to commercial and personal shipments alike.
• There are three escalating exam types. Published costs: X-ray or NII from around $150 to $600; tailgate from around $100 to $350; intensive from around $500 to $2,500 and beyond.
• The exam fee is rarely the whole bill. Demurrage, detention, drayage, chassis and CES storage stack on top, and reporting puts port storage after free time at roughly $100 to $200 per day.
• A PGA hold is not a customs problem. FDA, USDA, CPSC and others can hold cargo after CBP has finished, and their timelines are their own.
• Selection is described as shifting from random to algorithmic, drawing on ISF data, HTS codes and importer history — which makes a consistently sloppy filing record a recurring cost rather than bad luck.

Most sellers first learn about customs exams when a forwarder emails to say the container is on hold, and the second email carries an invoice. The legal position is simple and worth knowing before that happens: CBP has the right to examine any shipment, and the importer pays.

01The five reasons cargo gets held

Holds are not all the same thing, and knowing which one you have determines what you can do about it.

Hold	What triggered it
Manifest hold	The carrier’s manifest data, or ISF data, is missing or does not match
Statistical validation hold	Declared value, weight or quantity differs from what CBP expects for that commodity
Commercial enforcement hold	A broad category covering potential issues under customs regulations or another agency’s rules
CET hold (A-TCET)	Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team — targeting contraband and security risk
PGA hold	A partner agency — FDA, USDA, CPSC, FCC and others — needs to review

The statistical validation hold is the one small importers trigger most often without understanding why. If your declared value sits well below what CBP typically sees for that HTS code, the system notices. That is not an accusation of fraud; it is a data mismatch, and the cure is documentation you should already have.

02The three exams, and what they cost

X-ray, also called NII or VACIS. The container is driven through a scanner at the terminal and the images are reviewed. The seal stays intact. Published fees range from about $150 to $600 per container depending on size and port. Typically two to three days.

Tailgate exam. An officer breaks the seal and inspects the cargo visible at the container doors, without unloading. Published costs are given from about $100 up, with one source putting them at up to about $350. Typically three to five days, longer with port traffic.

Intensive exam. The container is moved off-port to a Centralized Examination Station, a private facility, and unloaded for inspection. Published fees run from about $500 to over $1,000 on one account and from $1,000 to $2,500 and beyond on others, depending on labour, container size and port. Five to ten days, and reporting describes it extending to two weeks or more.

03The bill is not the exam fee

This is the part that catches people. An exam fee of $800 does not mean the hold cost $800.

Once a container is held, the clock on free time keeps running. Reporting on congested ports puts storage after free time — commonly around five days — at roughly $100 to $200 per day. On top of that sit drayage to and from the exam station, chassis charges, unload and reload labour, CES storage, and detention charged by the steamship line for holding their equipment.

One published account describes an importer receiving a total of about $6,800 for a single container after an examination that ran several weeks, and the broker’s answer was that the figure was a combination of demurrage, detention, bonded drayage with chassis charges, and the exam itself. That is not a typical outcome, and it is a realistic worst case for one container.

One estimate puts the total inflation from a hold at 10% to 50% of shipment cost. Treat that as an order of magnitude rather than a number to model — but treat it as real.

For LCL shipments, exam costs are typically apportioned across every importer with cargo in that container. You can pay for an exam triggered by somebody else’s goods.

Damage during an exam is not recoverable from CBP or the exam station. The cargo is unloaded and reloaded by people who did not pack it.

04Selection is no longer a lottery

The shift worth understanding is that selection is described as moving from random inspection toward algorithmic targeting, using ISF data, HTS codes and importer history to score shipments for risk.

The consequence is compounding. A first sloppy filing raises your score. A higher score means more exams. More exams mean more discrepancies found. It becomes a recurring operating cost rather than an occasional accident.

The same logic runs the other way. A clean history, accurate ISF filed on time, consistent classification and declared values that match the commodity all lower the probability that your container is the one selected.

05What reduces the odds

File ISF accurately and on time. ISF errors are a documented trigger for manifest holds, and the filing happens before the vessel sails. Late or wrong is the easiest way to get flagged for something you had full control over.

Make the classification consistent. The same product entering under different HTS codes across shipments is exactly the pattern a targeting system is built to notice. Our classification guide covers keeping a defensible record.

Declare value properly. A value below the expected band for the commodity triggers statistical validation. If your price genuinely is unusually low, have the supplier invoice and payment record ready to show why.

Match the paperwork to the cargo. Manifest, commercial invoice, packing list and entry should describe the same goods in the same quantities with the same weights. Mismatches are cheap to fix before departure and expensive afterwards.

Answer your broker immediately. Reporting is consistent that the single biggest controllable variable in hold duration is how fast requested documents arrive. Every day of delay is a day of demurrage.

Budget for it. Reporting suggests keeping cash available for exam fees plus demurrage as a normal cost of importing, not as an emergency. A seller who cannot pay a $2,000 exam bill within days will pay far more than $2,000.

Check whether C-TPAT membership is worth it at your volume. It is described as an advantage in avoiding demurrage and detention, and it is a certification programme with real overhead. Worth investigating once you are shipping containers regularly.

06If it happens

1. Establish which hold it is. Your broker can tell you. A PGA hold and a CET hold need different responses.
2. Send every requested document the same day.
3. Ask for the itemised invoice. The published guidance is to request a breakdown of all examination-related charges rather than accepting a single figure.
4. Check whether it promoted. If CBP has finished but the cargo is still held, a partner agency is probably reviewing it, and that is a separate timeline.
5. Write down what triggered it. The hold is information about your filing profile. Fixing the cause is the only thing that lowers next quarter’s probability.

Frequently asked

Do I have to pay for a customs exam I did not cause?

Yes. Under 19 USC 1467 CBP may examine any shipment and the importer bears the cost. On LCL shipments, costs are typically split proportionally between importers sharing the container.

How much does an intensive exam cost?

Published ranges run from about $500 to over $1,000 on one account and $1,000 to $2,500 and beyond on others, varying by labour, container size and port. Demurrage, drayage and storage are additional.

How long will my container be held?

Reported timelines: X-ray two to three days, tailgate three to five, intensive five to ten and sometimes two weeks or more. Air freight is faster at one to three days. Port congestion extends all of them.

What is a PGA hold?

A hold placed by a partner government agency such as FDA, USDA or CPSC rather than by CBP for customs reasons. It can follow a completed CBP exam and runs on that agency's timeline.

Can I avoid exams entirely?

No. You can lower the probability. Accurate ISF, consistent classification, declared values that match the commodity and clean paperwork all reduce your risk score under algorithmic targeting.

Who is liable if my goods are damaged during an exam?

Reporting states that neither CBP nor the examination station staff are responsible for damage done during an inspection.

Sources

1. US customs exams and hold types (intensive exam $1,000–$2,500 and beyond; five to seven days; document readiness and budgeting), Freight Right accessed 2026-08-08
2. List and descriptions of customs holds and exams (hold categories: manifest, commercial enforcement, statistical validation, CET, PGA; LCL apportionment), Flexport accessed 2026-08-08
3. Fun facts: customs exams (19 USC 1467; tailgate from $100; intensive $500 to over $1,000; C-TPAT and demurrage), American Eagle Customs Broker accessed 2026-08-08
4. Understanding US customs holds (timelines by exam type; port storage $100–$200 per day after free time; holds inflating costs 10–50%), FreightAmigo accessed 2026-08-08
5. Navigating US customs holds and exams: a 2026 guide (shift from random selection to algorithmic targeting on ISF data, HTS codes and importer history; CES process), FreightAmigo accessed 2026-08-08
6. Examining the issue: a behind-the-scenes look at a customs inspection ($6,800 single-container account; requesting an itemised examination invoice), Shapiro accessed 2026-08-08
7. Customs holds and exams: what you need to know (X-ray fees $150–$600 per container; hold definitions), Comex Logistics accessed 2026-08-08
8. Customs exams explained (CES as a private facility; tailgate up to about $350; drayage, detention and demurrage; no liability for damage during inspection), DeWitt accessed 2026-08-08
9. Customs holds and exams: types, codes and timelines (importer bears transfer, chassis, demurrage, documentation, unload-reload and staging costs; LCL splitting), Ship4wd accessed 2026-08-08