You're about to order and want to know whether the checkout price is the final price. Or a courier has just asked for money before it will hand over a parcel you already paid for. Whether AliExpress customs charges land on you depends on where you live, what the order is worth, and whether AliExpress collected the tax at checkout. The short version: in the UK, the EU and Australia, low-value orders usually have the tax taken at checkout. In the US they usually don't, and since August 2025 there is no duty-free allowance left to fall under.
What "import charges included" actually means
AliExpress's own help pages are blunt about the default: duties and taxes are typically not part of the item price, and because you're buying from sellers overseas, you may be asked to pay customs duty. So a checkout line for VAT, GST or import charges is the exception, not the rule.
When that line does appear, it means AliExpress is collecting a tax on your behalf under a scheme your government runs, and only up to that scheme's value limit. It does not mean nothing else can ever be due. Two things usually sit outside it: duty on orders above the limit, and the carrier's own fee for handling customs paperwork.
It helps to keep the two charges apart. Import VAT or GST is a sales tax on the goods, such as the UK's 20% VAT. Duty is a tariff that depends on what the product is and where it came from. Checkout collection mostly covers the first. The second is where surprise bills come from.
The practical rule: if you can't see a tax line on the checkout page, assume none has been paid.
AliExpress customs charges by country
The rules below are as of September 2026. Several of them changed in the last few months, so older articles you find may be wrong.
| Where you live | Collected at checkout | What can still be billed on delivery |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Usually nothing | Duty, plus a carrier fee |
| United Kingdom | 20% VAT on orders of £135 or less | Above £135: VAT, any duty, a handling fee |
| European Union | VAT on orders under €150 | Above €150: VAT, duty and fees |
| Canada | Check for a tax line; don't assume one | Tax and duty above CAD $20, plus a fee |
| Australia | GST, shown as a separate line | Usually nothing for an ordinary order |
United States: the $800 allowance is gone
If you remember that orders under $800 came in duty-free, that stopped being true in 2025. The exemption was suspended for goods from China and Hong Kong on 2 May 2025, then for every country on 29 August 2025, under Executive Order 14324, and a further order kept it in place in 2026. Low-value parcels now face duty whatever their value or shipping method; the narrow exceptions are genuine gifts and personal effects (CBP announcement).
Postal parcels, the cheap China Post and ePacket-style routes many AliExpress orders travel by, had their own timeline. The exemption for mail was suspended indefinitely from 24 June 2026, and a new postal "informal entry" process started on 24 July 2026 (Federal Register notice). There's no cheap shipping option that avoids it.
AliExpress typically does not collect US duty at checkout. The carrier assesses it at the border and bills you before or at delivery. How much depends on how the product is classified and which channel shipped it, and CBP publishes no single figure for "AliExpress orders". Trade and logistics estimates for China-made goods run from around 20% to over 50% of the goods value. Use that as a budgeting range, not a quote, and check CBP if you're reading this long after September 2026, because these rules have changed several times since May 2025.
United Kingdom: £135 is the line
For consignments worth £135 or less, the marketplace must charge UK VAT at the point of sale, and AliExpress is one of the marketplaces that does. You pay the 20% at checkout and nothing more for VAT on delivery. The £135 is the value of the goods; shipping and insurance don't count towards it if they're itemised separately (gov.uk guidance).
Above £135 the normal import rules apply at the border. Royal Mail, Parcelforce or the courier will contact you for payment before delivery, and the bill has three parts: 20% VAT on the declared value, any duty the UK Global Tariff sets for that kind of product, and the carrier's handling fee. That fee is set by each carrier and changes, so ignore any single figure you see quoted as fixed.
European Union: €150, plus a new €3 duty
For goods worth under €150 shipped from outside the EU, AliExpress collects the VAT at checkout. If the order is later refunded in full or in part, that VAT is refunded automatically.
One change most articles haven't caught up with: from 1 July 2026, the EU charges a temporary flat customs duty of €3 per item on these low-value parcels. "Per item" means per type of item, not per piece. Five identical phone cases in one parcel cost €3; a shirt and a watch cost €6. The duty is collected from the seller or whoever makes the customs declaration, not usually billed to you, and it runs until 1 July 2028, when normal duty by product category takes over (European Commission guidance).
Above €150, import VAT and duty are charged at the border instead, and the carrier bills you, much as in the UK. If you buy with an EU business VAT number, the checkout VAT scheme doesn't apply to you and AliExpress won't help with clearance; you're handling customs yourself.
Canada: a threshold of CAD $20
Canada's duty- and tax-free limit for mailed shipments is CAD $20, from any country (CBSA). You may see higher numbers quoted, CAD $40 and CAD $150. Those apply only to courier shipments that start in the US or Mexico, so they don't cover a parcel from an AliExpress seller shipping from outside North America.
Above CAD $20, expect tax, possibly duty, and a fee on top. Couriers usually add a brokerage fee for preparing the customs entry and a disbursement fee of around 2.5% of the duty they paid for you. Canada Post charges a flat handling fee instead, commonly under CAD $10.
Australia: GST at checkout
GST applies to low-value imported goods, and AliExpress is one of the overseas platforms that collects it at checkout, shown as its own line. For an ordinary order, nothing more is collected on delivery.
Why the delivery bill is bigger than the tax
When a parcel is liable for charges, the carrier usually pays the government first and then bills you. That bill bundles up to four things: the duty, the VAT, GST or sales tax, a brokerage fee for doing the customs paperwork (UPS calls it an "entry preparation fee", FedEx a "clearance entry fee"), and sometimes a disbursement or advancement fee for fronting the money. The last one is often a minimum charge or a small percentage of the duty, whichever is greater.
The fees are separate from the tax and vary by carrier, country and year. That's why a bill can come to much more than 20% of what you paid, and why two parcels of the same value can cost you different amounts depending on who delivered them.
A carrier wants money before delivery: pay, dispute or refuse?
AliExpress's position is that clearing customs is the buyer's job. If import tax or a document is required, you pay the tax or supply the document. For most orders you still want, paying is the right call, even if it hurts.
If customs wants a document only the seller has, such as an invoice, ask the seller first. If they won't provide it, you can open a dispute with the official notice from your local customs office, so AliExpress can step in.
If you're thinking of refusing the parcel, you can, but know what it costs you. Buyer Protection generally does not refund goods that failed to clear customs because the charges weren't paid. The parcel goes back to the seller, which is slow, and any refund that follows is slow too. Refusing is a way to walk away from the item, not a quick way to get your money back.
If customs destroys the parcel, it's different: a dispute backed by proof from customs usually gets a refund.
Treat those last two as how Buyer Protection has generally worked, not fixed terms. Check the current conditions on your order page before you decide, and see the Buyer Protection guide for how to run a dispute. If you're trying to work out what a tracking status like "import customs clearance started" means, the tracking guide covers each one, and shipping times covers why customs can slow a parcel down.
Is a low declared value on the customs form a problem?
Some AliExpress sellers write a low value on the customs form, or mark the parcel as a gift, on the theory that you'll blame them rather than customs for a large bill. Buyers describe it on forums. On its own it isn't proof the seller is a scam.
It is a risk you carry, though. If customs suspects the value is too low, it can hold the parcel until the value it considers correct has been paid, and some buyers report delays and paying more than an honest declaration would have cost. The false declaration is the seller's legal problem. The waiting and the arguing with customs are yours.
Our view: don't ask a seller to under-declare, and don't treat an offer to do it as a favour. In the US in particular, "gift" is one of the few remaining exceptions, and a purchase isn't a gift.
Checking the seller before you pay
No tool can tell you in advance what customs will charge, and AliScore doesn't try; it has no customs feature. What you can check before paying is the seller, and that matters here more than it looks. If customs holds your parcel for a missing document, you depend on the seller to produce it. If the parcel goes back, you depend on them for the refund.
AliScore is a free browser extension for AliExpress that adds a 0–10 score and a verdict, from "Safe to buy" to "Risky", to product pages. Part of that is a seller trust score built from the store's feedback percentage, read on a strict scale, and its follower count. It's a heuristic over public data, not a promise, and it can't see what a seller writes on a customs form. The how it works page shows exactly what it reads.
Add AliScore to Chrome: free, no account needed.
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