Go deeper
The $19.95 shipment
What the published rate covers, how to read the categories and how to turn the model into a budget you can explain.
Read the overview →CargoWise pricing, explained
Per transaction.
Not per seat.
CargoWise prices Value Packs per eligible transaction under published Community Pricing. This page explains what that means, what the USD 19.95 shipment is, what is included, what is charged separately, and how to read the invoice. Every claim links to an official WiseTech page, reviewed 30 September 2026. Nothing here is a quotation.
01 / The model
Value Packs price the work you do.
CargoWise describes Value Packs as published Community Pricing for eligible logistics transactions, bundling user access, standard cloud hosting and many functions that were separate charges under the previous STL model. The useful budgeting question is not “how many users” but “which chargeable activities do we perform, and which categories do they fall into”. A count of jobs created is not, by itself, the number of transactions billed. Official overview ↗
02 / The rate card
Different activities, different units.
The Community Pricing page publishes USD rates with a charge unit per category. The USD 19.95 figure is one line on it: the Forwarding Value Pack rate for an FCL/FTL import shipment including domestic legs, in version 26.09. It is not the price of every shipment and not your monthly bill.
| Activity | Charge basis to check |
|---|---|
| Forwarding | Per shipment, with categories for direction and freight mode |
| Stand-alone customs | Per formal procedure, with different procedure categories |
| Contract warehousing | Per order line or work order, depending on the service |
| Land transport | Per container or consignment, depending on the movement |
The rate card lists the stand-alone customs module as included in the Forwarding Value Pack, so do not add a customs rate to every forwarding shipment. Use the pricing version in force for the invoice period; today’s page cannot prove a past rate. Community Pricing ↗
03 / Included or separate
Bundled is not the same as everything.
The features page lists exclusions and optional or premium services alongside the inclusions: premium backups, external network connections, non-production hosting and certain APIs priced on application, plus a production minimum fee for very low usage. Give each separate charge a name, a service description and a source before it goes in a budget. Features, inclusions and exclusions ↗
04 / The Automation Fee
Recovery is a configuration, not a given.
In the default configuration CargoWise describes, Forwarding and Customs Broker transaction fees pass through to your customer as a CargoWise Automation Fee. Warehouse and Land Transport fees do not pass through by default. The configuration can be changed. For an operating review keep three figures visible: the supplier charge, the amount billed to your customer, and the amount actually collected. Billing defaults ↗
05 / When it bills
The trigger is Billing, not job creation.
The official FAQ describes the shipment fee trigger as accessing Billing after the job is registered and saved. A cancelled shipment without a billing job is not invoiced, and the mode at billing time sets the rate. Separate companies activating Billing on the same job may each incur a fee. My Account provides job-level usage reporting with job references and identifiers, which is what you reconcile the invoice against. Official FAQ ↗
The questions people actually type
CargoWise pricing, asked six ways.
How much does CargoWise cost?
There is no single number. CargoWise publishes Community Pricing for Value Packs: a USD rate per eligible transaction, with the rate depending on the pack and the category of work. The published Forwarding Value Pack rate for an FCL/FTL import shipment including domestic legs was USD 19.95 in Community Pricing version 26.09, reviewed 30 September 2026. Your bill is the sum of the transactions you trigger across the categories you use, plus any separately priced services, less any customer recovery you configure.
Is CargoWise priced per user or per shipment?
Value Packs are priced per eligible transaction, not per seat. CargoWise describes them as bundling user access, standard cloud hosting and many functions that its previous Service Transaction Licensing (STL) model charged for separately through seat, hosting, module and feature fees.
What is the CargoWise Automation Fee?
It is the customer recovery line. In the default configuration CargoWise describes, the Forwarding and Customs Broker transaction fees are passed on to your customer as a CargoWise Automation Fee. Warehouse and Land Transport fees are not passed through by default. The recovery configuration can be changed, so check your own setup rather than assuming the default.
Does CargoWise have a minimum fee?
The official features page identifies a production minimum fee for very low transactional usage, alongside exclusions and optional services such as premium backups, external network connections, non-production hosting and certain APIs priced on application. Treat each of those as a separate line with its own source.
When is a shipment actually billed?
The official FAQ describes the shipment fee trigger as accessing Billing after the job is registered and saved. A cancelled shipment with no billing job is not invoiced, and the mode at the time of billing determines the rate. Separate companies activating Billing on a shared job may each incur a fee, described as O-CWAF and D-CWAF for origin and destination.
How do I check a CargoWise invoice?
Put the invoice beside the usage detail from My Account, which CargoWise says provides job-level usage reporting with job references and unique identifiers. Match each line to a category, a billing event and a quantity. Keep credits, currency conversion and tax in their own columns. The invoice review checklist below walks through it step by step.
Does CargoMode reduce the CargoWise bill?
No. The transaction fee is WiseTech’s and CargoMode does not change it. What CargoMode reduces is the keying around each shipment: documents to bookings, emails to quotes, and asking Claude about a job instead of hunting through screens. If you pass the Automation Fee on to customers, that is a separate decision from how much time each shipment costs your team.
CargoMode is an independent product. No affiliation with or endorsement by WiseTech Global is implied. Pricing facts above are taken from the linked official pages as reviewed on 30 September 2026 and may have changed since; check your own agreement and the current pages before relying on a number.
The cost WiseTech does not bill
Every shipment also costs keying time.
Documents retyped into bookings, quotes built by hand, screens hunted through for one answer. CargoMode takes that part. Watch the 43-second clip of Claude answering a CargoWise job question, then book twenty minutes with your own numbers.