Finance and accounting decision
Tariffsapi
A technically capable developer can build a limited tariff-resolution API for lookups and historical pricing, but reproducing the vendor's audited, traceable data pipeline, daily updates, and regression/audit tooling is substantial—so keep paying for production needs unless you accept narrower scope and increased maintenance.
Visit website↗$199/mo
$2,388/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off46 h to build
$120/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.
No open-source build does this yet
Nothing published replaces this one, so a replacement starts from an empty file. Here is what it would have to cover.
What a replacement has to do
- Accept HTS+origin → resolve base duty and layered measures (301/232/IEEPA/Chapter99) → return JSON summary and confidence; support bulk and as_of historical queries.
What it still won’t have
- The vendor's traceable, audited change trail linking each rate to its raw source
- Daily capture of trade-notice breaking changes and a separate AI audit pass
- Prebuilt regression test suite and canarying for customer import lanes (MCP server access)
- Enterprise features: white-labeling, reseller terms, onboarding and SLA support
- Included 10,000 monthly API calls and team seats
What remains hard
- Proprietary data
Every rate we publish is pulled from official US trade publications, kept beside its raw source, audited by a separate AI pass, and re-tested before it ships.
- Proprietary data
Raw kept beside structured.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal Tariffs API clone using: Python (FastAPI), PostgreSQL, Redis (caching), and a cron job runner (e.g. GitHub Actions) for ingestion. Core features in scope: ingest USITC HTS JSON and official USTR/CBP notices into a versioned Postgres schema; implement /api/v1/tariffs/resolve (single) and /api/v1/tariffs/resolve_batch (up to 200) with Bearer API key auth, rate limiting, deduplication for bulk, as_of historical lookups, resolve_chapter_99 option, confidence/match metadata, and JSON responses matching the documented shape. Out of scope: building a full AI audit pass, enterprise SLA/white-labeling, and commercial dashboard. Require background jobs for daily source sync, basic regression tests, robust error handling, and unit+integration tests for resolution logic.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- 3 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score59
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 3
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productTariffs API — official product
- official pricingTariffs API — pricing
- official docsTariffs API — API documentation
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
