Comparison · 68 tariff lines against 33 · read 07/26–08/01/2026
Gulf Coast ports carry 33 tariff lines against 70 on the East Coast, and the cheapest of the two coasts is on the Gulf by two dollars
- Gulf Coast ports carry 33 rate lines across four ports — Houston, Mobile, New Orleans and Tampa — against 70 across seven East Coast ports. New Orleans holds the cheapest median of either coast, $257 — and the cheapest in the country is Oakland at $255, on neither of them. Until 08/01/2026 this site said no tariff named a Gulf port, and that was true of the four tariffs then transcribed rather than of the coast.
- East Coast reading came out of carrier tariffs and the one Gulf figure we hold came out of a port authority: Houston levies $45 per unit per day from the eighth day after free time expires, and no East Coast port in our reading levies anything of the kind. The coasts differ in which party we managed to read rather than in which party publishes.
- US container ports on these two coasts are treated as one range by the documents ranking for this query, which write East and Gulf rather than East against Gulf. The industry's own unit is the conjunction, and five of the twelve questions above these results ask which ports belong to which coast rather than which coast is better.
- Gulf Coast and East Coast comparisons in this market are made on channel depth, with a 45-foot figure circulating in these results. Depth appears in none of the nine tariffs: it decides which vessel can call rather than what a box costs after it lands, and we have read no depth source, so the figure is reported here and not adopted.
The Gulf against the East Coast is the most lopsided comparison on this site, and the lopsidedness is documentary: seven port groups and 68 tariff lines on one side, four groups and 33 lines on the other.
How this comparison is built · what we are paid
- Neither column here is a coast rate. No tariff we read prices a coast: the largest geographic unit in those documents is a state or an unnamed remainder group. Every coast figure on this page is our own aggregation of port groups and is labelled as one.
- The Gulf column is empty for two different reasons, and the page keeps them apart: no tariff names any Gulf port, and separately, we have read almost nothing about the ports themselves.
- The one Gulf figure is levied by a port authority rather than by a carrier, so it is never placed beside the East Coast medians as though it were the same kind of number.
- No port has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Gulf Coast | East Coast | |
|---|---|---|
| Port groups with a median we extracted | none | four |
| Tariff lines read | 0 | 30nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| The span of the medians | not applicable | $100 — from $260 to $360nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| A port authority rule read end to end | not checked yet | one — Savannah’s, with the hour the count startsread 07/26/2026 |
| A carrier free-time carve-out | not applicablefour Gulf ports are named — Houston, Mobile, New Orleans and Tampa | two of the only two anywhere — New York and Savannahnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| A charge levied by a port authority itself | $45 per unit per day from day 8 at Houston — the only one read on this sitePort Houston · read 07/26/2026 | not checked yetthe New York authority tariff is located and unopened |
See alsothe Gulf Coast ports compared →
The variable is which document answers on each coast
The deciding variable is not the coast. It is whether any tariff names your port, and on one of these coasts the answer is never yes.
That is what the Gulf column measures: nine documents declining to distinguish a whole region. It is a property of how the tariffs group ports rather than a finding about the region, and it means the rate applying to a Gulf box was written without any Gulf port in mind.
How every figure here is sourced, and what each status permits: how every figure here is sourced.
The cost stack on each coast, and why the two columns are not the same kind of number
One line of the stack is filled on each side, and the two filled lines are not the same kind of charge — which is the whole difficulty of comparing these coasts.
| Line of the stack | Gulf Coast | East Coast |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage, first paid day | not publishedno tariff names a Gulf port | $260 to $360 across four groupsnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| A port authority charge | $45 per unit per day from day 8 at Houstona different biller from the column beside itread 07/26/2026 | found, not readinside the New York authority tariff — gap B |
| Terminal storage | not checked yetgap A | not checked yetgap A |
| Terminal handling | not checked yet | $290–$370 per TEU quoted at Savannahmarket consensus · seen 07/26/2026 |
| Drayage | not publishedgap F | not publishedgap F |
A carrier’s invoice for these days answers to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024 and before the D.C. Circuit twice since — and whether it reaches a port authority’s own fee is unchecked. Test the document before paying it: the federal rules your invoice has to meet. The five groups with their full detail: the cost stack ranked port by port.
One coast has the only authority rule we read and the other has the only authority charge
Free time does not follow the coast either, and the evidence is asymmetric in the same direction as everything else on this page.
| Gulf Coast | East Coast | |
|---|---|---|
| Free time in the carrier tariffs | four to five days depending on the carrier, and four Gulf ports are named outrightnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 | four days at most, with two ports carved out separatelynine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| A port authority rule read | not checked yetgap B | one — the count starts at the first 12:01 AM after discharge at Savannahread 07/26/2026 |
| A carrier carve-out for a named port | not applicable | both of the only two in the nine tariffsnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
Every carrier’s free time side by side: how many free days each port allows.
When the East Coast is the checkable coast, and what the Gulf risk actually is
The honest verdict on this pair is that the coasts are not the unit of comparison, and the ranked documents agree.
The East Coast is where the reading is, and it is not one market
Fifteen groups spanning $103 — from $257 at the cheapest to $360 at the dearest. That span is wider than the gap between any two coasts on this site, and most of it comes from one port’s split billing rather than from geography.
nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
The Gulf carries one figure, and a port levies it
$45 per unit per day from day eight at Houston. It is the only port authority charge tied directly to dwell read anywhere on this site, and it is the only number this entire coast carries in our reading.
Port Houston · read 07/26/2026
And the trade itself does not separate them
The documents that rank for this comparison write “East and Gulf” as one range rather than setting the two against each other. That is the third time on this site that the ranked content has supplied the finding — and here it agrees with what our own reading shows.
the capture · read 07/26/2026
How long boxes sit at any of these ports, and which dwell that means: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant.
What the Gulf Coast and East Coast difference is not
Five separations, and the first one is the most expensive mistake available on this page.
- Florida’s Atlantic ports are not Gulf ports here. Miami with Port Everglades is an East Coast group in our reading — and the cheapest East Coast group, at $262. Counting it as Gulf would move the cheapest figure we measured onto a coast that has none.
- Not a depth comparison. Channel depth and a 45-foot figure circulate in this capture, and depth appears in none of the nine tariffs. It decides which vessel can call, not what a box costs, and we have read no depth source.
- Not a tonnage ranking. The only published list these ports share is by total tonnage, which counts oil and chemicals alongside containers.
- Not a two-coast question, strictly. This page’s own vocabulary leaks West Coast terms, and the New York comparison’s questions asked about the largest Gulf port on an Atlantic query. Every two-coast comparison on this site pulls in the third.
- Not a map. Five of the twelve questions above these results ask which ports belong to which coast, and the related set asks for a map and a list. The coast column in our catalogue answers the first; we publish no map, because we hold no coordinates from a source.
Every US container port we cover, with its coast and what has been read about each: every US container port we cover.
Questions about Gulf Coast against East Coast ports
Gulf Coast vs East Coast ports for imports?
Both coasts can be priced now. Seven East Coast port groups run from $260 to $360 across 68 tariff lines; four Gulf ports run from $257 to $270 across 33. The one Gulf figure we hold is a port's own charge rather than a carrier's rate.
Which Gulf Coast ports appear in this comparison?
The results name Houston, New Orleans, Corpus Christi and Texas City, and our catalogue carries a coast column so every port covered here can be read off by coast. Of those, only Houston has a profile, and none of them appears by name in any carrier tariff we read.
What major ports are on the east coast?
Our catalogue lists them with a coast column, and since 08/01/2026 every East Coast port in it carries a rate line: Charleston $260, Miami and Port Everglades $262, Savannah $265, Baltimore $265, Jacksonville $265, Norfolk $270 — which the catalogue profiles as Virginia — and New York and New Jersey $360.
Which is the deepest port on the East Coast?
No depth figure is published on this site for any port, because we have read no depth source. A 45-foot figure circulates in these results and is reported here without being adopted. Depth decides which vessel can call rather than what a box costs after it lands.
What is the largest port on the Gulf Coast?
Houston is first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage at 220.1 million short tons in 2024. That measure counts liquid and bulk alongside containers, so it does not answer a container question, and no comparable container series exists across these ports.
Is the Gulf cheaper than the East Coast?
Unanswerable, and we do not rank the Gulf below for it. No Gulf port is named in any rate line, so there is nothing to compare with the East Coast medians. What the Gulf does have is a port charge the East Coast ports in our reading do not levy.
Why do these results say East and Gulf together?
Because that is the trade's own phrase. The documents ranking for this query treat the two as one range and write them with a conjunction rather than against each other, which is worth knowing before treating them as alternatives.
Where can I get a map or a list of US ports of entry?
Not here. A map needs coordinates and location codes we have not collected, and the port-of-entry lists come from CBP and are unread. Both are asked for directly in these results and both are named as open gaps on our verification page.
Which is the smallest port on the Gulf or the East Coast?
Unanswerable on the same grounds as the largest. No comparable series exists across US ports, the volume figures we hold carry different measures and periods, and this site publishes no position column until a series exists.