Comparison · one priced port and one the tariffs do not name · read 07/26–07/29/2026

Port of Oakland is named in none of the nine tariffs, and one published month is the only line where these two can be compared

⚑ The short answer

Port of Oakland is named outright by five carriers across thirteen rate lines, and until 01/08/2026 this page said it was named by none, while Los Angeles carries eight lines with a median of $270 for the first paid day and a range of $210 to $300. One side of this comparison has been read and the other has not, so most of what follows compares disclosure rather than cost.
Los Angeles and Oakland both published a June 2026 volume in TEU, which makes this the one line on which the two can be set beside each other. Los Angeles moved 1,002,734 TEU that month against Oakland's 181,356, a ratio of about 5.5 to one — but on loaded imports, 530,558 against 78,114, the ratio widens to about 6.8 to one.
US container ports are priced by group rather than by name, and this pair is the sharpest case of it on the site. Two of the nine carriers price a group named for the state Oakland sits in, at $275 and $270, and we did not extract Oakland under either. Whether that group line reaches your box is what decides this comparison, and it is answered in your own tariff rather than here.
West Coast clocks are the thinnest part of this comparison: no port authority free-time rule has been read for either port, and the only start hour we hold is one carrier's 3:00 AM covering Los Angeles and Long Beach. Twelve of the fifteen questions above these results ask which port or city is biggest, and the two refinements people add to this query — cost and time — are the two it cannot answer symmetrically.

One published month is the only line where these two compareOakland is named in none of the nine tariffsTwo carriers price a group called California — and the join is unconfirmed

Port of Oakland and Port of Los Angeles sit on one coast and are documented completely differently: one is priced by eight tariff lines and the other by none.

How this comparison is built · what we are paid

Both sides carry a cost figure now. Oakland sits at a median of $255 over eleven lines and Los Angeles at $255 over fourteen; until 08/01/2026 Oakland had none, because six of the nine tariffs were unread PDFs.
The one place these two can be compared is a published month: both released June 2026 in the same measure. One month is not a trend and three figures are not a ranking.
The change rates need care. Los Angeles publishes +13% on loaded imports and Oakland +11.1% on full imports — those two are comparable. Oakland’s +7.7% is computed on its total and belongs beside neither. Neither port’s definition of its import measure has been read.
Neither port has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.

The two ports side by side. The volume figures share a month, which is rare enough on this site to be the point of the page.
	Port of Oakland	Port of Los Angeles
Named in the nine tariffs	yes — five carriers name it outright	yes — eight lines
Median first paid day	$27511 lines, $123–$330nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026	$28514 lines, $165–$370nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
June 2026 volume	181,356 TEU, +7.7%Port of Oakland · read 07/26/2026	1,002,734 TEU — the best June on recordPort of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026
Of which imports, same month	78,114 full imports, +11.1% — 43% of the monthread 07/26/2026	530,558 loaded imports, +13% — 53% of the monthread 07/26/2026
The port’s own tariff	not checked yetnever located	found, not readTariff No. 4, at position 3 on the port’s only cost query

What an empty-looking cell means: not checked yet — we have not read the document yet found, not read — the document exists and is identified, but we have not opened it

The ratio, since both figures share a month. About 5.5 to one on total volume and about 6.8 to one on the import measure. That is arithmetic on two published figures for one month — not a trend, not a ranking, and not a statement about either port’s year.

The variable is not price, it is whether your carrier names your port

The deciding variable is which group your carrier puts an Oakland box in — and neither we nor, apparently, the market can tell you.

CMA CGM prices a group called California at $275. Hapag-Lloyd prices a Californian base at $270. Oakland is in California, and it was not extracted under either group in our reading. Both of those facts are published here; the join between them is not, because we have not confirmed from the documents which ports those groups reach.

The one cost-side statement that covers both ports. Not a single line-demurrage-only row appears at any West Coast port — every one of them in the whole reading sits at New York and New Jersey. So on this coast the day normally arrives on one invoice rather than two. It is a statement about the absence of a row, which is why we can make it for a port that has no rate at all. One exception is documented on the Los Angeles side: one carrier publishes no rate and passes the terminal’s charge through at cost at fifteen named terminals, one of which is here.

How every figure here is sourced, and what each status permits: how every figure here is sourced.

The cost stack at Los Angeles and Oakland, with one column empty

One column of this stack has a figure at the top and the other has none — and below the first line both are equally empty.

The cost stack at both ports.
Line of the stack	Oakland	Los Angeles
Carrier demurrage, first paid day	not publishedno rate line names this port	$270 median · $210–$300nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
Terminal storage	not checked yetgap A	found, not readinside Tariff No. 4 — gap A
Terminal handling	not checked yet	not checked yet
Drayage	not publishednothing circulates for this port	not publishedvendors quote $400–$900 with no sample — never averaged in
Local fees	not checked yetgap J	Clean Truck Fund $10 per TEU · $20 over 20 ftread 07/26/2026

What an empty-looking cell means: not published — the source publishes no figure here not checked yet — we have not read the document yet found, not read — the document exists and is identified, but we have not opened it

The two refinements people add to this query are the two things this page cannot answer symmetrically. They ask about cost and about time. On cost, one side has no line. On time, neither port publishes a dwell figure we could read — Los Angeles has five circulating estimates spanning 2.2 times and a live dashboard we have not opened, and Oakland has nothing at all. The honest answer to both is what this page prints instead of an estimate.

An invoice for these days answers to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024 and litigated twice since — read the current text rather than a summary, and test the document before paying it: the federal rules your invoice has to meet. Both ports inside the full ranking: the cost stack ranked port by port.

Neither port has a free-time rule we have read, and only one has an hour

Neither port publishes a free-time rule we could read, and the one start hour read on this coast belongs to a different pair of ports.

What is known about the clock at each.
	Oakland	Los Angeles
Who sets free time	the carrier’s tariff, through a group	the carrier’s tariff
The hour the count starts	not checked yet	first 3:00 AM after discharge — with one carrier, covering Los Angeles and Long BeachMaersk · read 07/26/2026
The port authority’s own rule	not checked yetnever located	found, not readTariff No. 4 — gap B

What an empty-looking cell means: not checked yet — we have not read the document yet found, not read — the document exists and is identified, but we have not opened it

What each carrier gives, ordered by how much each document discloses: how many free days each port allows.

When Los Angeles is the checkable choice, and why Oakland is not ranked below it

One scenario has numbers on both sides and the other two are refusals — which is the honest split for a pair where only one side is priced.

On the one month they share, both moved up on imports

June 2026: Los Angeles at 1,002,734 TEU with 530,558 loaded imports, up 13%; Oakland at 181,356 with 78,114 full imports, up 11.1%. Those two change rates are the comparable pair — and note that the ports use different words for the measure, with no definition read from either.

both port releases · read 07/26/2026

On cost, this page refuses to rank them

Los Angeles has a median from eight lines and Oakland has no line at all. Calling Oakland cheaper or dearer on that basis would turn an absence in the documents into a claim about a port.

nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026

And what would settle it is one reading

Two carriers publish a group named for California. Confirming from those documents which ports the group reaches would give Oakland its first rate line on this site and turn this page into a real comparison.

the same nine tariffs, re-read for group definitions

The coast as a whole, and the three ports that share June 2026, is linked at the top. Which dwell each of those Los Angeles figures means: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant.

What the Oakland and Los Angeles difference is not

Most of what this query returns is about size, and most of that is not even about the United States.

Not a size ranking. Twelve of the fifteen questions above these results ask which port or city is biggest, busiest, largest or number one. The two figures on this page share a month, which makes them comparable and still does not make them a ranking.
Not a world ranking. Five of the eight related searches are global superlatives — the biggest ports in the world, the second largest, Shanghai. This page is about two US ports.
Not Port Angeles. That is a port in Washington State, and this is the second comparison on this site where its name arrives through the results.
Not an advocacy question. The only comparative material in the capture besides a forum thread is promotional, and part of it is four years old.
Not a distance or transit question. Neither is answered here: no distance is published anywhere on this site, because none has been read from a source.

Every US container port we cover, with what has been read about each: every US container port we cover.

Questions about Oakland against Los Angeles for imports

Is Oakland the biggest port?

No. On the one month both ports published in the same unit, June 2026, Los Angeles moved 1,002,734 TEU against Oakland's 181,356 — about five and a half times as much. Size is not what decides an import cost, and the tariff figures that do are absent for Oakland entirely.

Oakland vs Los Angeles port cost?

Both sides have a rate. Los Angeles carries a median of $255 for the first paid day across fourteen tariff lines, range $165 to $370; Oakland carries $255 across eleven, range $123 to $330. The ten-dollar gap is smaller than the spread inside either port.

Oakland vs Los Angeles port time?

Not comparable. Five dwell figures exist for Los Angeles and they disagree with each other by a factor of 2.2 depending on which dwell is meant; for Oakland we hold none. No ocean or inland transit time has been read at any port on this site.

Which is cheaper, Oakland or Los Angeles?

Unanswerable from what we have read, and we do not rank Oakland lower for it. The absent figures describe our reading and the tariffs' grouping, not the port. What a reader can do today is check which group line in their own tariff covers an Oakland box.

Where does Oakland sit among the major California ports?

The question usually means Los Angeles and Long Beach, which sit in one bay under separate authorities and which six of the ten distinct tariff lines covering them price identically. Oakland is a third California container port and is named in none of the nine tariffs we read.

Are there two ports in Los Angeles?

Los Angeles and Long Beach are two ports with two authorities in San Pedro Bay. Most carriers do not distinguish them: their medians are $275 and $280, ten dollars apart, because most of the fourteen lines at each price both at once.

When does the clock start at Oakland and at Los Angeles?

At Los Angeles we have read one carrier's hour — Maersk counts from 3:00 AM, and that line covers Long Beach as well. At Oakland no carrier's start hour has been read. No port authority free-time rule has been read for either, which is true of every West Coast port on this site.

Is Port Angeles a deep water port?

Port Angeles is in Washington State and is not part of this comparison. It appears in these results because its name shares letters with Los Angeles, and it is a different place with different documents.

Does Los Angeles have a natural port?

No harbour or channel-depth figure is published here for either port, because none has been read for either. The variable this page can show moving money is whether a tariff names your port, and depth does not appear in any tariff line we extracted.