Comparison · one alliance since 2015 · read 07/26–07/29/2026
Seattle and Tacoma have been one alliance since 2015, and not one figure in our reading differs between them
- Seattle and Tacoma have been combined in one seaport alliance since 2015, and the volume they publish is the alliance's rather than either harbour's — 262,546 TEU in June 2026, down 4.4%. Not one figure in our reading distinguishes the two, and the documents ranking for this query say in so many words that the two do not compete against each other.
- Port of Tacoma and Port of Seattle are priced identically by most carriers that reach them. HMM charges $265, $317 and $421 by tier at both, and until 1 August 2026 it charged $263, $313 and $413. Nineteen lines reach the pair, and the median — $260 — ties Charleston for the cheapest single port in the country.
- US container ports on this pair produced the only tariff revision we observed inside our own reading window, and it landed on exactly these two lines: $2, $4 and $8 by tier, with every other line in the nine documents untouched. The date on the tariff in your hand moves more money here than the choice of harbour does, because the choice moves none.
- Seattle against Tacoma is asked here mostly as a question about living in them — the autosuggest asks which is safer and which is better to live in. Two of the six questions above these results ask how far apart the places are, which is the one variable that would separate the harbours, and it is the one we publish nowhere on this site.
Seattle and Tacoma have been counted as one port since 2015, and this comparison exists because people still ask the question. The answer our reading gives is unusually clean: not one figure we hold differs between them.
How this comparison is built · what we are paid
- Every figure we hold for these two harbours is identical on both sides, and the volume figure belongs to the alliance rather than to either of them.
- Nineteen lines reach these harbours and most carriers price them as one. The median is $260, which ties Charleston for the cheapest single port in the country, and no tariff separates Seattle from Tacoma.
- Nothing here distinguishes the harbours, and the page does not invent a distinction to justify its own existence.
- Neither harbour has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Seattle | Tacoma | |
|---|---|---|
| Counted separately in any figure we hold | no — the volume is published for the alliance | no — the same figure covers both |
| Named by a carrier tariff | yes — by one of the nineread 07/29/2026 | yes — by the same one, in the same lineread 07/29/2026 |
| First paid day in that line | $265 from 08/01/2026 · $263 beforeHMM amendments 1146 and 1157 · read 07/29/2026 | $265 from 08/01/2026 · $263 before — the same tiersHMM amendments 1146 and 1157 · read 07/29/2026 |
| Median first paid day | $260Seattle and Tacoma are one group in every tariff that names themnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 | $260the same group — no tariff prices Tacoma apart from Seattlenine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| The port authority’s own free-time rule | not checked yetnever located | not checked yetnever located |
See alsowhat it costs to land a box at seattle tacoma →the West Coast ports compared →
The variable is the date on your tariff, not the choice of harbour
There is no deciding variable in our reading, and saying so is more useful than manufacturing one. The variable that would decide this pair — how far each harbour is from where your cargo is going — is the one thing this site publishes nowhere, because no distance has been read from a source.
Two of the six questions above these results ask exactly that: how far apart the ports are. It is the right question and we do not answer it.
How every figure here is sourced and what each status permits: how every figure here is sourced.
The cost stack at Seattle and Tacoma, with both columns the same
The stack is identical on both sides, and thin: one read line at the top and everything below it unopened.
| Line of the stack | Seattle | Tacoma |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage, first paid day | $265 from 08/01/2026, one carrier’s lineread 07/29/2026 | $265 from 08/01/2026 — the same lineread 07/29/2026 |
| Terminal storage | not checked yetgap A | not checked yetgap A |
| Terminal handling | not checked yet | not checked yet |
| Drayage | not publishedgap F | not publishedgap F |
| Local fees | not checked yetgap J | not checked yetgap J |
An invoice for these days answers to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024 and litigated twice since. If your invoice covers days either side of 08/01/2026, check which edition of the tariff the carrier applied — this is the one pair on the site where we watched the number change: the federal rules your invoice has to meet. Both harbours inside the full ranking: the cost stack ranked port by port.
Neither harbour is singled out for free time by any of the nine carriers
Neither harbour is singled out for free time by any of the nine carriers — the only two ports that are, are on the other coast — and neither publishes an authority rule we could locate.
| Seattle | Tacoma | |
|---|---|---|
| Free time in the one line that names them | the same allowance as Tacomaread 07/29/2026 | the same allowance as Seattleread 07/29/2026 |
| A carrier carve-out | not applicable | not applicable |
| The authority’s own rule | not checked yetgap B | not checked yetgap B |
What every carrier gives, ordered by how much each document discloses: how many free days each port allows.
When the harbour matters and when it cannot, on the figures we hold
Neither harbour wins in our reading, and the two things that would decide between them are both outside it.
Nothing in the tariffs separates them
One carrier names these harbours in a line of their own, before and after the revision that moved them; the rest price them through a group. Nineteen lines reach the pair and not one of them separates Seattle from Tacoma. On the cost side there is no difference to find.
read 07/29–08/01/2026
And nothing in the volume figures separates them either
262,546 TEU in June 2026, down 4.4%, published for the alliance. No per-harbour split has been read. In the same month a neighbouring port moved the other way, which is a fact about one month rather than a trend about either place.
read 07/26/2026
What would decide it is distance, and we publish none
Which harbour is nearer to your delivery point, and which one your service actually calls at, are the two questions that matter — and the first needs a distance we have not read from any source. Asking your carrier which harbour the service calls at is the whole of the useful advice here.
no distance is published anywhere on this site
The coast as a whole is linked at the top of this page. How long boxes sit, and which dwell that means: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant.
What the Seattle and Tacoma difference is not
This query pulls in three subjects that are not about freight, and one of them is the cities themselves.
- Not a comparison of the cities. The autosuggest for this query asks whether Tacoma is safer than Seattle, whether it is better, and about living in one against the other. Third page on this site where the cities compete with the ports for the same words.
- Not a civic history. The results answer with institutional material — the founding of one of these ports in 1911 by a vote of the people, and its mission statement. We read no page end to end and publish none of it as fact.
- Not a decline story. The trade press framing in this capture runs that way, and against it we hold exactly one month of data.
- Not Port Angeles. It appears in the autosuggest here too — and unlike its appearances on the Los Angeles pages, this time it is a genuine regional neighbour. We hold no profile, no rate line and no volume for it.
- Not a rivalry at all, according to the documents that rank for the question.
Every US container port we cover, with what has been read about each: every US container port we cover.
Questions about Seattle against Tacoma for imports
Are Seattle and Tacoma the same Port?
Two separate ports combined in one seaport alliance since 2015. They publish their container volume as the alliance rather than as two harbours, and what exactly is combined — marketing, operations or governance — we have not read and do not assert.
Is the Port of Tacoma or Seattle bigger?
Not answerable from anything published here. The figure that exists is the alliance's — 262,546 TEU in June 2026, down 4.4% — and no per-harbour split has been read. A ranking between them would have to be invented.
Which is cheaper for imports, Seattle or Tacoma?
Neither. The one carrier whose lines we have read for these harbours charges the same at both: $265, $317 and $421 by tier since 1 August 2026. A median of $260 is published for the pair over nineteen lines, and for neither harbour alone — no tariff prices them apart.
How far apart are Seattle and Tacoma?
No distance is published anywhere on this site, and this is the question that would actually decide the choice. Two of the six questions above these results ask it, which is a fair measure of how much it matters and of what we are missing.
Which is better, Tacoma or Seattle?
The suggestions around this query are about living in the two cities — which is safer, which is better to live in — rather than about freight. On the freight side nothing in our reading separates the two harbours.
Did the Seattle or Tacoma line change recently?
Yes, and it is the only tariff change we caught inside our own reading window. HMM's tariff expired on 31 July 2026 and its successor raised these two lines from $263, $313 and $413 to $265, $317 and $421. Nothing else in the nine documents moved.
What does the Port of Tacoma do?
It is one of the two harbours in the alliance that markets and reports their container business together. What each harbour contributes to the combined figure has not been read, so we describe the pair rather than split it.
Tacoma vs Port Angeles?
Port Angeles is a third port in the same state and we hold nothing on it — no profile in any wave, no rate line in any of the nine tariffs and no volume figure. It appears on two other pages of this site for a different reason: its name collides with Los Angeles.
When does the clock start at Seattle and at Tacoma?
Unknown for both. No port authority free-time rule has been located for either harbour, which is true of every West Coast port here, and no carrier start hour has been read for either. The one line we hold gives tiers rather than the event the count begins from.