Ranking · volume, with the period attached to every figure · read 07/26/2026
US container ports ranked by volume, with the period and the measure attached to every figure
- US container ports are led by Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey, and Long Beach, and that order is stable across every published ranking. What is not stable is the numbers: the same three ports appear with different volumes depending on which year, and sometimes which half-year, the source used.
- US port volume figures in this search disagree with each other. The answer above the results gives New York and New Jersey 9.4 million TEU while a table inside the same results gives 6,251,953. Neither states a period, which is what makes both unusable.
- US container ports are also ranked by tonnage, and that changes the winner. Houston is first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage at 220.1 million short tons in 2024 — a different measure, a different leader, and rarely labelled as such.
- Container port volume does not price anything. It says how much cargo moves, not what a box costs to land. The ranking that prices the box is a separate page and it reaches a different order.
US container port volumes, each with its period and its measure
US container ports publish volume in whatever period suits them, and that is the whole difficulty with a busiest list. Below is every figure this site has read, each with the period it covers and the thing it counts.
How this table is built · what we are paid
- Every figure is read from the port authority’s own publication, with the date we read it.
- There is no position column. A rank would assert that the rows can be compared, and they cannot: three of them are single months, two are half-years, one is measured in tons.
- Where a port publishes several figures for different periods, all of them are shown rather than the flattering one.
- The annual series that would make this a ranking is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Top 25 Container Ports file. We have not read it — gap C — and no number here is taken from anyone’s summary of it.
- No port has paid to appear here or to be positioned here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Port | Figure | Period | Measure | Source · read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port of Los Angeles | 10,239,318 TEU | calendar 2025 | twenty-foot equivalent units | Port of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Los Angeles | 5,122,603 TEU, +3% | first half of 2026 | twenty-foot equivalent units | Port of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Los Angeles | 1,002,734 TEU | June 2026 | TEU, of which 530,558 loaded imports, +13% year on year | Port of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Savannah | about 5.7 million TEU | calendar 2025 | twenty-foot equivalent units | Georgia Ports Authority · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Long Beach | 4,829,578 TEU, +1.7% | first half of 2026 | twenty-foot equivalent units | Port of Long Beach · read 07/26/2026 |
| Northwest Seaport Alliance | 262,546 TEU, −4.4% | June 2026 | TEU across two harbours counted as one port since 2015 | Northwest Seaport Alliance · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Oakland | 181,356 TEU, +7.7% | June 2026 | TEU, of which 78,114 loaded imports | Port of Oakland · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of Houston | 220.1 million short tons | 2024 | foreign waterborne tonnage — first in the United States on this measure | Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 |
| Port of New York and New Jersey | not checked yettwo figures circulate and neither names a period — gap D | not checked yet | not checked yet | not checked yet |
The one period more than one port shares is June 2026: Los Angeles, the Northwest Seaport Alliance and Oakland all publish it in the same measure. That is the only comparison in this table that is not an argument about periods.
Why two sources give one port two different numbers
US container port volumes disagree with each other because the same word covers four different counts. A port can publish a calendar year, a half-year, a single month, loaded imports only, or all cargo by weight — and every one of those is honestly labelled at the source and stripped of its label by the time it reaches a list.
Two ports on this page show the effect directly. Port of New York and New Jersey appears at 9.4 million TEU in one published answer and at 6,251,953 in a table on the same results page, and neither states a period. Port of Los Angeles appears at 9.9 million in the same answer while the port’s own statistics give 10,239,318 for calendar 2025. Our row uses the port’s figure and prints the period beside it.
What we are paid
- Nothing on this page has been paid for. No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear here, to be positioned here, or to be left out, and no outbound link on this site is a referral link.
- If that ever changes, the rate goes on the page carrying the link, at one rate, the same for everyone — and a position in a table still will not be for sale.
The annual series that would make this a ranking
Every port we cover, with what each one publishes about itself: every US container port we cover. How each figure on this site is sourced and what the statuses mean: how every figure here is sourced.
Ten pages, three dates, and two answers for the same port
US container port volume is a question the search results answer confidently and inconsistently. These are our own counts across the three queries this page was built from.
| What we measured | Value |
|---|---|
| Unique addresses across the three queries | ten |
| How many of them carry a date | three |
| The oldest dated page still ranking | 11/19/2021 |
| What holds position 2 on all three queries | a federal statistics page whose address still ends in 2020 |
| Questions blocks on these queries | none — nobody is offered a follow-up |
| Two figures for one port inside one results page | 9.4 million TEU and 6,251,953 for New York and New Jersey, neither with a period |
our own capture of the three busiest-port queries, Google US, 07/26/2026
A list that prints one number per port is not wrong so much as unfinished: the period is the half of the fact that decides whether two rows can be compared at all.
What a volume ranking does not decide
US container port volume decides less about your shipment than the tables imply. Here is what it does not decide, and which page does.
| The question | Does volume answer it? | What actually decides it |
|---|---|---|
| What the first paid day costs | no | your carrier’s tariff — the medians run from $260 to $360 and the order does not follow volume |
| How many free days you get | no | the carrier’s tariff again: how many free days each port allows |
| When the free-time clock starts | no | the tariff of the carrier or the port authority, and the three we have read disagree |
| Whether the invoice you received is valid | no | a federal rule: the federal rules your invoice has to meet |
| How long a box will sit on the terminal | not reliably | dwell, which is four different quantities wearing one word |
If you came here to choose a port
US container ports are chosen on cost, not on size, and this page deliberately stops short of that question. If you came here to decide where to route a container rather than to settle an argument about which port is biggest, the ranking that prices the box is the cost stack ranked port by port — built from nine carrier tariffs read in full, with the lines it cannot price named rather than estimated.
Medians: nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026.
Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey, Long Beach — and Houston, on the other measure
US container ports at the top of the volume tables are three by container count and a fourth by a different measure entirely.
1 · Port of Los Angeles
10,239,318 TEU in calendar 2025, counted to the individual container, and 1,002,734 in June 2026 — its best June on record. The one large US port whose published figures carry both a period and a measure without being asked.
Port of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 · what it costs to land a box at los angeles
2 · Port of New York and New Jersey
The largest East Coast port, and the one row on this page we could not fill. Two figures circulate — 9.4 million TEU and 6,251,953 — and neither states what period or measure it belongs to, so the cell says not checked yet rather than picking one.
gap D
3 · Port of Long Beach
4,829,578 TEU in the first half of 2026, up 1.7%. Read as a third place it would be a half-year mistaken for a year — the same figure appears in published answers with the period stripped off.
Port of Long Beach · read 07/26/2026 · what it costs to land a box at long beach
And Port of Houston, on the other measure
First in the United States on foreign waterborne tonnage at 220.1 million short tons in 2024 — a measure that counts liquid and bulk cargo alongside containers. True, first, and not a container figure.
Port Houston · read 07/26/2026
What it costs to land a box at the port that publishes most, and at the one that publishes least: what it costs to land a box at savannah.
Where the volume tables stop agreeing
US container port volume tables stop agreeing at four specific places, and each of them explains a contradiction you will find in the published lists.
- An alliance is not a port. The Northwest Seaport Alliance has counted Seattle and Tacoma as one since 2015. Split them and both disappear from the top of any list; keep them together and the row is not comparable with a single-harbour port.
- Loaded imports are not total volume. Oakland moved 181,356 TEU in June 2026 of which 78,114 were loaded imports. A page quoting one of those as the port’s volume is not wrong, it is answering a different question.
- Tonnage is not boxes. Houston’s first place counts weight of all foreign waterborne cargo. Nothing about it can be set against a TEU count.
- A half-year is not a year. Long Beach publishes 4,829,578 TEU for the first half of 2026. Doubling it to compare with a calendar year is an estimate, and this site does not print estimates in a column that looks like a measurement.
How often these numbers move
US container port volumes move monthly, and a figure that was a record when it was published can sit beside a decline from the same year. Port of Savannah posted its second-largest calendar year in 2025 and then saw monthly volume fall year on year in April 2026. Both facts are current and this site carries both with their dates rather than choosing the flattering one.
The port statistics on this page are re-read quarterly, and the annual series that would settle the ordering — gap C — is on the collection list. Any change to a figure here goes into the corrections log with its date.
Questions about port size and volume
Where does the twelve-major-ports phrase come from?
No official US list of twelve major ports exists; the phrase circulates without a source. What does exist is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Top 25 Container Ports series, and the annual file behind it is on our reading list.
What is the busiest US container port?
Los Angeles by container volume, at 10,239,318 TEU in calendar 2025 read from the port's own statistics. Published rankings give it 9.9 million without saying which period, which is how the same port ends up with two numbers.
What is the largest import port in the US?
The San Pedro Bay complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach, if the two are counted together. Counted separately, Los Angeles leads and Long Beach is third. Which convention a table uses is rarely stated and it changes the answer.
What are the five biggest ports in the United States?
By container volume: Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey, Long Beach, Savannah and Houston, with the caveat that our figures for each carry different periods. The table above shows the period beside every number rather than sorting them into a false order.
Is Houston the biggest US port?
By foreign waterborne tonnage, yes — 220.1 million short tons in 2024, first in the United States. By container volume, no. Two measures, two winners, and comparisons rarely say which one they are using.
What is the smallest port in America?
The question has no answer until a measure is named. By TEU, by tonnage, by berth length and by acreage the smallest US port is a different facility each time, and no published ranking states which one it is using.
Why do sources give different TEU numbers for the same port?
Four reasons, all checkable: a different period, a different measure, loaded imports against total throughput including empties and exports, and an alliance counted as one port or as two. The Northwest Seaport Alliance has combined Seattle and Tacoma since 2015.
Does the busiest port cost the most?
No, and the orders do not match. The median first paid day of demurrage is $355 at New York and New Jersey against $262 at Miami and Port Everglades. Volume says how much moves; it does not price your box.
US container ports are ranked here by size because that is what the question asks, and the answer is worth about as much as the period attached to it. Where the same ports are ranked by what they cost, and where each one is profiled with what it publishes about itself, are both linked above.