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Power Banks Pay 3.4% While Every Charger Line Enters Free: Inside HS 8507.60

Computed from ExportSonar's machine-readable copy of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (23,193 lines, USITC export generated 2026-10-09); every figure in this guide is reproducible from that dataset.

Ask “what is the HS code for a power bank?” and you will find procurement guides, single-code lookup pages and forum threads that disagree with each other. Here is what the schedule itself says, verified line by line in our extract: every power bank line under 8507.60 pays exactly 3.4%, while every battery-charger line under 8504.40 reads Free. Four lines against twenty-five, one uniform paid rate against a uniform zero — and the entire cost difference rides on which side of a functional boundary your product lands. This guide enumerates both sides of that boundary, prices a worked invoice, maps the FTA escape hatch, and explains why published ruling precedent here is thinner than you expect.

The four lines that cover every power bank

Source: our machine-readable HTS extract, all records under 8507.60 verbatim. Units of quantity: No.; kg.

Consumer power banks live almost entirely in 8507.60.00.90, “Other” — the .10 suffix belongs to vehicle traction packs and .30 to grid-style storage enclosures, but the rate outcome is identical regardless of suffix: 3.4%, no exceptions inside the family. Uniformity is good news for predictability. Whatever arguments an examiner entertains about which suffix fits, nobody argues about the percentage. Every line above is browsable in the full HTS tree, alongside its Chapter 85 neighbors.

The side-by-side lookup pages don't show: chargers are Free, batteries are not

Source: line counts and rate sets computed from our HTS extract (probe markers [PA1]/[PA3] in BUILD-NOTES).

Read that middle row again: twenty-five charger lines, every one Free. The tariff treats the box that refills your power bank as a zero-rated converter, but the power bank itself as a dutied accumulator. For a company shipping both in one container this produces a genuinely strange invoice: declare correctly, and the chargers contribute nothing while the batteries carry the full 3.4% on their own value. Declare lazily — everything as “electronics accessories” — and the entry sits exposed to reclassification, back duty and penalties months after the goods have been resold.

What the boundary actually turns on

Three factors decide whether a product belongs in 8507.60 or drifts toward the Free neighbors:

Function. An accumulator stores and discharges energy; a static converter transforms it. A power bank whose USB-C port is the only interface is squarely an accumulator. Bolt on mains plugs and active voltage conversion and you have built a converter with a battery inside — the case for 8504 strengthens as the conversion circuitry becomes the product's identity rather than its recharging convenience.

Presentation. The same board and cells can be invoiced as components, as a finished accumulator, or as part of a set. Sets are broken down by the component that gives the set its essential character, which is how a “travel kit” with one battery and three cables gets priced differently from the sum of its parts.

Precedent scarcity. CBP has published thousands of classification rulings, but our current 2,350-ruling slice contains only one touching the 8507 family at all — and none mentioning “power bank” by name. When precedent is this thin, your entry packet is the argument. Engineer the description, the spec sheet and the invoice to tell one coherent story before the wheels move, because there is little case law to hide behind afterwards.

Worked invoice: the price of getting it right or wrong

Source: rate from data/hts.json 8507.60; fee parameters from data/entry_fees.json (FY2027 adjustment effective 2026-10-01, Federal Register notice cited therein). Arithmetic probe-marked [PW1]/[PW2].

A $340.00 swing on a single pallet is real money, but the larger number hides in volume: an importer moving $500,000 a year through the wrong family overpays — or under-declares, which is worse — by five figures annually. Run your own values through the duty calculator to see the same arithmetic at your invoice sizes.

The FTA escape hatch and the Column 2 cliff

The special column on 8507.60 lists nineteen free-entry program letters: A, AU, B, BH, C, CL, CO, D, E, IL, JO, KR, MA, OM, P, PA, PE, S, SG. Origin documentation that qualifies under any of them takes the battery's landed cost to zero duty — often a decisive margin on a commodity-thin product category. At the other extreme sits Column 2: 40% on all four lines, more than eleven times the general rate, applying to the short list of non-normal-trade-relations origins. The same physical power bank thus ranges from 0% to 40% depending entirely on paperwork and origin — a reminder that rate shopping starts with rule shopping. Our explainer on how ten-digit suffixes work lives in the statistical suffix guide.

Watch the family while you ship into it

Accumulator lines sit near the top of every trade-measure watchlist because batteries are strategic goods: new Chapter 99 measures appear faster here than in almost any adjacent family, and a measure that never touched 8507 last quarter can be next quarter's headline. Subscribers monitoring 8507.60 get an email the moment any column moves; batch classification across a whole accessory catalog and CSV exports live on the paid tiers shown on the pricing page, and new accounts start at the signup page. Browse the underlying data directly via Chapter 85 or the nearest precedent page, the other-batteries ruling family — and when your product straddles two families, classify twice in the calculator before you commit once on paper.

Frequently asked questions

What is the HS code for a power bank imported into the United States?

Power banks are classified under subheadings within 8507.60, Lithium-ion batteries. Our schedule extract contains exactly 4 lines under this prefix — the parent 8507.60.00 plus three ten-digit suffixes (.10 vehicle primary-power, .30 energy storage systems, .90 Other) — and every one carries the same 3.4% general duty rate. There is no duty-free line for consumer power banks anywhere in the family.

Why do chargers enter free while power banks pay 3.4%?

They answer different questions in the tariff. Battery chargers fall under 8504.40 (static converters), where all 25 lines in our extract read Free in the general column. Power banks are themselves lithium-ion accumulators under 8507.60, where all 4 lines carry 3.4%. The distinction turns on function: a converter that transforms mains power for another device versus an accumulator that stores and delivers electrical energy.

How much duty does a $10,000 power bank shipment owe?

At the uniform 3.4% rate, a $10,000.00 invoice owes $340.00 in duty. Add the Merchandise Processing Fee of 0.3464% ($34.64 at this value, within the $34.58-$670.86 FY2027 band) and, for waterborne cargo, the 0.125% Harbor Maintenance Fee ($12.50), and the battery path totals $387.14. The same invoice declared as chargers owes zero duty — $47.14 in fees only, a $340.00 difference created purely by the classification choice.

Do any trade agreements eliminate the 3.4% on power banks?

Yes. The special-rate column on the 8507.60 parent line lists 19 free-entry program letters — A, AU, B, BH, C, CL, CO, D, E, IL, JO, KR, MA, OM, P, PA, PE, S, SG — covering most major US free-trade-agreement partners plus preference programs such as GSP. Goods qualifying under those programs enter at 0%. Without qualifying origin, the general 3.4% applies.

What is the Column 2 rate on lithium-ion batteries?

All four 8507.60 lines carry a Column 2 rate of 40%, reserved for countries without normal-trade-relations treatment. That makes the spread between most-favoured and Column 2 treatment more than eleven-to-one on the same goods — one reason origin planning matters as much as product design for battery exporters.

Are power stations or portable generators classified differently?

Battery energy storage systems fully encased within a housing have their own ten-digit line, 8507.60.00.30, at the same 3.4%. But once a product adds capability beyond accumulation — an inverter sold as a generator, a charging dock, a jump starter with engine-cranking electronics — neighboring families such as 8504 converters or 8543 electrical machines with individual functions come into play, and those show mixed rates including Free lines. Function, casing and marketing copy all feed the examiner's decision, which is why the boundary needs to be engineered deliberately, not discovered at the port.

Measurement trail (test-before-write) — quantitative claims computed 2026-10-15 from our HTS extract (data/hts.json, 23,193 rows, USITC REST export generated 2026-10-09T17:43:36Z) and fee parameters (data/entry_fees.json, retrieved 2026-10-12T17:52:03Z, FY2027 MPF band sourced to the Federal Register notice cited therein). Probe markers: [PA1] 8507.60 lines=4 rates_general=['3.4%'] col2=40%; [PA3] heading 8507 lines=23 paid=23 rates {2.5%,3.4%,3.5%}; 8504.40 lines=25 all 'Free'; 8543.70 lines=17 rates {2%,2.5%,2.6%,Free}; rulings slice n=2350 → 8507-family hits=1, 'power bank' text hits=0; [PW1] $10,000 → duty $340.00, MPF $34.64 (band $34.58–$670.86), HMF $12.50, total $387.14 vs fees-only $47.14. Reproduce: python3 .state/scripts/probe_1015.py (raw output archived alongside BUILD-NOTES). Primary sources: HTS lines via USITC REST export https://hts.usitc.gov/reststop/exportList (snapshot generated 2026-10-09T17:43:36Z); fee parameters via Federal Register FY2027 MPF adjustment notice https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/html/2026/07/31/2026-15530.html (sha256 recorded in data/entry_fees.json, retrieved 2026-10-12T17:52:03Z).