3PL cost calculator: your all in fulfillment cost per order
Enter the fee schedule your 3PL bills you today and get the two numbers a fulfillment invoice hides: all in cost per order, and how it splits between lines you can renegotiate, carrier postage that passes through, and lines that are structural to the provider you chose. No signup, no email gate, nothing saved.
How to use: Fill in your monthly volume, then overwrite every fee with the rate card you are billed on. The starting values are placeholders, not a benchmark. The result updates as you type, add a bid column to compare a proposal line by line, and the address bar carries your numbers so the model can be shared. Reviewed September 2026.
Your volume
Your 3PL fee schedule
The starting values are round placeholders, not a benchmark. Overwrite every one with the rate card you're billed on today.
Current provider: all in fulfillment cost (placeholders)
$15.36 per order
Per unit
$9.60
Without postage
$6.36
Per month
$30,720
Per year
$368,640
24% of a $65 average order goes to fulfillment
- ReceivingNegotiable$0.25 per order2% of the month$500 per month
- StorageNegotiable$0.40 per order3% of the month$800 per month
- Pick feesNegotiable$2.80 per order18% of the month$5,600 per month
- PackagingNegotiable$0.75 per order5% of the month$1,500 per month
- Parcel postagePass through$9.00 per order59% of the month$18,000 per month
- Returns handlingNegotiable$0.16 per order1% of the month$320 per month
- Account and software feesStructural to the model$0.20 per order1% of the month$400 per month
- Inbound freight billed by the 3PLStructural to the model$1.80 per order12% of the month$3,600 per month
Structural lines are the ones a different provider model removes rather than renegotiates: a platform or minimum fee, and inbound freight brokered by the 3PL and rebilled. At Warp the platform fee is $0 and the inbound freight is the network's own trucks at one per pallet rate. Your program isn't priced here; it's built from your order history on the call below.
Book a strategy call
- TodayA 30 minute call. You tell us what you store and where your orders land.
- This weekYour $15.36 per order schedule priced against the four Warp fulfillment centers, with the freight in and out on one per pallet number.
- First inboundYour pallets arrive on Warp trucks, scanned and photographed at receipt.
Fulfillment
30 min. You tell us what you store and where your orders go. We ask questions, you ask us back.
Fulfillment inside a freight network only pays off for some inventory profiles. We’d rather find out which of yours qualifies.
Who you'll meet
We’ll email your Google Meet link.
What the split means
Three kinds of line sit on a 3PL invoice, and they respond to different levers.
Negotiable lines (receiving, storage, picks, packaging, returns) move when you change provider or renegotiate. Pass through (parcel postage) moves with your volume and your carrier contract, not with the 3PL. Structural lines (platform and account fees, and inbound freight brokered by the 3PL and rebilled) exist because of how that provider is built, and a different model removes them rather than discounting them.
That last group is where fulfillment inside a freight network differs. At Warp the platform fee is $0, storage bills by the pallet by the day with no minimum stay, and inbound and outbound pallets ride the Warp network itself, audited 24% lower per pallet across 86 enterprise LTL migrations. How that works is on the LTL freight included page.
How this is calculated
Every figure on the result card comes from these equations, in this order. They are the same lines the model in the code runs, so the page and the arithmetic can't drift.
- Storage rate per palletrate per pallet, or rate per bin x bins per pallet, or rate per cubic foot x cubic feet per pallet; x (1 + peak surcharge) in a peak month
- Receivinginbound pallets per month x receiving per pallet
- Storagethe larger of pallets stored x storage rate per pallet, or the monthly storage minimum
- Pick feesorders x first pick + orders x (units per order minus 1, never below 0) x additional unit pick
- Packagingorders x packaging per order
- Parcel postageorders x average postage per order (pass through)
- Returns handlingorders x return rate x returns fee per return
- Account and software feesaccount fee + software fee (structural)
- Inbound freight billed by the 3PLinbound pallets per month x inbound freight per pallet (structural)
- Monthly totalsum of the eight lines
- Per order, per unit, per year, share of order valuetotal / orders; per order / units per order; total x 12; per order / average order value
What to do with your number
Put it in the RFP. The 3PL RFP template asks every bidder for the same fee schedule this calculator models, so you can run each bid through it and compare all in cost per order instead of storage rates. Then bring the schedule to a strategy call; Warp prices your program from your order history, not from a rate card.
3PL cost calculator FAQ
How do I calculate my all in 3PL cost per order?
Add up everything the provider bills in a month, then divide by orders shipped. The lines are receiving per pallet, storage per pallet per month, a first pick per order plus an additional unit pick, packaging, parcel postage passed through, returns handling, account and software fees, and the inbound freight the 3PL arranges and rebills. This calculator does that arithmetic from your fee schedule and shows the split, so you can see which lines are negotiable, which are carrier pass through, and which are structural to the provider you chose.
What does a 3PL typically charge?
The shape is consistent even when the numbers are not: receiving billed per pallet or per unit, storage billed per pallet, bin or cubic foot per month with a minimum, a pick and pack fee per order with an additional unit charge, packaging materials, carrier postage at a negotiated rate, an account or software fee, and a returns fee. The starting values in this calculator are round placeholders, not a benchmark; the number that matters is yours, so overwrite every field with the rate card you are billed on today.
Which 3PL fees are negotiable and which are structural?
Receiving, storage, pick, packaging and returns fees are negotiable: another provider or a renegotiation moves them. Parcel postage is pass through: it moves with your order volume and carrier contract, not with the 3PL. Platform, account and software fees, and inbound freight brokered by the 3PL and rebilled, are structural: they exist because of how that provider is built. At Warp the platform fee is $0 and the inbound freight is the network's own trucks at one per pallet rate, which is why those two lines are labeled the way they are in the result.
Why is inbound freight on a fulfillment cost calculator?
Because it is on the invoice. Most 3PLs arrange the linehaul into their building, mark it up, and bill it back, and most calculators leave it out. Inbound freight is priced per pallet on the same quote as storage at Warp, and the network it rides is audited 24% lower per pallet across 86 enterprise LTL migrations, so leaving it off the model hides the largest structural difference between providers.
Does this calculator show what Warp would charge?
No, on purpose. It prices your current program from your own fee schedule. Warp fulfillment is priced from your order history on a strategy call, because the right placement across four fulfillment centers depends on where your orders land. What the result does show is which of your lines a freight owned model removes rather than renegotiates.
Is the 3PL cost calculator free?
Yes. No signup, no email gate, nothing saved. Change any field and the result updates. If you want the numbers in a document, the 3PL RFP template on this site is built to carry them into a bid.
What is a warehouse storage cost calculator measuring?
Storage cost per pallet per month times the pallets in storage, which is one of eight lines here. On its own it is the number 3PL bids compete on, and it is usually a small share of the all in cost per order once picks, packaging, postage, fees and inbound freight are added. That is why this calculator shows the split instead of the storage rate alone.
Price the program, not the storage rate
Bring your fee schedule and where your orders land. On a strategy call Warp maps them against four fulfillment centers, prices the freight in and out on its own network, and comes back with one per pallet number built from your history.