How much does a China sourcing agent cost?

It depends less on the rate than on where the agent puts its fee: on top of your order, per service, inside the product price, in a membership, or in the shipping. Rabbit, an agent that buys on 1688, puts its fee and its order costs inside the price per piece it shows you, and the quote is the total you pay.

By Hussayn Delli, founder of Rabbit · Updated November 9, 2026.

Before you hire an agent, ask the ten questions in how to choose a China sourcing agent. This page explains the fee models behind two of them: how the agent is paid, and what the quote leaves out.

How do China sourcing agents get paid?

Most agents combine two or three of these. Each one can be fair; each one hides something different.

• A share of the order. The agent adds a share of the value of the goods. Simple to read, but it is charged on top of a product price you may not be able to check.
• A fixed fee per order. The same amount for 1 piece or 1,000. Fair on a batch, heavy on a sample.
• A fee per service. Searching, checking, photos, repacking, labels, storage: each one priced apart. The total is only known at the end.
• A fee inside the product price. The agent shows one price per piece with its fee already in it. Easy to compare from one product to another, but you don’t see the fee alone.
• A membership. A monthly price for access, searches or a lower fee. Worth it only if you order often.
• A share of the shipping. The agent resells the shipping above what it pays. You only see it if you compare shipping quotes.

How does Rabbit get paid?

• A fee inside the price per piece. The price per piece Rabbit shows you already includes its fee. The fee is the same whatever the quantity. With the VIP plan it is lower; without a plan, or with Starter or Business, it is the same.
• Fixed order costs, also inside the price. Every order carries the same costs, for 1 piece or 20: placing the order with the seller, the parcel, the warehouse photos of each variant, the seller’s shipping to the warehouse in China, and the fixed part of a card payment. Rabbit spreads them over the pieces of your order, inside the price per piece. It never adds them as a separate line.
• No share of the order added on top. Rabbit’s terms say no service fee is added as a share of your order: the amount of the quote is the amount due.
• Shipping, on its own line. Shipping is priced for your order, not inside the product price. Up to 3 pieces, the quote includes it and is a ceiling. Above 3 pieces, you pay the goods when you order and the delivery once your batch is weighed, never more than the maximum in your quote. For a US account today, an order of more than 3 pieces can’t be paid in dollars yet: its delivery is paid at the weighing, and that payment isn’t open in dollars. You can order up to 3 pieces, delivery included.
• Options, only if you pick them. Extra photos, neutral packaging, your logo: priced before you pay, never added by default.

What is free with Rabbit?

• Searching a product and seeing its estimated profit, within a daily limit, with no account and no card.
• Your first order: no subscription needed, and no order requires one.
• The photo check of your pieces at the warehouse: part of every order, never an extra.
• Storage at the warehouse in China for 30 days, counting the day your goods arrive.

What do Rabbit’s plans cost?

Plans are optional. For a US account they are billed in dollars, monthly: Starter $19.99, Business $49.99, VIP $89.99. A yearly plan isn’t offered in dollars. A plan gives more searches and tools, and more requests to a person in China who searches by hand when the search finds nothing. Only VIP lowers the fee inside the price per piece.

Why does one piece cost more per piece than a batch?

Because the fixed order costs are the same for 1 piece or 20: one piece carries them alone, 20 pieces share them. With a model like Rabbit’s, the price per piece of a sample is not the price per piece of your batch. Read both before you decide: what a sample from 1688 really costs, and the minimum order quantity on 1688.

What can you pay after the quote?

With Rabbit, only what its terms list: the delivery of a batch of more than 3 pieces, paid after the weighing and capped by the quote; storage after the free 30 days; import duties at your door if you pick a shipping line without duties included, estimated before you pay; and options you choose. For a batch whose delivery you haven’t paid within the free 30 days, Rabbit extends storage at its own cost for 21 more days.

How do you compare two agents’ fees?

Ask each one for the total of the same real order, delivered to your door, and set it against the price you can resell at. The fee alone tells you little. Every line, from the resale price to the estimated profit, on a real example: how to calculate your profit on a product from China.

For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.