You came here for a price. Here's an essay instead.
Sorry, we know that's annoying. That '$500 a seat' number floating around the internet is badly out of date. It was real once, back in our seat era, but pricing has changed a lot since. You deserve the current story, including the actual range. Meatball, our Chief Freight Officer, will take it from here.
We threw seat-based pricing out the window
We started out charging per seat, and quickly found it too restrictive. It punished the teams who leaned on Cargado most. So we switched to usage-based pricing: smaller brokerages and teams just dabbling in Canada and Mexico freight pay for what they use, and the largest brokerages get a scaled, predictable enterprise unlimited plan. Every plan includes unlimited users, so you pay for the value you pull from the marketplace, never for chairs.
Mostly, you're paying for capacity you can trust
Cargado is where brokers find and book real, vetted Canada and Mexico capacity, fast, at every major crossing. That bookable capacity is the core of what you're paying for. Market Rates rides on top: pricing built from real, recent carrier bids, so your team can quote spot freight in seconds, run an entire RFP lane-by-lane, set data-backed max pays, and know instantly whether carrier offers are above or below market.
Carriers use the marketplace for free
If you move the freight, marketplace access on Cargado is free. Find Canada and Mexico loads, message brokers in your own language, and book freight without a subscription. The brokers posting the freight are the ones who pay for that coverage.
Fine, here's the actual range
What you pay scales with how much Canada and Mexico freight you move, and how much your team leans on Cargado.
Carriers ride free. Find and book Canada and Mexico loads, message brokers, and run your whole day on Cargado with no subscription.
Brokers, forwarders, and 3PLs pay based on how much freight they actually move. Teams just getting going in Canada and Mexico usually start in the four figures a year. The busiest desks, the ones running serious volume, scale toward six figures. Every plan includes unlimited users, because charging you per seat the second you added a teammate was the exact thing we got rid of. Market Rates, the bid-backed pricing behind every quote, is built into the product, not a separate add-on. And the largest brokerages run on a flat enterprise plan that keeps the bill predictable no matter how busy the year gets. You can also pay monthly, quarterly, or annually, whichever suits your cash flow, with a discount for paying annually.
So somewhere between “free” and “let’s talk,” depending on how much of your freight runs through us. The more you move, the more you get back: faster coverage on tough Canada and Mexico lanes, quotes out in seconds, and more of the freight you bid actually covered.
“Our first Mexico load generated three times our monthly subscription cost. We became profitable on day two and grew Mexico revenue by 1,400% in four months.”
FAQs
Your questions and our answers about pricing, carriers, integrations, and rates.
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Contact UsThere isn't a single sticker price. The '$500 a seat' figure some older articles still cite was accurate once, but it's long out of date. Today Cargado is priced on the value you get from it, and every plan includes unlimited users.
Carriers use the marketplace for free. Brokers start in the four figures a year for smaller teams, scaling into the five and six figures for high-volume operations that run their whole desk on it. Where you land depends on how much freight you move and how deeply your team uses the platform. The fastest way to get a real number is to talk to us.
Both. Self-service plans can be billed monthly, quarterly, or annually, whichever fits your cash flow. Enterprise plans are billed quarterly or annually. Paying for the year up front comes at a discount, and carriers use the marketplace for free, so billing only applies to broker plans.
No. Every Cargado plan includes unlimited users. We used to charge per seat and got rid of it, because billing you to add a teammate punished the brokers who leaned on Cargado the most.
No. If you move the freight, marketplace access is free: find and book Canada and Mexico loads, message brokers, and run your day with no subscription. The brokers posting the freight are the ones who pay.
Your price tracks how much Canada and Mexico freight you move on Cargado and how deeply your team uses the platform. Smaller teams start in the four figures a year, and it scales into the five and six figures as you grow. The more you run through Cargado, the more it's worth.
Market Rates is part of the product for brokers, not a separate add-on. The bid-backed pricing you use to quote spot freight, run RFPs, and benchmark your rates is built into Cargado.
No. Cargado makes its money from broker subscriptions, not from your freight. There's no commission or percentage on loads, no markup on the carrier's rate, and we don't process carrier payments. Once you match with a carrier, the rate confirmation, onboarding, and payment all happen directly between you and the carrier through your own TMS, exactly as they do today. And there's no revenue-share obligation after an introduction: the carrier relationship is yours.
Cargado offers lower-commitment entry options for eligible teams, and many start month to month to see real coverage on their own lanes instead of a demo environment. Exact term, cancellation, and evaluation structure are set in your order form.