Comparison
CBAM Data vs A Consultant
An external customs advisory or carbon consultancy delivering manual assessments and periodic reports.
| Evaluation criterion | A Consultant | CBAM Data |
|---|---|---|
| Official default values | Manual lookup of European Commission default value publications during consulting engagements. | Bundles official European Commission default values (Reg (EU) 2025/2621 as corrected by Reg (EU) 2026/1740) with automatic statutory markups (10% to 30%) and sector routing. |
| CBAM certificate price | Included in project reports based on historic prices at time of drafting; no real-time price feed. | Tracks official European Commission published quarterly prices (weekly from 2027) based on EEX auction averages, integrated directly into certificate cost estimates. |
| Regulatory change feed | Periodic client memos or advisory updates, typically billed under ongoing retainer agreements. | Emits cryptographic diffs generated on every official data ingest, published as pages, feeds, and email alerts. |
| Phase-in and deduction rules | Custom calculations applied by analysts per client engagement, subject to human calculation variance. | Applies Art. 31 phase-in schedule (2.5% in 2026 to 100% in 2034) and Art. 9 origin carbon price deduction formulas in pure code. |
| System integration | Delivers static PDF or slide deck reports; no software API or automated customs system integration. | Sub-millisecond REST API (/v1/resolve), OpenAPI 3.1 specification, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for automated customs systems. |
| Pricing structure | Hourly consulting fees or project retainers, typically ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of euros. | Fixed monthly subscription (€99 Importer, €199 Developer) with included calls and no per-request metering or unexpected overage bills. |
Summary & Recommendation
Customs and carbon consultants provide valuable guidance for complex organizational strategy and supply chain audits. For day-to-day operations—such as calculating emissions for import declarations, monitoring weekly certificate prices, and tracking changes to CN codes—CBAM Data gives you instant answers at a fraction of consulting fees.
Keep every import line on the current rule.
One call returns the scope, certificates, euro cost and filing date for a CN code. When the Commission changes a value, a webhook tells your system.
3 free answers a day, no account. Plans start with a 7-day trial.