Incoterms® 2020 groups its 11 rules into two families: seven that work for any mode of transport, EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU, and DDP, and four restricted to sea and inland waterway transport only, FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF. Every rule answers the same three questions differently: who arranges and pays for carriage, who insures the goods, and at what point risk of loss or damage passes from seller to buyer.
This Incoterms chart lays out all 11 rules side by side, explains the E, F, C, and D groupings that determine how cost and risk are split, and points to dedicated guides on the four rules that account for most of the volume search and the most common disputes: DAP, CPT, DDP, and the sea-only FAS and FOB pair.
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All 11 Incoterms® 2020 Rules in One Table
The International Chamber of Commerce publishes Incoterms® 2020 as the current, authoritative version of the rules, effective since January 1, 2020. The table below lists all 11, grouped by mode, with who arranges carriage, who is obligated to insure, and where risk transfers to the buyer.
Two columns matter more than the others for a shipper trying to avoid a dispute: ‘who arranges carriage’ tells you who is contractually paying the freight bill, and ‘risk transfers to buyer’ tells you who eats a loss in transit. As the CPT and CFR rows show, those two columns do not always point to the same party or the same location, and assuming they do is the single most common misreading of this chart.
| Rule | Mode | Who Arranges Carriage | Who Insures | Risk Transfers to Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Any mode | Buyer | Not required by the rule | At seller's premises, goods placed at buyer's disposal, not unloaded, not cleared for export |
| FCA | Any mode | Buyer | Not required by the rule | When goods are handed to the carrier nominated by the buyer at the named place |
| CPT | Any mode | Seller, to named place | Not required by the rule | When goods are handed to the first carrier at origin |
| CIP | Any mode | Seller, to named place | Seller, all-risk cover (Institute Cargo Clauses A) | When goods are handed to the first carrier at origin |
| DAP | Any mode | Seller, to named place | Not required by the rule | At the named place, on the arriving means of transport, ready for unloading |
| DPU | Any mode | Seller, to named place | Not required by the rule | At the named place, after the seller has unloaded the goods |
| DDP | Any mode | Seller, to named place | Not required by the rule | At the named place, cleared for import, ready for unloading |
| FAS | Sea/inland waterway only | Buyer | Not required by the rule | When goods are placed alongside the vessel at the named port of shipment |
| FOB | Sea/inland waterway only | Buyer | Not required by the rule | When goods are placed on board the vessel at the named port of shipment |
| CFR | Sea/inland waterway only | Seller, to named port | Not required by the rule | When goods are placed on board the vessel at the port of shipment |
| CIF | Sea/inland waterway only | Seller, to named port | Seller, minimum cover (Institute Cargo Clauses C) | When goods are placed on board the vessel at the port of shipment |
Rules for Any Mode of Transport
Seven rules work for any mode, or a combination of modes: truck, rail, air, ocean, or multimodal. EXW, Ex Works, is the seller’s minimum obligation: the seller makes the goods available at its own premises, not loaded, not cleared for export, and the buyer bears essentially all cost and risk from that point forward, including the export declaration, which is often impractical for a buyer to complete since it is not the exporter of record.
FCA, Free Carrier, has the seller deliver by handing the goods to a carrier the buyer nominates, at a named place that can be the seller’s own premises or elsewhere. Risk transfers at that handover. Incoterms® 2020 added a specific mechanism to FCA allowing the buyer to instruct its carrier to issue the seller a bill of lading with an on-board notation, which solves a long-standing problem for sellers shipping under a letter of credit that requires proof the goods are loaded.
DAP and DPU are the two ‘delivered’ rules that stop short of import clearance: the seller carries cost and risk to the named place, and the buyer clears the goods for import. DPU is the only Incoterms® 2020 rule requiring the seller to unload the goods at destination; DAP does not. CPT and CIP split cost and risk differently, with the seller paying carriage to the named destination while risk passes to the buyer much earlier, at the first carrier. CIP adds a seller insurance obligation at the all-risk Institute Cargo Clauses (A) level; CPT carries none.
DDP, Delivered Duty Paid, is the seller’s maximum obligation: the seller delivers the goods cleared for import, duty paid, ready for unloading at the named place. The DAP vs DDP comparison covers why that shift makes the seller the importer of record, or requires it to arrange one, which is rarely simple for a seller with no legal presence in the destination country.
None of the seven any-mode rules require unloading by the seller except DPU, and none require export or import clearance from the buyer except EXW on the export side and DDP on the import side. Every other combination leaves export clearance with the seller and import clearance with the buyer, which is worth memorizing on its own since it holds true across CPT, CIP, DAP, FCA, FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF without exception.
Rules for Sea and Inland Waterway Transport Only
Four rules are written specifically for cargo that moves by sea or inland waterway and are not valid for air, rail, or road-only shipments. FAS and FOB transfer risk before the main ocean carriage even begins, alongside the vessel for FAS and once loaded on board for FOB, with the buyer arranging and paying for the ocean freight itself.
CFR and CIF mirror CPT and CIP but for sea freight specifically: the seller pays freight to the named port of destination, yet risk still transfers when the goods are on board the vessel at the port of shipment, the same point as FOB. CIF layers on a seller insurance obligation at the Institute Cargo Clauses (C) minimum-cover level, the lowest tier available and notably less protective than CIP’s all-risk requirement.
The ICC’s own guidance in the Incoterms® 2020 introduction is direct about when these four rules stop making sense: for containerized cargo, which typically changes hands at an inland container terminal rather than crossing a ship’s rail, FCA, CPT, or CIP are the better fit. FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF remain correct for cargo that genuinely loads directly onto a vessel, bulk commodities, break-bulk, and similar trades.
How to Read Cost and Risk Across the E, F, C, and D Families
The 11 rules sort into four letter families, and once the family is understood, the cost and risk allocation for any individual rule becomes predictable. EXW is the sole ‘E’ rule: minimum seller obligation, everything falls to the buyer. The ‘F’ rules, FCA, FAS, and FOB, have the buyer arrange and pay for main carriage, with the seller simply delivering to the buyer’s carrier or vessel; risk transfers at that same delivery point.
The ‘C’ rules, CPT, CIP, CFR, and CIF, are where cost and risk genuinely diverge: the seller pays for carriage to a named destination but risk transfers to the buyer much earlier, at origin. This is the family most often misread, because ‘seller pays freight to X’ sounds like ‘seller is responsible until X,’ and under a ‘C’ rule it is not. The ‘D’ rules, DAP, DPU, and DDP, are the mirror image: the seller carries both cost and risk all the way to the named place, with DDP adding import clearance and duty on top.
Choosing the Right Rule for a Given Shipment
Mode of transport is the first filter: if the shipment is not moving exclusively by sea or inland waterway, FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF are not available, full stop, regardless of what a template contract says. The second filter is who has the local knowledge and standing to clear customs at each end. Export clearance sits with the seller under every rule except EXW; import clearance sits with the buyer under every rule except DDP.
Beyond that, the decision is largely commercial: how much of the transit risk each party is willing to carry, and how much insurance cost either side wants baked into the price. A trade advisory review before the contract is signed, not after the shipment is en route, is the point where an incorrectly chosen Incoterm is cheapest to fix, and it is a service a licensed customs brokerage can provide alongside the entry filing itself.
Common Incoterms Mistakes That Cost Shippers Money
The most frequent error is using a sea-only rule, usually FOB, for cargo that is not actually loaded directly onto a vessel by the seller, which creates a risk-transfer point that does not match how the cargo physically moves. The second is treating Incoterms as if they answer questions they were never designed to answer: an Incoterm allocates cost and risk between buyer and seller, it does not determine the customs value duty is assessed on, and it does not determine the tariff classification of the goods, which is governed separately by the General Rules of Interpretation applied to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.
The third is leaving the named place vague, a city instead of an address, which turns a routine risk-transfer question into a dispute the moment cargo is damaged. And the fourth, the one with the highest financial exposure, is a foreign seller agreeing to DDP into the United States without first confirming it can actually act as, or arrange, an importer of record, a question answered in full where DAP and DDP are compared directly, before the contract is signed rather than after the shipment is stuck at the port.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 11 Incoterms 2020 rules?
EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU, and DDP apply to any mode of transport. FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF apply only to sea and inland waterway transport. Together these 11 rules are the current Incoterms® 2020 rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce, effective since January 1, 2020.
What changed between Incoterms 2010 and Incoterms 2020?
The most cited changes are the renaming of Delivered at Terminal (DAT) to Delivered at Place Unloaded (DPU), a new option under FCA allowing an on-board bill of lading notation for letter-of-credit transactions, and an increase in CIP’s minimum insurance requirement from Institute Cargo Clauses (C) to the higher all-risk Institute Cargo Clauses (A).
Which Incoterms apply only to ocean freight?
FAS, FOB, CFR, and CIF apply only to sea and inland waterway transport. Using any of them for an air, rail, or road-only shipment misapplies the rule; FAS and FOB specifically are written around a vessel loading point that does not exist for those other modes.
Who is responsible for insurance under Incoterms 2020?
Only two of the 11 rules obligate a party to insure the goods: CIF, which requires the seller to buy minimum cover under Institute Cargo Clauses (C), and CIP, which requires the seller to buy all-risk cover under Institute Cargo Clauses (A). Every other rule leaves insurance to the parties’ own commercial judgment.
What is the safest Incoterm for a first-time importer?
There is no universally safest rule, but a first-time importer is generally better served by a rule that leaves carriage arrangements with an experienced seller, such as DAP or CPT, while confirming its own customs bond and importer number are in place well before the goods depart, since import clearance remains the buyer’s job under both.
Do Incoterms determine who pays customs duty?
Indirectly, by determining who is the importer of record, but Incoterms do not set the duty rate or the customs value themselves. Under DAP, CPT, and the sea-only rules, the buyer pays import duty; under DDP, the seller does. The dutiable value is a separate calculation governed by customs valuation rules, not by the Incoterm.
