# How do you calculate CBAM cost?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-calculate-cbam-cost

100 t of blast-furnace steel from India in 2026 costs about €6,816 in CBAM at default values: (231 t embedded − 148.2 t free allocation) × €82.32 certificate price. In general, CBAM cost = (embedded emissions − EU benchmark × free share still granted) × certificate price − carbon price paid abroad.

Step by step for that example: the calculator’s default intensity for blast-furnace steel is 2.1 tCO2 per tonne, plus the 10% default-value mark-up for 2026, so 2.31 t per tonne, or 231 t in all. The calculator’s EU benchmark of 1.52 t per tonne, at the 97.5% free share still granted in 2026, removes 148.2 t. The remaining 82.8 t × €82.32 = €6,816.

India has no explicit carbon price yet, so nothing is deducted for carbon paid at origin. Verified actual emissions from the producer replace the default value and its mark-up, which rises to 30% from 2028.

The intensity above is the calculator’s default for this production route; official EU default values are set per product and should be checked before a declaration. Certificates for 2026 imports go on sale on 1 February 2027. Costs for every covered sector and year are on [CBAM cost per tonne by sector](https://senseible.earth/cbam-cost).

- [Free CBAM calculator](https://senseible.earth/cbam-calculator)
- [CBAM cost by sector](https://senseible.earth/cbam-cost)

Sources: [Regulation (EU) 2023/956](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/956/oj), [Regulation (EU) 2025/2083](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/2083/oj)