ImportGenius supplies US Customs bill of lading records with about a one-week lag. In the freight broker system it is the optional upgrade over the free CBP AMS release, which trails the vessel by 1 to 3 months. The workflow queries it for new consignees and rising container counts in your territory.
What you need
- An ImportGenius subscription that includes API access. The freight broker system prices this at $199 per month on the month-to-month Essentials tier as of 2026.
- The freight broker workflows imported into a running n8n instance.
- About 15 minutes, a little longer than the other tools because the token is provisioned with the account rather than self-served from a settings page.
Get the access token
- Sign in to ImportGenius.
- API access comes with a secure access token tied to your subscription. Depending on the tier it appears in your account area or arrives from their team when the API add-on is enabled.
- If you cannot find a token in the account area, ask their support to enable API access on your plan. Mention the endpoints you need: shipment search by consignee.
- Copy the token and store it in your password manager.
Create the credential in n8n
- Open Credentials and add a Header Auth credential.
- Name:
Authorization. Value: the access token. - Save it as “ImportGenius LGL”, which is the name the sourcing workflow expects.
Because this is a generic credential, n8n never validates it against ImportGenius at save time. It only fails or succeeds when a request runs, so do the test below before trusting a green save message.
Test it
- In a scratch workflow, add an HTTP Request node.
- Point it at the shipment search endpoint from the ImportGenius API docs with a consignee state filter matching your territory and a small page size.
- Authentication: Generic Credential Type, Header Auth, “ImportGenius LGL”.
- Execute the step.
You should see shipment records with consignee name, port, and container count. An authorization error means the token is inactive or API access was never enabled on the plan, which is worth one support email before any further debugging.
Cost and one gotcha
$199 per month, and the system page is explicit that this line is excluded from the base total. The gotcha is buying it too early. The free CBP AMS release covers the same records on a slower clock, and the base build runs fine on it. Add ImportGenius once drayage wins from the import-records source justify the spend, because the only thing the money buys is freshness plus the API. Start free, measure which source books calls, and upgrade when the lag is what costs you deals.
Where the library uses ImportGenius
Only the freight broker system. Its sourcing workflow refreshes consignee volume weekly, flags first-time importers and 50% volume jumps, and its win-back step reopens lost shippers when import volume grows.
Freight Brokers