What does a third-party pre-shipment inspection cost, and what does it cover?

Roughly USD 100–350 per inspector-day in China, typically with a minimum of one day, plus travel outside the major manufacturing regions. The standard scope is a pre-shipment inspection against an agreed specification: quantity verification, workmanship against a checklist, function testing on a sample, packaging and carton marking, and a written report with photographs. Sampling usually follows an AQL plan such as ISO 2859-1, most commonly AQL 2.5 for major defects and 4.0 for minor. The critical limitation to understand: inspection samples a lot, it does not certify every unit, so a report reduces risk without removing it.