USPS Is Hiking Mail Prices This Fall—Here’s What It’ll Cost You
If you thought it was premature for stores to put out their Halloween merchandise in August, just wait until you hear what the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is up to. Beginning in early October, the USPS is temporarily raising mail prices for the holidays “to help cover extra handling costs to ensure a successful peak season.” Ahead, find out just how much extra you’ll have to pay and for how long.
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The USPS released its 2025 holiday price increases.
According to a press release, temporary mail price changes for the 2025 holiday season will go into effect at midnight Central time on Oct. 5 and remain in place until midnight Central on Jan. 18, 2026, pending approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).
The changes will apply to the following retail and commercial domestic rates: Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select. Depending on the distance shipped (also referred to as “zones”) and package weight, the price increases will be as follows:
Retail parcels
- Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage Zone 1-4: $0.40 cents to $3.00
- Priority Mail Zone 5-9: $0.90 cents to $7.00
- Priority Mail Flat Rate: $0.90 cents to $1.45
- USPS Ground Advantage Zone 5-9: $0.50 cents to $5.75
- Priority Mail Express: $1.10 to $16.00
- Priority Mail Express Flat Rate: $2.00
Commercial parcels
- Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage Zone 1-4 and Parcel Select: $0.30 cents to $2.25
- Priority Mail Zone 5-9: $0.70 cents to $6.50
- Priority Mail Flat Rate: $0.70 cents to $1.25
- USPS Ground Advantage Zone 5-9: $0.35 cents to $5.50
- Priority Mail Express: $1.00 to $13.00
- Priority Mail Express Flat Rate: $1.75
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The USPS is also opening 11 new sorting and delivery centers ahead of the holidays.
Another way the USPS is gearing up for the holiday rush is by opening 11 new sorting and delivery centers in September and October.
These new locations are part of the 10-year Delivering for America plan that was initiated by former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in 2021. Among other changes, the plan includes higher postage prices to offset the USPS’s lack of tax funding, new electric delivery vehicles, and updated package sorting machines.
It also includes a $40 billion investment in new sorting and delivery centers (S&DCs), which will ultimately replace the USPS’s “network of nearly 19,000 delivery units where mail and packages are picked up by carriers to be delivered,” Best Life previously explained.
According to a recent USPS announcement, “The Postal Service has targeted key markets where it is beneficial to aggregate delivery units into fewer, larger, centrally located S&DCs — leveraging both repurposed and new facilities — to simplify the entire network and create a more reliable and efficient Postal Service.”
The new centers are opening on the following dates:
Sept. 6
- Bloomington, Indiana: 4738 W Vernal Pike
- Baltimore, Maryland: 1000 E Lexington Street
- Rochester, Minnesota: 1445 Valleyhigh Drive NW
- Springfield, Missouri: 3591 S Campbell Avenue
- Edison, New Jersey: 21 Kilmer Road
- Watertown, New York: 232 Commerce Park Drive
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota: 320 S 2nd Avenue
- Johnson City, Tennessee: 126 Roweland Drive
- Texarkana, Texas: 2211 N Robinson Road
- Woodbridge, Virginia: 3360 Post Office Road
- Martinsburg, West Virginia: 1355 Old Courthouse Square
Oct. 18
- Charlotte, North Carolina: 2901 Scott Futrell Drive