Early Holiday Shopping? Beware Rising Postage Costs

Just in time for the earliest days of the 2024 holiday shopping season, the US Postal Service has instituted a new postage price hike.

Given the preponderance of parcels and packages sent during the gift-giving holidays, the last three months of any given year are routinely the agency’s busiest time by far. For the 2022 holiday season, the USPS reported that it handled 11.7 billion pieces of mail. The end of 2022 was also the last holiday season that the agency issued a temporary rate increase to help it manage the spike in business. In 2023, it kept rates the same, while competitors like UPS and FedEx issued rate hikes. Read on to find out how much prices are increasing this year and how long this rate hike will last.

For more, discover how to change your address after a move and how to get free COVID-19 tests from the post office.

When did these postage price increases go into effect?

These holiday season postage price increases went into effect at midnight CT on Sunday, Oct. 6. They will remain in effect throughout the giving season and a little beyond, coming to an end at midnight CT on Jan. 19, 2025.

While USPS has stressed that this is a temporary increase, it has also recently announced its plans for numerous permanent price hikes between now and the end of 2027. While these increases have to be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, USPS nevertheless plans to increase prices in July 2025, and then twice a year in January and July of 2026 and 2027. The exact amounts for these proposed increases have not been confirmed.

How much will postage prices increase during the 2024 holiday season?

Throughout this temporary increase, the amount that the cost of a package has increased will vary based on a number of factors. The rate hikes affect USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express, with factors like the weight of the package, whether it’s retail or commercial and what post “zone” it is in causing the rate to go up more or less. 

USPS zones are the classifications that the agency uses to define how far a parcel has to travel. Zone 1 is anything within 50 miles, while Zone 9, the highest, is anything over 1,801 miles. The higher your mail’s zone, the more its rate will increase this holiday season.

The smallest rate increase will be 30 cents, while the highest will be $16. Here’s a chart breaking down these rates in detail:

USPS announced this “peak-season pricing” surge on Wednesday, Oct. 2, noting that it had filed a notice about the increase with the Postal Regulatory Commission in early September. 

For more, get a head start on holiday shopping with October Prime Day deals.