To Dallas, TX 75201
Ordinary address, zone 5
$6.12
$2.12 BELOW USPS LIST
Seller Bulletin / USPS Label Cost
USPS Label Cost for Etsy Sellers
Every published USPS Ground Advantage price change in 2026, with its date, and each figure named as what it is: USPS’s list price, which most platform labels run below.
Checked Thu Nov 5, 2026. USPS published label price changes this year: 4, the latest Sun Oct 4. Nothing filed for 2027 as of Thu Nov 5.
USPS’s list on this page ended Sun Jan 17, 2027. This page hasn’t been re-cut since, so read today’s list as the last one filed before that date.
Same parcel, same zone, same day
On Etsy’s postage calculator, Thu Nov 5: the same 8 oz parcel from Columbus, Ohio, both zone 5. FedEx Ground Economy $6.69 to both.
To 73040, rural Oklahoma
Rural ZIP, zone 5
$8.24
USPS LIST, TO THE CENT
Weight and the buyer’s ZIP move your price, so check your own parcel on Etsy’s postage calculator. Etsy says its rates are for reference only and may change. What two lanes can and can’t show
If you buy labels through Etsy you have probably watched the price move and gone looking for the table that explains it. There isn’t one. Etsy publishes no price list for its labels, USPS publishes a list that most platform labels run below, and the two move on different dates. This page keeps the USPS side straight: every published Ground Advantage price change this year, when it started, what it did to the list, and when it ends.
What this page is not is your price. Etsy publishes no price table, but its own postage calculator shows a price for one parcel on one lane, and on an ordinary address that price sits well below the list printed here, as the two lanes above show. The calculator is a free way to check your own lane, and the section after the tables says why the figures differ.
How to read this page
- List price means USPS’s published commercial price, the one in its price files. Platforms (Etsy, eBay, Pirate Ship and the rest) buy on negotiated rates below it for most addresses. Rural ZIPs are the exception: on platforms they are priced at about list, which eBay states in print for parcels up to 20 lb, and which sellers’ quotes to rural addresses on Etsy match zone for zone, as did our rural reading (Table 4).
- Lane means one trip: the ZIP a parcel leaves from and the ZIP it goes to, with one parcel on it.
- Zone is the distance band from your ZIP to the buyer’s, 1 to 9. The reference parcel on this page goes to zone 5, the middle of the table, with zones 1 and 8 shown beside it.
- Under a pound has been one price per zone on the list since Sun Jul 12. Before that the list had ounce tiers, so an 8 oz parcel paid less than a 15 oz one. Negotiated rates kept their ounce tiers, which is one reason your price and the list disagree.
- Today’s list is partly temporary. It carries an 8% increase USPS added on Sun Apr 26 and called time-limited, and the holiday add-on from Sun Oct 4. Both end Sun Jan 17, 2027. Nothing is filed for Jan 18 as of Thu Nov 5, so no list price for the day after exists yet, and this page does not compute one.
- The counter counts USPS’s published Ground Advantage commercial price changes with an effective date, read from the price files. A temporary price counts once, when it starts. Negotiated prices and what any platform charged are not counted.
USPS list price to zone 5, 2026
15.99 oz8 ozOne parcel on Etsy’s postage calculator, dated
Table 1. Published price changes in 2026
| Effective date | What USPS called it | What changed on the published list | 8 oz to zone 5, after | 15.99 oz to zone 5, after | Change by zone, parcels up to 3 lb | In force until | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before Sun Jan 18 | The list in force on Jan 17, 2026 | (baseline) | $5.26 | $7.07 | Sat Jan 17 | USPS price file archive | |
| Sun Jan 18 | January price change | Not one rate. Up to 8 oz rose 59¢ to 69¢; 12 oz and 15.99 oz moved −2¢ to +8¢; 1 lb fell 4¢ to 58¢; 2 and 3 lb rose 4¢ to 76¢. | $5.89 | $7.12 | Zones 1 to 4: −9¢ to +67¢. Zones 5 to 9: −58¢ to +76¢. | Sat Apr 25 (the next change) | USPS price file archive |
| Sun Apr 26 | A transportation-related, time-limited price change | +8% across the list; at 15.99 oz to zone 5, $7.12 became $7.69 | $6.36 | $7.69 | Zones 1 to 4: +41¢ to +72¢. Zones 5 to 9: +43¢ to +$1.17. | Sun Jan 17, 2027 | USPS Mar 25 release |
| Sun Jul 12 | July price change | Every weight under a pound moved to one price per zone, the 15.99 oz price; the ounce tiers under a pound are gone from the list. Heavier parcels: no change, every price from 1 lb to 70 lb stayed as it was on Apr 26. | $7.69 | $7.69 | Zones 1 to 4: $0 to +$1.74. Zones 5 to 9: $0 to +$2.04. | No end date filed | USPS May 11 release |
| Sun Oct 4 | Temporary price change for the holiday shipping season | A flat add-on by weight band: +40¢ (zones 1 to 4) to +55¢ (zones 5 to 9) up to 3 lb, more above (Table 3) | $8.24 | $8.24 | +40¢ to +55¢ | Sun Jan 17, 2027 | USPS Aug 25 release |
- Two reference parcels, because the list changed shape in July. Until Jul 12, an 8 oz parcel and a 15.99 oz parcel paid different list prices; from Jul 12 they pay the same one. An 8 oz parcel to zone 5 was $6.36 on the Apr 26 list and $7.69 from Jul 12, up $1.33 in one step. USPS filed no end date for that change, and the 8% inside the price ends Sun Jan 17, 2027. USPS said that change “will not impact customers that have negotiated commercial rates”.
- Since Jan 18 the list for a 15.99 oz parcel to zone 5 has gone from $7.12 to $8.24. Of that $1.12, 57¢ came with the 8% and 55¢ with the holiday add-on. USPS describes both as temporary, ending Sun Jan 17, 2027, and has filed nothing for the day after.
- “In force until” is the end date USPS filed, or the date the next change replaced the row. It is never our estimate.
- The changes in Table 1 are the only four published in 2026. A date your Etsy label moved with no row here is likely a negotiated rate moving, which this table does not track.
Table 2. Today’s published list, Sun Oct 4 to Sun Jan 17, 2027
Ground Advantage, published commercial price, by zone.
| Parcel | Zone 1 | Zone 5 | Zone 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under a pound (any weight to 15.99 oz) | $7.33 | $8.24 | $8.95 |
| 1 lb | $8.01 | $9.29 | $11.22 |
| 2 lb | $8.39 | $10.50 | $13.42 |
| 3 lb | $9.04 | $12.12 | $16.30 |
| 5 lb | $10.35 | $14.53 | $20.24 |
- At the post office counter, retail is higher and keeps its ounce tiers: an 8 oz parcel to zone 5 is $9.35 at the counter on today’s retail list.
- Most platform labels run below every figure in this table on ordinary addresses. Rural ZIPs pay about these figures.
Table 3. The Oct 4 holiday add-on, by weight and zone
| Parcels | Zones 1 to 4 | Zones 5 to 9 |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 3 lb | +$0.40 | +$0.55 |
| Over 3 lb to 10 lb | +$0.65 | +$1.05 |
| Over 10 lb to 25 lb | +$1.05 | +$1.75 |
| Over 25 lb to 70 lb | +$3.15 | +$7.70 |
- This is the add-on on USPS’s published list. eBay told its sellers on Oct 4 that its own labels saw “No increase for packages up to 20 lbs. in Zones 1-8”, rural ZIPs excepted. What Etsy Labels did on Oct 4 is not published.
Table 4. Two lanes on Etsy’s postage calculator, read each week
Etsy publishes no price table, but its postage calculator shows a price for one parcel on one lane. We read the same two lanes each week and add a row: an 8 oz parcel, 9 x 6 x 2 in, USPS Ground Advantage, from Columbus, OH 43215, to an ordinary address and to a rural one, both zone 5. Each price is Etsy’s for that parcel on that address on that day, never your label, and Etsy’s page says its rates are for reference only and may change.
| Date read | To Dallas, TX 75201, ordinary address | To 73040, rural Oklahoma | Gap between the two | USPS list for that parcel | Retail shown on Etsy’s page | FedEx Ground Economy, both lanes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu Nov 5, 2026 | $6.12 | $8.24 | $2.12 | $8.24 | $9.35 | $6.69 |
- To Dallas, Etsy’s price sat $2.12 below USPS’s list, and Etsy’s page showed it as 35% off retail. To the rural ZIP it was USPS’s list to the cent, shown as 12% off retail.
- To check your own lane, put your ZIP, the buyer’s ZIP and the parcel into Etsy’s postage calculator. It quotes one parcel at a time and needs no login.
- A week we can’t read prints as no reading, never as last week’s figure.
What one week of two lanes can show
On one day, the ZIP alone moved Etsy’s price for this parcel by $2.12. Weight, size and zone were the same, and FedEx Ground Economy was $6.69 to both. The rural lane paid USPS’s list to the cent, which is what eBay prints as its rule.
What it can’t show
Your price, since your parcels weigh something else and go to other ZIPs. A trend, since one date is not a history. What Etsy’s price did on Oct 4 or any day before we started reading. How many of your own orders go to rural ZIPs. That’s why the chart carries dots and no line.
Table 5. ZIP groups by state, as a share of tax returns
Built from eBay’s published list of USPS ZIP groups, weighted by tax returns per ZIP in the IRS’s 2022 data, so each figure is the share of a state’s filers in that group, not its buyers. Highest Geo C plus D first.
| State | No group | Geo B | Geo C | Geo D | Geo C + D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 67.7 | 19.7 | 10.0 | 1.2 | 11.2 |
| Montana | 10.6 | 37.8 | 28.3 | 18.5 | 46.8 |
| Wyoming | 13.2 | 36.0 | 39.0 | 6.7 | 45.6 |
| South Dakota | 29.6 | 31.6 | 26.7 | 10.4 | 37.1 |
| Vermont | 27.9 | 33.4 | 34.5 | 1.8 | 36.2 |
| Mississippi | 33.4 | 29.1 | 30.2 | 5.7 | 36.0 |
| Maine | 30.4 | 33.7 | 30.0 | 4.5 | 34.5 |
| West Virginia | 27.4 | 33.9 | 25.4 | 8.9 | 34.3 |
| North Dakota | 30.7 | 35.4 | 23.6 | 7.6 | 31.2 |
| Iowa | 48.7 | 21.1 | 29.0 | 0.4 | 29.4 |
| Oklahoma | 48.6 | 21.9 | 23.9 | 3.8 | 27.7 |
Show the other 41 rows
| State | No group | Geo B | Geo C | Geo D | Geo C + D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 44.6 | 28.1 | 22.9 | 3.5 | 26.3 |
| Arkansas | 40.9 | 29.4 | 22.8 | 3.6 | 26.3 |
| Kentucky | 50.5 | 23.0 | 22.2 | 3.4 | 25.6 |
| Nebraska | 57.8 | 16.0 | 21.4 | 4.0 | 25.4 |
| New Mexico | 42.1 | 27.7 | 19.2 | 4.1 | 23.3 |
| Idaho | 50.2 | 25.9 | 19.1 | 3.1 | 22.3 |
| Missouri | 59.2 | 18.6 | 18.8 | 2.9 | 21.7 |
| Kansas | 59.7 | 18.2 | 19.5 | 1.8 | 21.3 |
| Oregon | 43.3 | 33.1 | 17.3 | 3.2 | 20.5 |
| New Hampshire | 53.0 | 25.9 | 19.7 | 0.3 | 20.0 |
| Minnesota | 61.3 | 18.7 | 18.7 | 0.9 | 19.6 |
| Wisconsin | 56.7 | 24.7 | 17.1 | 1.2 | 18.3 |
| Louisiana | 53.4 | 27.0 | 16.4 | 1.6 | 17.9 |
| Tennessee | 58.3 | 24.0 | 15.0 | 2.0 | 17.0 |
| South Carolina | 56.4 | 25.8 | 15.0 | 0.7 | 15.7 |
| North Carolina | 54.2 | 29.9 | 13.6 | 1.2 | 14.8 |
| Georgia | 57.6 | 27.9 | 12.5 | 1.1 | 13.6 |
| Virginia | 70.4 | 15.9 | 11.7 | 1.3 | 12.9 |
| Washington | 67.8 | 18.4 | 11.1 | 1.3 | 12.4 |
| Indiana | 62.5 | 24.7 | 11.7 | 0.4 | 12.2 |
| Michigan | 67.7 | 20.2 | 10.4 | 0.9 | 11.3 |
| Texas | 70.2 | 17.3 | 9.1 | 1.5 | 10.6 |
| Colorado | 76.6 | 11.0 | 7.8 | 2.2 | 10.0 |
| Illinois | 77.4 | 13.4 | 8.4 | 0.3 | 8.8 |
| Utah | 72.6 | 13.9 | 7.6 | 0.5 | 8.0 |
| Ohio | 72.7 | 19.3 | 7.1 | 0.3 | 7.4 |
| Pennsylvania | 71.0 | 20.9 | 6.7 | 0.2 | 7.0 |
| Nevada | 84.1 | 7.0 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 6.5 |
| Arizona | 75.7 | 13.4 | 5.2 | 1.1 | 6.3 |
| Rhode Island | 77.8 | 15.7 | 5.6 | 0.2 | 5.8 |
| California | 77.3 | 15.9 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 5.1 |
| New York | 74.5 | 19.9 | 4.8 | 0.1 | 4.9 |
| Florida | 79.1 | 15.0 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 4.5 |
| Connecticut | 67.7 | 28.4 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 3.5 |
| Maryland | 75.0 | 21.4 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 3.2 |
| Massachusetts | 77.4 | 19.0 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 2.7 |
| Delaware | 67.7 | 29.9 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 1.8 |
| New Jersey | 83.5 | 15.3 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| District of Columbia | 99.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Alaska | Not on eBay’s list, see the notes | ||||
| Hawaii | Not on eBay’s list, see the notes | ||||
- The US as a whole: 67.7% in no group, 19.7% Geo B, 10.0% Geo C, 1.2% Geo D, and 1.5% unmatched because the IRS bundles small ZIPs. C plus D is 11.2%. Montana leads at 46.8%, New Jersey is last at 0.8%, and Texas sits at 10.6%, California at 5.1%.
- We treat Geo C and Geo D as the rural groups because together they match the size reported for eBay’s rural ZIP list; eBay’s page doesn’t use the word. On Thu Nov 5 the Geo D lane read USPS’s list to the cent and the Geo C lane read a little under it, so about list is the fair phrase. Geo B read above an ordinary address and well under list.
- Etsy publishes no group list. On Thu Nov 5 four ZIP groups gave four prices on Etsy’s postage calculator in the order eBay’s list predicts, the ordinary lane $6.12 and the Geo D lane $8.24 for the same 8 oz parcel from Columbus, OH, both zone 5. That is evidence Etsy uses the same groups, not proof. The Label Price Sheet carries all four.
- Alaska and Hawaii have no ZIPs on eBay’s list but pay published prices, so we print no share for them. DC has none on the list either, and we have no reading there.
Why your price will differ
Platforms buy below list. Etsy’s Help Center calls them “discounted volume shipping rates”, and its annual report books label revenue net of what the labels cost it, so by our reading Etsy earns a margin between USPS’s price to Etsy and Etsy’s price to you. It publishes no table, but its postage calculator quotes one parcel on one lane, and on Thu Nov 5 that was $6.12 for an 8 oz parcel to an ordinary zone 5 address against $8.24 on the list (Table 4). Sellers report roughly $5 to $6.50 for light parcels on ordinary addresses, against $7.33 to $8.95 on today’s list, and those are reports, rounded, not a price list.
Rural ZIPs pay about list. eBay prints the rule: rural ZIPs are “priced with USPS published commercial rates for packages up to 20 lbs”. Etsy doesn’t print one, but sellers’ quotes to rural addresses on Etsy match the list, zone for zone, and on Thu Nov 5 its postage calculator priced our rural zone 5 lane at $8.24, the list to the cent. By our count of IRS ZIP data against eBay’s Geo C and Geo D groups (Table 5), those ZIPs hold about one US tax return in nine.
Negotiated rates move on their own dates. eBay posted label price changes to its sellers on Aug 8, Aug 22, Sep 19, Oct 18, Oct 25 and Oct 30 this year, and none of those was a USPS published change. Pirate Ship says its below-list rates “change frequently”. Whether Etsy’s move on the same days is not published. A label that costs a few cents more this week than last, with no row in Table 1, is likely a negotiated rate moving.
Negotiated rates keep ounce tiers. On the list, every parcel under a pound has paid the same price since Jul 12. On a negotiated rate a 4 oz parcel can still cost less than a 12 oz one, so a light parcel on your label can sit further under the list than a heavier one.
Zone. The reference parcel here goes to zone 5. Yours go to zones 1 to 9, and under a pound the list runs from $7.33 to $8.95 by zone today.
The ZIP decides which table a label is priced from, and above a pound the box can decide the price inside it, which is the sum Box Check does for any box.
Questions sellers ask
Why is my Etsy label cheaper than this page?
Because Etsy charges you from a negotiated rate below USPS’s list, and this page prints the list. On the ordinary-address lane we read on Thu Nov 5, Etsy’s postage calculator showed $6.12 for an 8 oz parcel to zone 5 against $8.24 on the list, and sellers report roughly $5 to $6.50 for light parcels on ordinary addresses. If your label matches a figure here to the cent, the address is probably in a rural ZIP group, where platforms charge the published price, as our rural lane did. Etsy’s postage calculator will quote your own lane, one parcel at a time.
Why did my label go up in July?
On Sun Jul 12 USPS moved every weight under a pound on its published list to one price per zone: an 8 oz parcel to zone 5 went from $6.36 to $7.69, up $1.33, with no end date filed for that change. USPS said the change “will not impact customers that have negotiated commercial rates”, and Pirate Ship kept ounce pricing for most addresses. What Etsy Labels did that day is not published; parcels to rural addresses pay the flat list price.
Why did my label price change when USPS announced nothing?
Negotiated rates move on their own schedule. eBay announced six label price changes to its sellers between Aug 8 and Oct 30 this year, and none of them was a USPS published change. Pirate Ship says the same of its rates. Etsy publishes neither a price list nor change dates, so a move of a few cents with no row in Table 1 is likely the negotiated rate moving. Its postage calculator shows today’s price for one parcel, which is how you can check a lane on any day, and how Table 4 is filled.
What happens on Jan 18, 2027?
USPS has filed nothing for it as of Thu Nov 5. Today’s list holds the 8% from Apr 26 and the holiday add-on from Oct 4, both ending Sun Jan 17. So no next list price exists, and we don’t make one up. When USPS files, Table 1 gets a row and the letter carries it with the date.
Is the holiday price the same thing as rural pricing?
No. The holiday add-on is a flat amount by weight band on the published list, 40¢ to 55¢ up to 3 lb, from Oct 4 to Jan 17. Rural pricing is about which table your parcel is charged from: the published list for rural ZIP groups, a negotiated rate for the rest. A parcel to a rural ZIP in November pays about the list, add-on included.
Is Pirate Ship cheaper than Etsy Labels?
We don’t know, and neither of them publishes a table. Etsy’s postage calculator quotes one lane without a login; Pirate Ship’s quote needs an account. Sellers report both: the same price to the cent, and a dollar or two less on Pirate Ship. Pirate Ship prints “Less than” over each list price on its own rate sheet because USPS doesn’t let it advertise the lower figure. Whether a second account is worth your time is your call.
The figures on this page come from USPS’s published price files (Notice 123, the Price Change page and the price file archive), published commercial Ground Advantage, read by script and checked by hand at every change. The reference parcel goes to zone 5, with zones 1 and 8 beside it. A temporary price counts once, when it starts. Negotiated prices and what any platform charged are not counted and not guessed. Table 4 is read from Etsy’s postage calculator, the same two lanes each week, one lookup each, dated. Sellers’ prices are reports, rounded, and labelled as reports. Nothing here is a price for a date USPS hasn’t filed. Information, not tax or legal advice. A wrong figure gets a dated correction under the table it sits in, and the original stays. Checked Thu Nov 5, 2026.
