The U.S. Postal Service is changing shipping rates on January 27, 2013. If you’re using USPS to ship your Etsy orders, you’ll need to update your shipping prices. This is no small task – fortunately, we’ve created a tool that can help decipher the complex USPS rate tables. The shipping calculator below will spit out the new rates you need to adjust your shipping tables and listings.
Before using the calculator, we should warn you that international rates have increased substantially! If you ship internationally, you may want to pour a stiff drink before crunching the numbers. For made-to-order items, you’ll need to get your shipping rates updated prior to January 27th. It would be quite unfortunate to have a customer purchase an item and pay the old shipping rates and then eat the difference when you ship the item days or weeks later at the new shipping rate.
Another important note is that Mexico is no longer included in the lower-priced Canada bucket for international flat rate items. Take a look at my domestic shipping article if you need a crash course in weighing and packaging.
The rates shown below are commercial base pricing – which you get if you order postage online with PayPal or other vendors. Be sure to check the prices against your vendor to make sure they’re using the commercial prices – Endicia is a notable exception that charges retail rates. Expect to pay more if you show up at the post office without postage. Pricing for flat rate items is included in the table below.
Important: Etsy mentioned in a blog post that they have commercial base pricing on all shipments except Media Mail and Parcel Post. If you’re using either of these shipping types with Etsy’s Direct Checkout, use the USPS retail calculator instead.
USPS Shipping Calculator
USPS Flat Rates
| Old Rate | New Rate | |
|---|---|---|
| First Class Mail | 0.44 | 0.46 |
| Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope | 4.90 | 5.05 |
| Priority Mail Legal Flat Rate Envelope | 5.10 | 5.25 |
| Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope | 5.10 | 5.70 |
| Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box | 5.15 | 5.15 |
| Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box | 10.85 | 11.30 |
| Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box | 14.65 | 15.30 |
| Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope (Canada) |
12.95 | 19.95 |
| Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope (Other countries) |
16.95 | 23.95 |
| Priority Mail International Small Flat Rate Box (Canada) |
12.95 | 19.95 |
| Priority Mail International Small Flat Rate Box (Other countries) |
16.95 | 23.95 |
| Priority Mail International Medium Flat Rate Box (Canada) |
32.95 | 40.95 |
| Priority Mail International Medium Flat Rate Box (Other countries) |
47.95 | 59.95 |
| Priority Mail International Large Flat Rate Box (Canada) |
39.95 | 53.95 |
| Priority Mail International Large Flat Rate Box (Other countries) |
60.95 | 77.95 |
| Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope | 17.75 | 18.11 |
| Express Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope | 17.75 | 18.11 |
Disclaimer: This tool is intended to help Etsy sellers, but is unlikely to cover the needs of every shop and business owner. Please use the calculator as a tool in your tool box and not the sole source for your pricing decision. Shipping is complex and we hope to ease the pain a bit. Please keep in mind that extra services, insurance, etc. are not taken into account with this calculator.
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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this. Absolutely awesome! I sell on Etsy, Artfire, Zibbet and my own site and this is a great time saver.
Question – what do they mean by “flats”. Almost all of my shipping is in the large envelope category, not packages. Wondering if my shipping would fall under flats?
Beth
Beth – the USPS large envelopes and flats description goes over all the nitty gritty – but it’s essentially a large envelope no more than 3/4″ thick. It sounds like you’d qualify!
Thanks so much for all of the information and good news! Looks like my international rates won’t be going up as much as I thought that they would!
Beth
Well, nuts. I just realized that if you buy your shipping through Endicia, you’re gonna get hosed if you follow this calculator. Endicia’s prices are WAY more expensive than these. :/
Amanda – is Endicia showing the retail rates? I’m surprised they don’t offer commercial base. Let us know what you find out!
Yup, they’re showing the retail rates. Even though they’ve promised commercial base for First Class International! I’ve left a few tantrums for the support team in email form, so I guess we’ll just wait and see. Grr!
OMG ! What a time saver. Thanks for sharing.
Brittany I Love You!!! Thanks for sharing and saving me hours of updating:-) You’re the best!!!
Just had to tell you again… this is a LIFESAVER!!!! I was able to do all of my calculations with this.
THANK YOU!!!
You are a rockstar for creating that calculator. I saved this post to my favs for future reference. I just wish I’d have seen this post before I went and looked everything up!
Nothing better than clear, concise, accurate instructions. Fantastic job, Brittany!
Which international comes with online tracking numbers?
Priority or Express? Thanks in advance! Kathy
Kathy – good news, both Priority Mail and Express come with tracking numbers. Parcel Post (renamed to Standard Post) now includes tracking as well.
Thanks for sharing this- very helpful info!
Thank you for posting this, such a timesaver!
Brenda
Thank you for posting this—it delivers the pain quickly, at least.
(It’s truly very helpful, and I appreciate it.)
Thank you so much for the postage calculator. That was very helpful.
Thank you for sharing the postage calculator. Only thing was I didn’t see the pricing for the small flat rate priority mail box and from what I could ferret out on the USPS site is those are still $5.15 with commercial base pricing.
Hi, just wanted to mention that I was confused because it looks like there are options for First Class international which are over 4lbs (goes up to 56oz) in fact you have to use Priority Mail for anything over 4lbs. THANK YOU so much for posting this.. It has saved me a bit of time! If only etsy were so helpful!!!
Rebecca – you may have your conversion confused, 4lbs is 64oz. There shouldn’t be any FCM International weight options over that. Hope that clears things up!
you are right! i am going so batty with numbers trying not to throw the computer out the window!
[...] – Shipping hike- Dana’s blog post (and the blog post she got her increase percentages from) – We’re going to MDSW! (May 4-5) We’re going on the Bliss [...]
Brittany, Thank you, thank you, thank you! What a timesaver!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you! What a timesaver. I’ve had to pull down all of my international shipping options because I was so confused as to how to re-do all of my international shipping prices. This is making it a gazillion times easier to figure out. Thank you!!
Our local PO is refusing to take our commerical base pricing items because they say they don’t know what the rate should be so they can’t tell if we have the right $$$ on the item or not.
This happened about two years ago untill all the clerks were told to just take what we had and treat the item as already metered. But now they won’t do that. Even when we talked with the supervisor.
Has anyone else had this problem?
The rate calculator here differs from what Endicia is charging me for packages. For example, a 1 oz package to the UK is calculated on this site at 6.16, but it actually costs 6.55. your site says 12 oz to australia is 13.41, but endicia is charging me 14.90. just wanted to let you know so folks don’t complain about any unhappy surprises when they see rates are actually even more than they thought. according to a printout handed to me at the post office, there is no international parcel that will ever be under 6.55. that’s the base rate for all countries now up to 2 oz.
Susie – 6.55 is the minimum rate for First-Class Mail International (FCMI) when using the Retail rates; there is a Commercial Base price for FCMI that starts at 6.16. Etsy offers this commercial price for FCMI. PayPal offers the commercial price for Priority and Express Mail, but doesn’t offer FCMI. Endicia is charging Retail rates.
I added a note to the article about Endicia to warn others. In the interests of simplicity, we made the calculator based entirely on commercial base pricing, since this is most common for online vendors. Thanks for letting us know about another exception!
Thank you SO much for this please keep this post up all year!
Wow, just.. WOW!!! I can’t thank you enough for what you did. All time added up you saved us probably weeks and weeks of time. I am eternally grateful!
Milli
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Hi,
Where can i download the source code for this calculator?
The code is not open source, do you have an enhancement or specific usage in mind?
Hi, thanks for your reply.
I need to post this calculator on my own site and change the CSS layout.
Thanks.
I just compared the rates on this to the rates at the USPS website for a 1oz. package to Australia. Here I get $6.16 and there I get $6.55. :0/
Fidela – the USPS website quotes the retail price, this calculator is showing the commercial base price that sites like PayPal have negotiated with the USPS. So both are correct depending on how you’re buying your postage. Hope that clears things up!
WOW!
I have an Etsy Site and the last several international packages I’ve sent have KILLED me! I thought I had suddenly lost the ability to accurately calculate shipping. Looks like I wasn’t the only one.
This is a HUGE life saver!
Endless thanks,
Jody