USPS Pricing Overview – Commercial Base, Commercial Plus, Cubic

USPS has a number of different high-volume pricing tiers depending on your shipments and interaction with USPS. You can find more information in this article or calculate your USPS shipping rates with our free calculator here.

• Retail pricing
• Commercial pricing
• Cubic pricing

Retail Pricing

USPS Retail Pricing is the price charged for postage purchased at retail USPS counters. This is the highest pricing charged by the USPS.

Commercial Pricing

USPS Commercial Pricing is the discounted rate for postage bought online through an approved PC Postage provider such as Shippo, instead of at a Post Office counter. USPS used to split it into Commercial Base and Commercial Plus; Notice 123 now lists a single Commercial category. Commercial pricing is calculated based on the weight of the package and which zone it’s traveling to (dependent on the origin address).

Cubic Pricing

USPS Cubic Pricing is calculated based on the dimensions of the package and zones, not weight. There is no volume minimum on Shippo: every account gets Priority Mail Cubic and USPS Ground Advantage Cubic rates from the first label.

Cubic pricing applies to packages up to 20 lbs whose longest side is 22 inches or less (DMM 223.1.3 and DMM 283.1.3, effective July 12, 2026). Priority Mail Cubic has five tiers (0.1 – 0.5 cubic feet) and USPS Ground Advantage Cubic has ten (0.1 – 1.0 cubic feet). Your package is always rounded up to the next tier.

Cubes are calculated: (H” x W” x L”) / 1728 = USPS Shipping “Cube”, with each measurement first rounded down to the nearest ¼ inch. To skip the math, our cubic tier calculator gives you the tier for both services.

Priority Mail on Shippo are based on a combination of cubic and weight/zone pricing. Since we take in both your package weight and dimensions, we automatically calculate both rates and provide you the better rate of the two.

Dive into alternative USPS shipping methods on our blog.

With Shippo, you can tap right into USPS commercial and cubic pricing instantly upon sign-up. It’s free to sign up and compare rates on Shippo. Only pay when you print a shipping label – it’s 5 cents per label plus the cost of the shipping. Label fees are waived when using Shippo’s carrier accounts with USPS, UPS, and DHL.