The U.S. Postal Service is heading into 2026 with another financial headache, and this time, it’s customers like you and I who are going to feel it first. On Friday, the Postal Service asked the Postal Regulatory Commission for permission to raise parcel shipping rates across several major services, a move the agency says is tied to “market conditions” as it searches for more revenue.
The request comes on the heels of a difficult fiscal year for USPS who posted a $9 billion loss and a $2.8 billion adjusted operating loss for the year ending Sept. 30, underscoring how far the agency still is from financial stability.
If approved, the new prices would take effect Jan. 18, and the increases are not small. The Postal Service is hoping for the following rate hikes to get approved:
- 6.6% increase for Priority Mail
- 5.1% increase for Priority Mail Express
- 7.8% increase for USPS Ground Advantage
- 6% increase for Parcel Select
Each product serves a different corner of the shipping market. Priority Mail Express remains the Postal Service’s fastest option, offering one-to-three day delivery with a money-back guarantee, while standard Priority Mail promises two-to-three day service.
Ground Advantage, which is only two years old, has become USPS’s slower, budget-oriented workhorse, offering two-to-five-day delivery for packages up to 70 pounds. It’s designed for shippers who care more about price than speed and for businesses that don’t want the per-pound costs of Priority Mail.
Parcel Select, meanwhile, targets high-volume shippers who sort their own packages and feed them into the USPS network for regional delivery. Its service window ranges from two to eight days.
The Postal Regulatory Commission will now review the proposed price adjustments before anything becomes official.
Postal management has been pointing to packages, and of course, not letters, as the agency’s best shot at steady revenue. Parcel volume tripled to 6.7 billion pieces over the decade ending in 2023, but that momentum slipped last year when shipments fell 5.7% in 2025, according to USPS data.
There is one small bit of relief for consumers and that is that the Postal Service said in September it will not raise stamp prices in January, ending its recent pattern of twice-yearly hikes.
But for anyone shipping packages, especially small businesses that rely heavily on the Postal Service’s pricing, a costlier 2026 is now on the table.