January 2026 postal rates haven’t even taken effect yet and USPS is already planning changes for July. The new 2026 rates go into effect on Monday (January 19, which is a postal holiday). It wasn’t so long ago that rate changes took place only once a year, each January. Now, sellers must contend with two official changes a year, with a third rate hike each year due to the imposition of holiday-season rates.
On Tuesday, the USPS posted an overview of its July 2026 price change plan on PostalPro (missing the actual prices, which it generally keeps secret until closer to the rate-change date).
One change that impacts competitive packages: “The Postal Service is considering modifying the cubic tier measurements for USPS Ground Advantage (GA) soft-packs and padded envelopes to align with Priority Mail (PM) tiers and increasing the maximum allowable length for all cubic from 18 to 22 inches.”
Increasing the allowable length from 18″ to 22″ for both Priority Mail (PM) and Ground Advantage (GA) for boxes, soft-packs, and padded envelopes is a positive – the USPS describes the objective of the move as “meeting customer needs for longer, machinable items.”
USPS offers volume-based cubic pricing that are “ideal for small, heavy packages since the pricing is based on the volume of the package instead of the weight,” as ShippingEasy explains.
Shipping Easy describes the current cubic pricing available for PM and GA as follows:
USPS Priority Mail
USPS Priority Mail cubic pricing can apply to small packages that meet the following requirements:
- Weighs less than 20 pounds
- Measures 0.50 cubic feet or less
- Longest dimension does not exceed 18 inches
USPS Ground Advantage
USPS Ground Advantage cubic pricing is the most cost-saving – and slowest – option for shipping packages that meet the following requirements:
- Weighs less than 20 pounds
- Measures 1 cubic foot or less
- Longest dimension does not exceed 18 inches
Shippers who use Market Dominant services to mail packages should see Section 10 of Tuesday’s notice, the “Overweight/Oversize Item Fee,” which explains: “The Postal Service is considering reclassifying and repricing overweight/oversize items that fall outside a defined set of weights and dimensions. This will better enable mail processing operations to process overweight/oversize parcels and incentivize mailers to submit error-free manifests, thereby minimizing processing issues and providing for better reporting.” These changes impact packages whose weights exceed 70 lbs. (they’ll be assessed an Overweight/Oversize Items Fee) and whose weights exceed 130 lbs. (they will be repriced as USPS Ground Advantage Oversize and assessed the Overweight/Oversize Items Fee).
Last year, USPS announced July 2025 Competitive changes on May 9 (and Market Dominant rates in April), so don’t expect specific July 2026 prices anytime soon.
Its sad there is no one who will do anything about the constant rate increases, all I get from politicians “it’s horrible, I’ll look into it” then NOTHING. Raising rates 3 time inflation rate each year is killing small businesses but no one cares.
OUCH, just looked at Sunday’s rate increases, $.35 to $.64 cent increase on 4-8 oz packages. Way to wipe out small packages, thought USPS wanted to get rid of large packages.
FYI, some good news. The Postal Regulatory Commission last week told USPS that it will not approve more tha one rate increase per year, through 2030, for the services over which it has that authority. That means “market dominant” services including First Class, Marketing Mail, Bound Printed Matter, Periodicals, etc.
They do not have the same authority over Ground Advantage or Parcel Select, which are considered “competitive” products.
This won’t necessarily make the overall increases any less, but will at least make it possible to plan over a longer time period.
Scott
Postage Saver Software