Are ShipStation USPS Rates Good?
Updated
ShipStation offers discounted rates for the United States Postal Service (USPS), which can be significantly lower than standard rates.
These discounts come from a negotiated agreement. ShipStation brings the aggregated volume of its whole customer base to the table, and USPS agreed the rates against it.
ShipStation publishes these as up to 87% off USPS retail rates. That figure combines two things: the USPS commercial rate, which is the published tier available to anyone shipping at volume, and the additional discount ShipStation negotiated on top of it.
It’s important to keep in mind that USPS raises rates most years, and that 2026 has had more than one increase. What USPS changed in 2026 covers each one and what it does to commercial pricing.
Both halves matter, and they explain why USPS pricing looks similar across shipping platforms. USPS sets the commercial tiers, so the floor is the same wherever you buy. What a platform negotiates on top moves the number some, but not by the margin the headline percentages imply. Where platforms differ more is in the carriers they bring alongside USPS and what they let you do with the comparison.
Which is the wrong question to spend time on
Whether ShipStation’s USPS rates beat some other source is worth about five minutes of thought, because it is not a decision you have to make once and live with. Connect every carrier account you can — ShipStation’s USPS, ShipStation’s UPS and FedEx, and any account you have negotiated yourself — and let Rate Shopper price the actual parcel against all of them and take the winner.
USPS is cheapest on some parcels and nowhere near it on others, and which is which changes with weight, dimensions and destination on every order. A comparison run per order gets that right without anyone deciding. A view about which carrier is best gets it right on average and wrong on the specific parcel, which is the only place money actually moves.
The saving is in the size of the pool, not in picking the right member of it.
Check your own account
The free tools read your ShipStation account and show you what is wrong with it, and will build your morning's batches if you want. They take about five minutes to set up.