May 15, 2026
Last July, the U.S. Postal Service raised the price of Forever Stamps to 78 cents. Last month, the agency proposed (1) another increase, which would take the postage rate to 82 cents per stamp on July 12. Now, however, the USPS is hoping to raise prices on even more services as it looks to stem financial losses.
The Postal Service has asked (2) the Postal Regulatory Commission, which must approve any rate changes, for a series of hikes that would go into effect the same day the higher stamp prices are expected to kick in.
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“In the midst of the severe financial crisis facing the Postal Service and continued rising operational costs, the postal service is using all available tools, including available regulatory pricing authority, to ensure we can continue to fulfill our universal service obligation and serve the American public.
For consumers, the biggest change will be a 3% increase in the price of PO box rentals. Shippers of large, lightweight packages could see their shipping costs increase, though.
For instance, Parcel Select packages, a ground shipping service favored by high-volume commercial shippers for non-urgent packages, will see the price of forwarding and returns increase from $3.80 to $6. The USPS is also lowering the dimensional weight (DIM weight) divisor from 166 to 139 across all domestic competitive products. (The lower the DIM weight divisor, the more expensive it is to ship packages. It's a measurement that applies to large, lightweight packages that take up room on Postal Service trucks and planes.)
The USPS last changed (3) the DIM weight divisor in 2019.
New fees are also being assessed for any hazardous materials sent via Priority Mail Express or Priority Mail. The USPS did not detail what those would be, however.
Financial losses
The USPS has been beset by financial losses for quite some time. In the most recent quarter, the agency reported (4) a net loss of $2 billion, despite higher revenues and lower operating costs. Fewer people are using the service these days as electronic communications continue to be a preferred way to communicate and consumers opt for private carriers (such as FedEx and UPS) for personal packages. Overall mail volumes fell 3.4% to 25.6 billion pieces. First-Class Mail saw a 6.3% drop.
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To stem those losses, the USPS has raised postage rates seven times (5) since August 2021, not counting the pending increase this July.
During holiday 2025, the postal service also added surcharges (6) onto packages sent during the holiday season that increased costs by up to $16 per package. And in April, it announced a "temporary" (7) 8% surcharge on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select shipments — both retail and commercial.
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Privatization whispers
As the USPS tries to solve its financial problems, there is ongoing speculation that the Trump administration could make an attempt to privatize (8) the mail delivery service at some point.
Trump, at a news conference at Mar-a-Largo in December 2024, said privatizing the USPS was "not the worst idea I've ever heard" and "We're looking at it."
However, the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 transformed the USPS from a cabinet level agency to an independent establishment of the executive branch, which would make such a transformation difficult.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
U.S. Postal Service (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7); The Wall Street Journal (8)
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
