USPS holiday shipping deadlines 2026.

The 2026 USPS send-by dates

These are the dates USPS published on its holiday shipping page, read on October 26, 2026, for expected delivery before December 25. USPS calls them recommended dates, not guarantees: actual delivery depends on where the package starts, where it is going, when the Post Office accepts it and other conditions. The calculator compares each date with today's date on your device.

Contiguous U.S.

Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and U.S. territories

First-Class Mail, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express use the same dates as the table above. USPS does not give a fixed Ground Advantage date for these locations: it states that Ground Advantage packages between the contiguous U.S. and Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Freely Associated States have a service expectation of 10 days or more, and tells mailers to look up the service expectation for their ZIP codes. That is why the calculator shows "No fixed date" for that row.

International

USPS lists the same dates for every region on its page (Africa, Asia/Pacific Rim, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Mexico and the Middle East): Wednesday, December 9 for First-Class Package International Service and Priority Mail International, and Wednesday, December 16 for Priority Mail Express International. Customs processing can add time, so treat these as the latest dates, not the target.

Worked example

You are mailing a 2 lb gift box from Ohio to Texas with Priority Mail. The contiguous U.S. send-by date is Friday, December 18, 2026. Counting from Thursday, December 10, 2026 gives 8 days left (December 10 to December 18). The same box sent by Ground Advantage must go by December 17, so it has 7 days left on December 10. A parcel to Toronto by Priority Mail International must go by December 9, which has already passed on December 10.

Military and diplomatic mail

USPS publishes separate, earlier dates for APO, FPO and DPO addresses, and some of its Ground Advantage dates are in early November. This page does not reproduce that table; use the USPS holiday page for those addresses.

What this page does not cover

UPS, FedEx, DHL and Canada Post publish their own holiday deadlines, and this page does not list them. Check each carrier directly.