With the United States Postal Service, you can ship to anywhere in the world with an address and feel pretty confident that it will reach its destination.
U.S. territories aren’t officially states, and many of them lie several thousand miles away over large bodies of water – just look at Guam and American Samoa.
So you might be wondering: Does USPS ship to Puerto Rico? It’s a small but significant U.S. territory, just in the Caribbean. Here is the answer to your query just below.
Does USPS Ship To Puerto Rico?
The United States Postal Service does ship to Puerto Rico as of 2024. Since Puerto Rico is an American territory, it falls under domestic shipping, so there is no customs form needed. USPS customers in the contiguous 48 states can pay to send items to PR as if they were mailing to anyone else in the U.S.
To learn more about how you ship to Puerto Rico, what it costs, the cheapest method for shipping to PR, and if you can ship flat-rate to the territory, keep reading for everything you need to know!
How Do You Ship To Puerto Rico?
Shipping to Puerto Rico from the 50 U.S. states costs the same as it does to ship from, say, Florida to Texas, but it does require some extra attention when it comes to labeling.
As the site Volusion.com states, people in Puerto Rico live in “urbanizations,” what we think of as neighborhoods or areas of a city (see: Squirrel Hill/Shadyside/South Side in Pittsburgh).
So when shipping to PR, you will have to label the envelope or package to reflect that.
Thus it will read:
- Name
- Urbanization
- House Number, Street Name, Apt. Number
- City, State, Zip +4
Volusion.com helpfully points out that not everyone has a street name; instead, you address the mailpiece to a house number and urbanization.
While you don’t need anything extra to ship to Puerto Rico, like a customs form, you might want to ensure the contents of any package are stabilized or secure within.
The item will be traveling a lot farther – PR is still 1,000 miles from the southernmost tip of Florida – than it would within the States.
How Much Does It Cost To Ship To Puerto Rico With USPS?
Because Puerto Rico falls under domestic shipping rates with USPS, it costs just the same to ship there as it would to anywhere else in the U.S.
That means you can send a simple letter with just a stamp at the regular postage rate (which is currently 58 cents for a Forever stamp).
But say you want to send something a bit larger, like an envelope or a package.
Your best bet will be taking advantage of the USPS’s flat-rate envelopes and boxes.
This type of packaging falls under the Priority Mail service, which ships for one price, no matter its weight, and features two- to three-day delivery speeds.
Here are some popular Flat Rate options and their prices:
- Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope: $7.95
- Priority Mail Flat Rate Box, Small: $8.45
- Priority Mail Flat Rate Box, Medium, top-loading: $15.50
- Priority Mail Flat Rate Box, Large: $21.90
For the full list of options and prices, you can check out the chart on this page.
Say you’re kind of in a hurry, though, and you want to guarantee that the item you’re shipping reaches PR as quickly as possible.
Then you can ship via Priority Mail Express Flat Rate, similar to Priority Mail, but faster.
At this time, the only mailpieces that ship to PR Priority Express are Envelopes, Legal Envelopes, and Padded Envelopes.
Priority Mail Express guarantees 1-day shipping to PR by 6 p.m., six days a week.
That one outlier is Sunday, which costs an additional $12.50 if you ship on a Saturday and want the envelope to arrive the next day.
Additionally, Priority Mail Express service starts at $26.35, depending on your location and destination.
Does USPS Ship Flat Rate To Puerto Rico?
USPS offers two flat-rate shipping options to Puerto Rico.
The first, less inexpensive, and slower choice is the Priority Mail Flat Rate service, which includes both envelopes and boxes.
The second, more expensive, and quickest choice is Priority Mail Express, which unfortunately only ships envelopes to PR.
For a more detailed price breakdown and box/envelope selection, see the section above this.
What Is The Cheapest Way To Ship To Puerto Rico USPS?
If you have a message for someone in Puerto Rico, you could send a postcard via First-Class mail for just 40 cents.
If you have something a bit more substantial to ship, the Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping options are your best bet.
Not only do the flat rates apply to any weight up to 70 lbs., but Flat Rate also comes with three-day shipping, tracking at no extra fee, as well as Saturday delivery at no extra fee.
And you can add Sunday delivery for an additional fee if you’d rather not have to wait until USPS resumes its normal business hours.
Priority Mail Flat Rate starts at $7.95 for envelopes, up to $21.90 for a large flat rate box (medium costs $15.50 and small, $8.45).
This is in comparison to the cheapest (but fastest) option for Priority Express envelopes, which start at $26.35.
Let’s also compare USPS prices to its rivals, FedEx and UPS. Both treat Puerto Rico as international, and the prices will make your eyes water.
For example, shipping from Pennsylvania to San Juan via FedEx International Economy for a 10-lb. package will set you back $109.52.
The cheapest option for a similar shipping service from UPS costs $87.42.
When you can ship a large box, up to 70 lbs., to PR for only $21.90, there is really no comparison. USPS is your most economical choice.
Is Shipping USPS To Puerto Rico International?
Shipping USPS to Puerto Rico is not considered international; the U.S. Postal Service treats mail to and from PR as domestic, and it charges domestic rates.
This is not the case for all shippers, though. FedEx and UPS basically treat shipping to Puerto Rico as international.
Thus, for many people in the U.S., shipping to PR via the good old-fashioned postal service remains the best and cheapest method.
Does Shipping To Puerto Rico Require Customs Forms With USPS?
You do not need customs forms to ship anything to Puerto Rico via USPS.
This is because, as PR Is a U.S. territory, the U.S. Postal Service treats mail incoming and outgoing as domestic.
If you are looking to learn more, you can also see our posts on whether or not USPS ships to Canada, if USPS updates tracking, and if USPS updates tracking.
