Domestic covers more ground than most people price for. The fifty states are the easy part; Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and military addresses are also domestic, and Alaska and Hawaii stop behaving like the lower 48 the moment you look at the transit column. We sent the same 8 lb box of books to six destinations on 2026-07-28 and kept every number.
Identical contents and identical dimensions, quoted on one morning to Philadelphia, San Francisco, Anchorage, Honolulu, San Juan and St. Thomas.
A 12 × 10 × 8 in carton of hardcover books at 8 lb, leaving Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922. Only the destination ZIP changed between runs, so every difference below belongs to the lane, not to the parcel.
| Destination | Lowest quote | Quoted transit | Faster tier | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia, PA 19104 | $11.19 USPS Ground Advantage | 2-3 business days | $13.41 UPS Ground | 1 business day |
| San Francisco, CA 94110 | $20.84 USPS Ground Advantage | 5-6 business days | $37.03 USPS Priority Mail | 2-3 business days |
| Anchorage, AK 99501 | $24.35 USPS Ground Advantage | 13-14 business days | $41.61 USPS Priority Mail | 5-6 business days |
| Honolulu, HI 96813 | $24.35 USPS Ground Advantage | 12-13 business days | $41.61 USPS Priority Mail | 3-4 business days |
| San Juan, PR 00901 | $22.04 USPS Ground Advantage | 12-13 business days | $39.88 USPS Priority Mail | 6-7 business days |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802 | $22.04 USPS Ground Advantage | 13-14 business days | $39.88 USPS Priority Mail | 5-6 business days |
The table makes two points at once. Distance inside the lower 48 roughly doubles the postage, from $11.19 across two states to $20.84 across the continent, while transit stretches from days to a working week. Outside the lower 48 the postage barely moves again, but the ground clock does, because the box now travels by sea or by air freight before a truck ever touches it.
Both states quoted at exactly the same prices on our box, right down the list: $24.35 on the cheapest ground line, $41.61 on Priority Mail, $60.45 for UPS Ground and $72.63 for UPS 2nd Day Air. Only the day counts differ, and Hawaii came back a day quicker than Anchorage on the ground line. FedEx publishes the split plainly: 1–5 business days inside the contiguous states, 3–7 business days to or from Alaska and Hawaii.
Postal rates treat both as domestic, and on our run the Postal Service was the only carrier that quoted St. Thomas at all. San Juan drew one non-postal answer, an economy product at $62.70 against $22.04 for the cheapest postal line, which tells you which network actually runs that lane.
APO, FPO and DPO mail is domestic mail with a customs declaration stapled to it. Our calculator declined the military ZIP we tried, so those parcels go through the Postal Service directly. USPS states that you pay domestic prices to these addresses, that a customs form is required, and that the address must not carry a city or country name, which would push the item into a foreign mail network.
Before the map matters, the ceiling does. USPS caps its domestic parcel services at 70 lbs, and will not collect a pickup item over 70 lbs or 130 inches in length plus girth. DPO parcels are held to 27 by 14 by 14 inches. Anything past those numbers is a freight conversation, not a parcel one.
Read on 2026-07-28: FedEx ground transit at fedex.com/en-us/shipping/ground.html, which states “Delivery within the contiguous U.S. takes 1–5 business days. Shipping to and from Alaska and Hawaii requires 3–7 business days.” Military address rules and the DPO size ceiling at usps.com/ship/apo-fpo-dpo.htm. Domestic service speeds and the 70 lb ceiling at usps.com/ship/mail-shipping-services.htm. Pickup weight and size limits at tools.usps.com.
Four postal speeds cover most of what a domestic parcel needs, and the published day counts below are what USPS states on its own services page, read 2026-07-28. Every one of them tops out at 70 lbs.
| Service | Published speed | Ceiling | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority Mail Express | 1-3 days | 70 lbs | A date on the far end cannot move and the postage is a rounding error against the contents |
| Priority Mail | 2-3 days | 70 lbs | Cross-country or off-continent parcels where a week of ground would be too long |
| USPS Ground Advantage | 2-5 days | 70 lbs | The default for almost everything inside the lower 48, and the cheapest line on all six lanes above |
| Media Mail | 2-8 days | 70 lbs | Books, printed music and recordings only, with the contents subject to inspection |
The trade shows up hardest on the long lanes. To Honolulu the jump from the cheapest ground line to Priority Mail nearly doubles the postage and cuts the quoted transit from 12-13 business days to 3-4, which is a bargain for a birthday and a waste for a box of spare parts. Decide the deadline first, then read the price column.
The fifty states plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and for the Postal Service the military and diplomatic addresses as well. Everything in that set moves on domestic rates and needs no customs paperwork, apart from military mail, which does.
Yes, and both states priced identically on our test box. What changes is time rather than status: the cheapest ground line quoted 13-14 business days to Anchorage and 12-13 to Honolulu, against 5-6 for the same box to San Francisco.
The Postal Service quoted our box to San Juan at $22.04 on a ground line and $39.88 on Priority Mail. One other carrier came back at $62.70 for its economy product, so on this lane the postal option was not a close call.
Not through this calculator, which declined the military ZIP we tested. Those go through the Postal Service, at domestic prices, with a customs declaration attached, and the address must carry no city or country name.
Ground for anything that can wait a week, an air or priority tier when a date matters, and the cheap economy lines only when nobody is counting days. On long lanes the speed upgrade costs more than the postage itself, so decide the deadline before the carrier.