Installed beats loose
A cell inside the device it powers is the mildest case in the whole battery ladder. The same cell in a bag on its own is a different shipment with different paperwork.
What FedEx will and will not take
FedEx shipping restrictions
Two different words get used as if they meant the same thing. Prohibited means the box does not move, whatever paperwork you attach. Restricted means it moves once somebody with training has declared it properly, or once FedEx has approved you to send it at all. Getting a battery, a cooler of dry ice or a case of wine wrong usually comes down to confusing the second category for the first.
FedEx pages read 2026-07-28Sources linked belowUS domestic focus
Two different refusals
One is a policy line FedEx will not cross. The other is a form you have not filled in yet. They fail at very different points in the journey.
Refused, or just undeclared
This is what FedEx publishes on its own US pages, condensed. It is not the whole prohibited list, which runs to hundreds of commodity lines in the FedEx Service Guide, but it covers what people actually try to ship.
| Item | FedEx position | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Cannabis, THC, marijuana-derived CBD | Refused | Refused even when it is legal in both the origin and the destination state. Hemp-derived CBD at or under 0.3% THC is allowed on parcel services when it complies with federal, state and local law. |
| Tobacco and e-cigarettes | Refused | Cigarettes, cigars, loose and smokeless tobacco, hookah, shisha, and e-cigarettes with their components are all named. |
| Hazardous waste, biohazards, human remains | Refused | Also fireworks, inhalation hazards, animal carcasses, and human or animal cells, tissue and bodily fluids whether infectious or not. |
| Alcohol | Licensed shippers only | Individuals cannot. A licensee enrolled in the FedEx alcohol shipping program can, under a signed agreement, in a sturdy outer corrugated carton, with an adult signature required at delivery on every US package. |
| Firearms | FFL holders only | A Federal Firearms License plus an executed FedEx Firearms Shipping Compliance Agreement, or a government agency. No ammunition in the box, rifles and shotguns broken down, adult or direct signature selected, plain outer carton with no markings that name the contents. |
| Ammunition | Dangerous goods | Handled as a dangerous good, and never accepted at a FedEx Office or any other FedEx retail location. |
| Lithium batteries | Depends on the section | Permitted Section II shipments are accepted at FedEx Office, FedEx Ship Center and Authorized ShipCenter locations and in drop boxes. Sections I, IA and IB need the Class 9 lithium battery label; IB adds a Shipper's Declaration signed by a trained shipper. Special Provision A88 and A99 batteries need advance approval from FedEx. |
| Dry ice | Declare it | A shipment prepared to IATA rules needs no Shipper's Declaration, but the dry ice block on the airbill has to be ticked and the details entered. Not accepted at FedEx Office or in drop boxes; it goes on a scheduled pickup, marked, with the driver told. |
| Other hazardous materials on the ground network | Approval first | You have to be an approved hazardous materials shipper before you tender anything. Packaging follows 49 CFR and normally means UN performance-oriented packaging. A package cannot exceed 70 pounds, and the volume limit is 8 gallons. |
Why the distinction is the whole game
A refused item fails at the counter, or worse, disappears somewhere in the network and never generates a claim you can win. A merely undeclared item usually travels fine and fails later, in a way that lands on the shipper rather than the carrier.
Three FedEx rules make the point on their own. Dangerous goods are kept out of drop boxes, FedEx Office, Authorized ShipCenter, OnSite and ShipSite locations, with permitted Section II lithium batteries carved out as the exception. A Shipper's Declaration is accepted only typed or computer-generated, never handwritten. And the federal requirement for job-specific dangerous goods training sits above all of it, which is why approval is a person-level thing rather than a package-level thing.
Read together, those say something simple. FedEx is not trying to keep a laptop battery or a cooler of dry ice out of the network. It is trying to make sure the person handing it over knows what is in the box and has written it down where a loader can see it.
Who you are matters
Alcohol, firearms and ground hazardous materials all gate on the shipper rather than on the item. No license or agreement means no shipment, however well you pack it.
Where you hand it over matters
Plenty of restricted freight moves only on a scheduled pickup from your own address. The drop box and the retail counter have narrower rules than the network behind them.
How this maps onto our checkout
Our own shipping restrictions page states SMKlog policy, which is a narrower thing than FedEx policy. That page tells you what we will not sell a label for. This one tells you what the carrier itself will refuse to move once the label exists.
The split above is the same split our checkout uses. A hard stop is reserved for things that are genuinely not shippable by anybody: weapons, drugs, currency, counterfeits, live animals, damaged batteries. Everything in the second column instead triggers a question at checkout, because a power bank, a bottle of nail polish remover or a sealed cooler is a normal shipment that needs one honest answer from you before it goes.
Rates on the calculator carry the physical limits with them, so an oversized or overweight box is caught while you are still quoting rather than at the depot. If the item genuinely needs a declaration or a licensed shipper, the freight review form is the route, and a person reads it.
Common questions
Can I ship a lithium battery with FedEx?
A battery installed in the device it powers is the easy case, and FedEx allows permitted Section II lithium battery shipments at FedEx Office, FedEx Ship Center and Authorized ShipCenter locations, and in drop boxes. Loose cells climb the ladder fast: Sections I, IA and IB need the Class 9 lithium battery label, IB needs a signed Shipper's Declaration, and batteries moving under Special Provision A88 or A99 need FedEx approval in advance.
Can I mail a bottle of wine to a friend?
Not through FedEx. Its alcohol page states that individuals who are not licensed alcohol shippers are prohibited from shipping beer, wine, liquor or champagne through the network. Only licensees enrolled in the FedEx alcohol shipping program can, and every US package containing alcohol needs an adult signature at delivery.
Can I put a dry ice package in a FedEx drop box?
No. Hazardous materials including limited quantity materials and dry ice are not accepted at FedEx Office Print and Ship Centers or in drop boxes, and have to be tendered on a scheduled pickup at your location. The package must be marked as containing dry ice and the driver told about it.
Does FedEx ship firearms?
Only for holders of a Federal Firearms License who have executed a FedEx Firearms Shipping Compliance Agreement, plus government agencies. Anyone without an FFL is not eligible for approval and is prohibited from shipping firearms. Ammunition never travels in the same box, and never from a FedEx retail location.
What happens if I ship something restricted without declaring it?
The pages read here do not publish a penalty schedule. What they do publish is that the federal government requires job-specific dangerous goods training before you tender a dangerous goods shipment, and that FedEx accepts Shipper's Declarations only in typed or computer-generated form. An undeclared shipment is an untrained shipment under that rule, and the exposure is regulatory rather than a fee.
FedEx pages read 2026-07-28: what not to ship, alcohol shipping, how to ship firearms, how to ship batteries, hazardous materials on the ground network and dangerous goods. The FedEx Service Guide is the controlling document and this page is a summary of it, not a substitute.