Chicago sits near the center of the US parcel network, and the prices show it: from either coast, shipping to Illinois costs less than a full cross-country run. Our two live quotes below put real numbers on it — a five-pound box in the low-to-mid teens from both directions.
Live Chicago quotes from 2026-07-27, one defined parcel, two origins, zero retouching.
Chicago's benchmark box, 12 × 10 × 6 in at 5 lb with household goods inside, went through the SMKlog calculator from both coasts for this page. The rows below are the carriers' answers, copied whole. The quoted price is the finished checkout figure, SMKlog's charge folded in.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $13.29 | 5-6 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $14.02 | 4 business days |
| UPS | Ground | $14.55 | 2-3 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $17.61 | 4-5 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $19.94 | 2-3 business days |
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $15.91 | 6-7 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $16.47 | 5 business days |
| UPS | Ground | $17.00 | 3-4 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $25.00 | 3-4 business days |
| USPS | Priority Mail | $28.13 | 2-3 business days |
Chicago's mid-continent position showed up in the money on 2026-07-27: $13.29 opened the Newark run and $15.91 the Los Angeles run, with ground tiers tightly packed on both. Rail-and-air hub status tends to put Chicago on the short end of quoted windows, though your own quote's window is the operative one. Rates churn constantly under tables like these, so quote the lane fresh when shipping day comes.
Billing weight is whichever is higher: what the scale says or what the box's volume implies. A tightly packed medium box regularly beats a loosely packed large one by several dollars. Before quoting, shrink the box, not the contents.
From Newark, UPS Ground quoted 2-3 business days at $14.55, which makes the $19.94 3 Day Select row hard to justify on this particular lane. That's the kind of read the transit column makes possible. Sometimes the fast tier is the same speed.
Most Chicago-bound parcels travel bare and arrive fine. For the ones carrying something genuinely hard to replace, SMKlog offers shipping protection at label purchase; weigh it against what a loss would actually cost you, not against the label price.
$13.29 from Newark and $15.91 from Los Angeles were our USPS Ground Advantage quotes on 2026-07-27 for a 12 × 10 × 6 in, 5 lb box, both all-in with SMKlog's charge included. Chicago quotes moderately from everywhere, but only a live run prices your actual box.
From Newark our fastest 2026-07-27 windows were 2-3 business days (UPS Ground and 3 Day Select); from Los Angeles, 2-3 via USPS Priority Mail and 3-4 via UPS Ground and 3 Day Select. Slower tiers stretch to as much as 6-7. Windows are listed per row above.
Quick, by ground standards: UPS Ground quoted 2-3 business days from Newark and 3-4 from Los Angeles on our runs, with USPS Priority Mail at 2-3 from the West Coast. Hub cities move parcels briskly. The tables above give the full window for every tier we quoted.
It isn't. The quote, the payment and the label download all work without an account, and every label carries tracking from the moment it prints.