Under 4 pounds
First-Class Package International Service is the only cheap tier and it stops at 4 pounds. India sits in price group 10 for that product on Notice 123, which is the row its price is read from.
India-bound
Shipping to India from the United States
The rule that decides an India-bound parcel is not a weight or a size. It is a license. India’s postal country listing says the person receiving the box needs an import license for anything beyond personal use worth more than 100 rupees, and where one is required and missing, the contents count as prohibited. SMKlog sells United States domestic parcel labels, so the border leg is not ours to price. What follows is the rule set that leg has to satisfy, read off the country listing on 2026-08-07.
Country listing, datedCaps by productFreight priced by a person
Paperwork first
India assesses duty on gifts and second-hand goods the same as on anything else. The declaration decides more than the carton does.
The license comes before the postage
Very little of what decides an India-bound parcel happens on this side of the ocean. The country listing opens on a licensing rule, closes on a duty rate, and treats a gift no differently from a purchase. Read the row about licenses first, because it is the one that turns a legal shipment into a prohibited one without anybody touching the box.
| Condition | What the country listing states |
|---|---|
| Import license | The addressee has to obtain one for all goods except those intended for personal use and not exceeding 100 rupees in value. Where the license is required and not obtained, the articles are treated as prohibited |
| General duty rate | A very small number of articles is admitted duty free, and the general rate of import duty is 30 percent, with many articles liable to more |
| Gifts and used goods | Duty is chargeable even on free gifts, and being old, second-hand, a gift or intended for personal use does not by itself earn an exemption |
| Where collection stops | Collection of duty is waived where the total duty on a shipment does not exceed 3 rupees |
| Books and magazines | Generally exempt from import duty |
| Consumer electronics | Shipments imported by one person at any one time for personal use must stay within a CIF value of 50,000 Indian rupees. Hearing aids and life-saving equipment sit outside the restriction |
| Country of origin marking | Piece goods and certain manufactured articles have to be marked to show country of origin as the Indian trademark regulations prescribe |
| Recipient details | India Post asks the mailer to put the addressee’s telephone number, mobile preferred, and email address on the customs declaration |
| Perishables | Perishable articles and edible substances are admitted by airmail only |
Two of those rows do more damage together than either does alone. Duty is assessed on gifts, and the exemption for personal use runs out at 100 rupees of value before a license is needed — which is a threshold set low enough that an ordinary parcel of clothes clears it. Telling the household at the far end what is coming, and roughly what it is worth, is worth more here than any packing trick.
The 50,000 rupee ceiling on consumer electronics is per person and per shipment, so a phone and a laptop in the same carton are counted together rather than separately. Split them across two shipments and the arithmetic changes; split them to dodge the ceiling and a customs officer is entitled to read it that way.
Weight ceilings, and the one that surprises people
India does not give the two heavy postal products the same allowance, and the gap between them is 26 pounds. The express product runs to 70. The cheaper one underneath it stops at 44, which is where a lot of family shipments actually sit.
| Service | Weight limit | Maximum length | Length plus girth | Customs form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priority Mail Express International | 70 lb | 36 in | 79 in | PS Form 2976-B inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Priority Mail International | 44 lb | 42 in | 79 in | PS Form 2976-A inside PS Form 2976-E |
| First-Class Package International Service | 4 lb | Sizes per international manual sections 251.22 and 251.23 | PS Form 2976 | |
| Airmail M-bag, direct sack to one addressee | 66 lb | Not stated in the listing | PS Form 2976 |
Flat rate has its own ceilings on top of those. An express flat rate envelope caps at 4 pounds. A Priority Mail International flat rate envelope or small flat rate box caps at 4 pounds, and a medium or large flat rate box at 20 pounds or the country limit, whichever is lower.
The express block for India carries a reciprocal service name, International Speed Post, and an Areas Served table listing named cities against their postal code ranges — Agartala, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and New Delhi, Kanpur, Trivandrum, Visakhapatnam and dozens more. Find the destination town in that table before choosing the express product rather than after.
Between 4 and 44 pounds
Priority Mail International is the working range for most household shipments, at price group 6 with a 42 inch length limit.
Above 44 pounds
The cheaper product is gone and the express one carries it, or the shipment leaves the postal network for a forwarder and gets priced as freight.
What India refuses, and one rule that changes with the season
The prohibition list for India is short but it lands squarely on things people put in family parcels. Metal is the theme: articles of gold or silver are barred outright, not merely restricted, and so is anything that reads as a weapon even when it plainly is not one.
- Articles of gold or silver
- Coins, banknotes, currency notes, traveler’s checks, securities payable to bearer, precious stones, jewelry and other valuable articles
- Coins or ingots worth more than 65 rupees, unless obviously intended for ornament
- Pistol-shaped articles such as toy guns
- Appliances for discharging gas, pistols and pistol pencils among them, except on behalf of the government
- Arms and military equipment, except for the Indian Government
- Radioactive materials
Three more sit under restrictions rather than prohibitions and are easy to trip over. Indian banknotes need permission from the Reserve Bank of India. Commercial shipments of tobacco, whether manufactured or not, may go only to licensed importers or wholesalers. And works of art, photographs, ruled or printed forms, account books, labels, advertising matter and even old newspaper used as packing material are all counted as merchandise and can be charged duty, so wadding a box with newsprint is not a free choice.
There is also a calendar rule that exists for no other reason than winter. Insured Priority Mail International parcels addressed to the post office boxes of Draw, Kargil and Leh in the State of Kashmir are not accepted between November 1 and May 31. If the address is one of those, the mailing window is June through October and nothing about the packing changes that.
What this site can and cannot price
SMKlog issues United States domestic parcel labels. No checkout here produces an India label, and no figure on this page is a quote for one, which is why there are no prices above. What can be priced is the leg that stays inside the country, and what can be reviewed by a person is anything larger than a parcel.
A domestic box
A run from your address to a forwarder, a relative or a consolidator is an ordinary domestic parcel. The calculator prices that in a couple of minutes from two postal codes.
A pallet or a container
Household moves, crates and containerized loads to India are quoted by a person through freight review, because a parcel rating engine cannot see an ocean leg.
The postal leg itself
Postage to India is bought from the postal service or a courier that publishes its own separate rules for the same destination. Compare their ceilings against the table above before you compare their prices.
Service status on the day this was read
USPS keeps a live list of destinations it has stopped accepting mail for. On the international service alerts page, updated August 7 2026 and read the same day, thirteen destinations sat under a suspension for unavailability of transportation, and a separate picker offered fourteen individual disruption notices — those same thirteen countries, plus Ukraine. India appeared in neither group. That is a statement about one particular day; suspensions are posted without warning, so check the alerts page again on the morning you mail.
- USPS Postal Explorer, Individual Country Listing for India — prohibitions, restrictions, observations, per-product weight and size limits, customs forms and the Kashmir seasonal rule. Read 2026-08-07.
- USPS, International Service Alerts — the live suspension and disruption lists. Page updated August 7 2026, read 2026-08-07.
- U.S. Department of Commerce, India Country Commercial Guide, Customs Regulations — the Customs Act of 1962 and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs as the governing authority. Last published 2026-04-20, read 2026-08-07.
Country conditions are amended without notice and rupee thresholds have been revised before. Everything above is what those pages said on the date given, and the postal listing is the document to re-read on the day the box goes out.
Common questions
Does the recipient in India need an import license?
For anything past personal use worth more than 100 rupees, yes. The country listing read 2026-08-07 states that addressees have to obtain import licenses for all goods except those intended for personal use and not exceeding 100 rupees in value, and that articles are considered prohibited where a required license was not obtained.
How heavy can a package to India be?
Priority Mail Express International runs to 70 lb and Priority Mail International stops at 44 lb, per the country listing read 2026-08-07. First-Class Package International Service caps at 4 lb. Length limits bite too: 36 inches on the express product and 42 inches on Priority Mail International, both at 79 inches of length plus girth.
How much duty will the recipient pay?
The listing puts the general rate of import duty at 30 percent with many articles liable to more, and records that collection is waived only where the total duty on a shipment does not exceed 3 rupees. Books and magazines are generally exempt.
Are gifts to India duty free?
No. The listing states that import duty is chargeable even if the articles are received as free gifts, and that goods being old, second-hand, gifts or intended for personal use does not by itself entitle them to exemption.
Can gold or silver jewelry be mailed to India?
No. Articles of gold or silver are on the prohibition list, alongside coins, banknotes, precious stones and jewelry generally, and coins or ingots worth more than 65 rupees unless obviously intended for ornament.