What is on it
Alcoholic beverages, ammunition, biological substances, dangerous goods, firearms and weapons, live animals, perishables, plants and seeds, and tobacco. Nine categories, each with its own agreement.
UPS rules
UPS shipping restrictions, in two lists
UPS separates what it will not carry at any price from what it will carry only under a signed agreement, and the second list is longer than most senders expect: wine, ammunition, live animals and tobacco all sit on it. The wording quoted below came off ups.com on 2026-07-29, and the five contents at the foot of the page went through our own calculator the same afternoon.
ups.com read 2026-07-29Five contents quotedUS domestic focus
One list closes, one opens
A refusal has no paperwork route around it. A contract restriction has one, and almost nobody sending a single box qualifies for it.
Articles UPS names as prohibited
This is the short, blunt list. Nothing in the middle column is a packaging problem or a labeling problem, and no form exists that converts one of these into an acceptable parcel. UPS puts the burden squarely on the sender: “It is the shipper's responsibility to comply with current government regulations or laws applicable in each country.”
| Article | How the page words it | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | Bank bills, notes or currency | Currency itself is named. A money order or a check is not on the list, which is the usual way people move value through a parcel network. |
| Postage stamps | Postage stamps | Catches sellers liquidating a stamp collection, who rarely think of it as regulated. |
| Fireworks | Common fireworks | The consumer grade, not just professional pyrotechnics. |
| Cannabis | Marijuana, including marijuana intended for medical use, and CBD derived from marijuana | Written as a flat refusal. Nothing in it turns on state law at either end of the lane. |
| Human remains | Human remains, fetal remains, human body parts, human embryos or components thereof | Spelled out in full, so there is no argument later about which parts of the category count. |
| Ivory and shark fins | Ivory; Shark fins | Two wildlife commodities singled out by name rather than left to a general clause. |
| Hazardous waste | Hazardous waste or hazardous waste service | Distinct from dangerous goods, which are on the other list. |
| Vapes | Vape products within, to or from the U.S | The whole product, not only the battery in it. |
| Anything unlawful | Shipments prohibited by law | The clause that closes every gap the named entries leave open. |
Two catch-alls sit underneath those rows and do a great deal of quiet work. UPS also excludes goods with “inherent vice, which by their nature are likely to soil, impair or damage persons, merchandise, or equipment”, and goods “which attract excise duty (ex. spirits), or which require special facilities, safety precautions or permits”. That second phrase is why a bottle of spirits is not a paperwork question for an ordinary sender: excise goods are excluded before the conversation about permits even starts.
The list you can be admitted to
A second group of commodities moves through the UPS network every day, just not for you. The page is direct about the mechanism: “Certain items we list as prohibited will be accepted by UPS on a contractual basis for shippers with regular volume and the ability to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.” Regular volume is doing as much work in that sentence as compliance is.
How you get on it
UPS describes a profile, a request carrying business details and licenses, a signed agreement, and processing by its own team before the first label. Wine and tobacco both need what UPS calls a dedicated account with specific documentation.
Why one box does not qualify
The threshold is a shipping program, not a single consignment. Two bottles to a friend or one rifle to a gunsmith is not a form you have failed to fill in; it is a category you are not in.
There is also a cost to being wrong. If prohibited articles are discovered in the network, UPS states the shipper must pay an additional minimum administration fee, and the amount varies by country. Add the value of a parcel that does not come back and the arithmetic stops being close.
Weight and size limits are restrictions of a different kind, and they have their own page: the ceilings UPS publishes for a package sit on the UPS weight limit guide.
Five contents, one lane, one afternoon
Reading a policy page tells you what should happen. On 2026-07-29 we typed five different contents into our own calculator on a single lane, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922 to Chicago, IL 60601, and wrote down exactly what came back for each. Three of the five produced no priced service at all.
| What we typed | Box quoted | Cheapest price back | Everything else returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sealed box of ceramic dinner plates | 14 × 14 × 12 in 12 lb | $19.78 UPS Ground Saver | USPS Ground Advantage $22.62, FedEx Ground Economy $22.93, UPS Ground $23.54, UPS 3 Day Select $31.29 |
| 20000 mAh lithium ion power bank | 8 × 5 × 2 in 1.5 lb | $10.39 USPS Ground Advantage | UPS Ground $11.37, FedEx Ground $26.32 |
| Handgun | 14 × 10 × 4 in 5 lb | No rates returned | Nothing priced the box |
| Disposable vape pen | 6 × 4 × 2 in 0.5 lb | No rates returned | Nothing priced the box |
| Sealed bottle of bourbon whiskey | 14 × 6 × 6 in 5 lb | No rates returned | Nothing priced the box |
The three empty rows are the useful part. A quote screen with nothing on it is not a bug and not a network outage; it is the same policy the carrier publishes, arriving before you have entered an address or a card. The dinner plates and the power bank went through because neither is on either list.
The power bank row rewards a second look. Three services came back and every one of them was a ground service, because a loose lithium cell travels on the road rather than in a hold. That is a restriction expressed as an absence: nothing was blocked, the fast options simply were not offered.
Where these rules come from
- UPS, Prohibited Items — the named refusals, the two catch-all clauses, the contractual acceptance sentence and the administration fee. Read 2026-07-29.
- UPS, Shipping Special Care and Regulated Items — the dedicated account route for alcohol, tobacco, firearms and hemp, and the request-and-agreement sequence. Read 2026-07-29.
- UPS, Shipping Dimensions and Weight — the package ceilings referenced above. Read 2026-07-29.
Carrier policy pages change silently, and the version above is the one that was live on the date shown. Before you pack something that might sit near a line, open the source and read it yourself rather than trusting a summary of any age.
Common questions
Can I ship a bottle of wine or bourbon with UPS?
Not as a household sender. Alcoholic beverages sit on the contract list, which means a business account, licenses and a signed agreement before one bottle moves. Our own quote for a sealed bottle of bourbon came back with no rates at all on 2026-07-29.
Does UPS carry marijuana or CBD?
The prohibited list names marijuana, marijuana intended for medical use, and CBD derived from marijuana. Legality in both the origin and the destination state does not change how that page was worded when we read it on 2026-07-29.
Why will UPS not take a vape?
Vape products within, to or from the United States are named outright. The refusal covers the device and its parts, not only the lithium cell inside it, so repackaging changes nothing.
What happens if a prohibited article turns up in the network?
UPS states the shipper has to pay an additional minimum administration fee, and the amount varies by country. The parcel and its contents are usually the smaller half of that loss.
Can I ship a lithium power bank?
Yes, along the ground. Every service that came back for a 20000 mAh power bank on 2026-07-29 was a ground service, and the cheapest of the three was USPS Ground Advantage at $10.39.