UPS sells eight domestic parcel services and almost nobody needs more than three of them. On 2026-07-28 we put a single 14 x 10 x 8 in carton at 8 lb through our checkout from Newark, NJ 07102 to Chicago, IL 60601 and let every service that could price it come back at once. Ground Saver landed at $15.31, Ground at $15.80, and 3 Day Select at $22.23 with the same transit estimate as Ground. Below is that quote, then what UPS itself commits to on each service in the range.
We keep a rate page for each UPS tier. This is the one that shows them together, on the same carton, at the same moment.
Three tiers priced this box. The five air services did not come back in the response, so their price columns are empty rather than filled with an estimate. The transit column is what the quote itself returned, not a promise repeated from a brochure.
| UPS service | Price on this box | Transit the quote returned | What UPS commits to |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS Ground Saver | $15.31 | 4 days estimated, no window returned | Roughly one to two business days behind Ground; final mile by UPS or USPS depending on destination |
| UPS Ground | $15.80 | 2-3 business days | One to five business days, with 85% delivered in three days or less |
| UPS 3 Day Select | $22.23 | 2-3 business days | 48 contiguous states, Saturday delivery available |
| UPS 2nd Day Air | no price returned | — | All 50 states and Puerto Rico, with Alaska and Hawaii limitations |
| UPS 2nd Day Air A.M. | no price returned | — | 48 contiguous states plus limited Alaska and Hawaii addresses |
| UPS Next Day Air Saver | no price returned | — | Ships from all 50 states into the 48 contiguous states, overnight |
| UPS Next Day Air | no price returned | — | All 50 states and Puerto Rico, Saturday delivery available |
| UPS Next Day Air Early | no price returned | — | 48 contiguous states and Anchorage, AK |
Commitments in the last column are quoted from the UPS domestic services page at ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-services/domestic and, for the economy tier, from ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-costs-rates/ups-ground-saver. Both were read on 2026-07-28. UPS moves these details, so treat the date as part of the fact.
The reason to look at the tiers together rather than one page at a time is that the gaps between them are not proportional to the days they buy. On this carton, on this lane, two of the three gaps are not worth paying for.
Ground Saver undercut UPS Ground by 49 cents here, and the quote pushed its estimate out to four days with no window attached. Under a dollar to wait an extra day or two is a bad trade on anything somebody is waiting for.
Both returned a 2-3 business day estimate on this route, so $22.23 buys the same arrival as $15.80. On a Newark to Chicago hop, Ground is already inside the three-day window the tier is named after.
Overnight and second-day exist for a deadline, not for speed in the abstract. If nothing breaks when the box lands on Thursday instead of Tuesday, the ground tiers are the whole conversation.
This pattern flips on long hauls. Our separate capture of the three-day tier found the honest opposite behavior coast to coast, where the transit windows genuinely split and the extra money buys days. Lane length is what decides it, so the only reliable version of this table is the one run on your own two ZIP codes.
A UPS service list is only half an answer, because the same carton is offered to every carrier in the same request. Two more prices came back for it, and one of them beat the whole UPS ground range.
| Carrier and service | Price | Transit returned | Counter price the carrier publishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS Ground Advantage | $15.21 | 8-9 business days | $20.40 |
| FedEx Ground Economy | $19.94 | 6-7 business days | $27.49 |
The Postal option was the cheapest thing in the response and also the slowest by a wide margin, which is the trade the transit column exists to expose. UPS Ground at $15.80 bought roughly six business days over the $15.21 Postal price, and that is the kind of comparison a single-carrier page structurally cannot show you.
Eight for domestic parcels: Ground, Ground Saver, 3 Day Select, 2nd Day Air, 2nd Day Air A.M., Next Day Air Saver, Next Day Air and Next Day Air Early. The first three are the ones our quote returned for the carton on this page.
Ground Saver, by 49 cents on the box we quoted, at $15.31 against $15.80 for UPS Ground. UPS describes it as combining its own ground transportation with final delivery handled by UPS or the U.S. Postal Service depending on the destination, so the last mile is not always a UPS driver.
Not on the lane we quoted. Both came back with a 2-3 business day estimate on 2026-07-28 while 3 Day Select cost $22.23 against $15.80. The tier earns its money on long hauls where Ground genuinely takes longer than three days, not on Newark to Chicago.
One to five business days, and the carrier adds that 85% of UPS Ground packages are delivered in three days or less. That is UPS's own wording on its domestic services page, read 2026-07-28.
Because the quote we ran for this carton did not return one, and a number we did not receive is not a number we will print. Run the same box through the calculator and the air tiers price alongside the ground ones when the lane supports them.
UPS states that Saturday delivery is available on 3 Day Select, 2nd Day Air, 2nd Day Air A.M., Next Day Air and Next Day Air Early on its domestic services page, read 2026-07-28. Availability still depends on the receiving address.