A USPS zone is a distance band between two ZIP codes, counted outward from wherever the parcel starts, which is why no single national zone map can exist. The lookup itself is simple: the first three digits of the destination ZIP code determine the zone for a given origin (per postcalc.usps.com, checked 2026-07-28).
Anyone can print a rainbow of rings. The useful version puts a quoted dollar figure on each one.
The Postal Service defines its zones as radii measured out from the origin. The wording below is drawn from the archived Domestic Mail Manual section on postal zones, which is where the mile ranges are spelled out in full.
| Zone | How far it reaches |
|---|---|
| Local | Mail deposited at a post office for delivery inside that office's own delivery area |
| 1 | Outside the local zone, within a radius of about 50 miles |
| 2 | Outside zone 1, within a radius of about 150 miles |
| 3 | Outside zone 2, within a radius of about 300 miles |
| 4 | Outside zone 3, within a radius of about 600 miles |
| 5 | Outside zone 4, within a radius of about 1,000 miles |
| 6 | Outside zone 5, within a radius of about 1,400 miles |
| 7 | Outside zone 6, within a radius of about 1,800 miles |
| 8 | Everything outside zone 7 |
Two things follow from that structure. Zones belong to the sender, so your ZIP is zone 1 to itself and zone 8 to someone three time zones away, while their chart reads the other way round. And the bands widen as they go out, which is why two cities hundreds of miles apart can share a zone and price identically.
We took a single 12 x 10 x 6 in carton holding 5 lb of household goods and quoted it from Newark, NJ 07102 to eight destinations on 2026-07-28. Nothing about the parcel changed between quotes. Only the ring it was aimed at.
| Destination | USPS Ground Advantage | Window returned | Cheapest of the five rates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoboken, NJ 07030 | no USPS row returned | not applicable | $10.37 |
| Philadelphia, PA 19102 | no USPS row returned | not applicable | $10.37 |
| Atlanta, GA 30303 | $14.02 | 8-9 business days | $13.52 |
| Chicago, IL 60601 | $14.02 | 8-9 business days | $14.02 |
| Dallas, TX 75201 | $16.00 | 6-7 business days | $15.49 |
| Denver, CO 80202 | $16.97 | 7-8 business days | $16.47 |
| Los Angeles, CA 90011 | $19.64 | 5-6 business days | $19.14 |
| Seattle, WA 98101 | $19.64 | 8-9 business days | $19.14 |
Read down the last column and the ring structure appears without anyone drawing it. Hoboken is just across the river from Newark and Philadelphia is a long way down the turnpike, yet both landed on $10.37, because a band does not price the difference inside itself. Los Angeles and Seattle sit at opposite ends of the west coast and both landed on $19.14. Crossing the entire country cost $8.77 more than crossing the river.
Our quotes show what a shipper pays. The published price list shows what the zone alone is doing, with everything else held still, so the two views are worth putting next to each other.
| Zone | Retail | Commercial |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12.95 | $9.70 |
| 2 | $13.55 | $9.76 |
| 3 | $14.55 | $10.14 |
| 4 | $15.80 | $11.02 |
| 5 | $17.45 | $13.48 |
| 6 | $19.60 | $15.89 |
| 7 | $22.40 | $17.12 |
| 8 | $26.05 | $19.19 |
The full sweep from zone 1 to zone 8 on a 5 lb parcel is $13.10 at retail. Now hold the weight at 5 lb and change only the carton: our 2026-07-28 quotes moved a UPS Ground price from $14.05 to $36.75 by going from a 12 x 10 x 6 in box to a 24 x 18 x 14 in one, on a single lane. A bigger box beat the entire width of the country by a comfortable margin, which is the thing zone maps never show you.
Any zone table you find online belongs to whoever generated it. Ask which ZIP prefix it was built from before trusting a row, because the same destination sits in a different band for a sender two states away.
The local zone is defined by a post office delivery area rather than by miles, so it can be geographically small in a dense city and surprisingly wide in a rural one.
Our Los Angeles quote returned a 5-6 business day window while Atlanta returned 8-9, on the same box on the same morning. Zones price the lane. They do not schedule it.
Use the USPS Domestic Zone Chart tool with your origin and the destination. The rule it applies is that the first three digits of the destination ZIP code determine the zone, so a chart is only valid for the origin it was generated from.
The archived Domestic Mail Manual sets zone 1 at about 50 miles from the origin, zone 2 at about 150, zone 3 at about 300, zone 4 at about 600, zone 5 at about 1,000, zone 6 at about 1,400 and zone 7 at about 1,800, with zone 8 covering everything beyond that.
On the published Ground Advantage list for prices effective July 12, 2026, a 5 lb parcel runs $12.95 in zone 1 and $26.05 in zone 8 at retail, a spread of $13.10. Our live quotes on 2026-07-28 moved $8.77 between the nearest and furthest destinations for the same carton.
Because zones are bands, not points. Hoboken and Philadelphia both came back at $10.37 from Newark on 2026-07-28, and Los Angeles and Seattle both came back at $19.14, since each pair falls inside the same ring.