In this article you will find what costs you can expect and a few recommendations on how you can optimize the postage significantly!
Price status: 06/2021
In Germany, the main shipping service providers are:
Deutsche Post, DHL, Hermes, UPS, FedEx, GLS and DPD
In this article, I will only discuss the following companies, since you can optimize your shipment with them. In addition, you can find these service providers almost “on every corner”.
- Deutsche Post for letters and small consignments
- DHL for parcels (charged by weight)
- Hermes for parcels (charged by weight)
Deutsche Post
The core business here is letter mail and shipping small goods up to 2kg. As a mail order company, I can say that letter mail is very reliable. It’s a completely different story with merchandise shipments. Here, a shipment “disappears” more often than not. Letters and merchandise shipments do not have tracking!
German Post Postage Table
| Sendungsart | Maße national | Maße international | max. Gewicht | Preis national | Preis international |
| Postcard(Postkarte) | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm | 150 – 500 g je qm | 0,60 € | 0,95 € |
| Letter(Brief) | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm Thickness: 0,5 cm | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm Thickness: 0,5 cm | 20g | 0,80 € | 1,10 € |
| Compact letter(Kompaktbrief) | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm Thickness: 0,5 cm | Length: 14 – 23,5 cm Width: 9 – 12,5 cm Thickness: 1 cm | 50g | 0,95 € | 1,70 € |
| Large letter(Großbrief) | Length: 10 – 35.3 cm Width: 7 – 25 cm Thickness: 2 cm | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 500g | 1,55 € | 3,70 € |
| Maxibrief | Length: 10 – 35.3 cm Width: 7 – 25 cm Thickness: 5 cm | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 1000g | 2,70 € | 7,00 € |
| Maxibrief | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 2000g | 17,00 € | ||
| Consignment 500g | ***only national*** | ||||
| Consignment 1000g | ***only national*** | ||||
| Warenpost International XS | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 500g | without tracking: non-eu: 3,80(VAT exempt) eu: 3,81(inkl. VAT) | ||
| Warenpost International S | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 500g | without tracking: non-eu: 5,00(VAT exempt) eu: 4,40(inkl. VAT) | ||
| Warenpost International M | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 1000g | without tracking: non-eu: 8,33(VAT exempt) eu: 9,00(inkl. VAT) | ||
| Warenpost International L | Length: 14 – 60 cm Breite: 9 – 60 cm Width+Breath+Dicke: max. 90 cm | 2000g | without tracking: non-eu: 20,23(VAT exempt) eu: 19,90(inkl. VAT) | ||
- Please note that the shipments also have (due to machine) minimum dimensions!
- In international letters, since 2021 no more goods may be sent.
- The longest side of the Groß- and Maxibrief as well as the Warenpost international may be max. 60cm long.
- The Warenpost international XS – L is currently only available to business customers. This could be interesting for entrepreneurs who are planning to start a mail order business in Germany.
Here is the link for the complete price list of Deutsche Post, there you can find in the header very clearly and quickly the special price lists for letters and goods shipping for national as well as international shipping.
DHL
The special thing about a DHL package (business customers) is that each package may measure up to 60cm x 60cm x 120cm. Here, billing is based on weight. For private customers there are also smaller dimensions at reasonable prices.
The rule of thumb to decide for shipping with DHL:
In the following table I have clearly presented the most important shipping methods of DHL for Germany, EU and USA.
In the following table I have clearly presented the most important shipping methods of DHL for Germany, EU and USA.
| Package type | Dimensions | Price(online) national | Price(online) EU | Price(online) USA |
| Päckchen S 2kg | up to 35 x 25 x 10 cm | 3,79 € | ||
| Päckchen XS 2kg | up to 35 x 25 x 3 cm | 4,89 € | 8,89 € | |
| Päckchen M 2kg | up to 60 x 30 x 15 cm | 4,39 € | ||
| Päckchen M 2kg | Length+Width+Thickness: max. 90 cm | 8,89 € | 15,89€ | |
| DHL Paket 2 kg | up to 60 x 30 x 15 cm | 4,99 € | 13,99 € | |
| DHL Paket 5 kg | up to 120 x 60 x 60 cm** | 5,99 € | 15,99 € | 36,99 € |
| DHL Paket 10 kg | up to 120 x 60 x 60 cm** | 8,49 € | 20,99 € | 53,99 € |
| DHL Paket 31,5 kg | up to 120 x 60 x 60 cm | 16,49 € | 44,99 € | 105,99 € |
DHL parcels are insured against loss and damage up to 500 €, small parcels are not insured and also not tracked!
For the sake of completeness, I link you the complete price lists of DHL-national, DHL-EU and DHL-USA for shipping from Germany.
HERMES
If you have heavy small things to send, then you can really save with Hermes! Here, only the longest and shortest side are added to determine the parcel type XS, S, M or L. Each package (within the EU) may weigh up to 25kg.
With heavy packages to the USA or Australia, it is also very price-intensive with Hermes ḿit increasing weight. Since one is very limited here, however, with the package size, one should compare the whole thing exactly with DHL or Deutsche Post Warensendung!
Below is the very clear table of Hermes shipping costs for Germany, EU and USA.
| Paketart | Maße(längste + kürzeste Seite) | Gewicht bis | Preis(online) national | Preis(online) *(1) | Preis(online) USA |
| Hermes Päckchen | up to 37 cm | 25 kg | 3,70 € | ||
| Hermes Päckchen XS | up to 30 cm | 25 kg | 9,90 | ||
| Hermes S-Paket | up to 50 cm | 25 kg | 4,40 € | 13,90 € | |
| Hermes M-Paket | up to 80 cm | 25 kg | 5,40 € | 18,90 € | |
| Hermes L-Paket | up to 120 cm | 25 kg | 10,40 € | 28,90 € | |
| Hermes XXS-Paket | up to 30 cm | 2 kg | 27,99 € | ||
| Hermes XS-Paket | up to 30 cm | 5 kg | 49,99 € | ||
| Hermes S-Paket | up to 50 cm | 10 kg | 79,99 € | ||
| Hermes M-Paket | up to 80 cm | 15 kg | 129,99 € | ||
| Hermes L-Paket | up to 120 cm | 25 kg | 189,99 € |
Hermes parcels are insured up to 50 € and Hermes packages up to 500 € against loss and damage.
You can calculate your exact Hermes postage for your specific destination country here.
Finally, a word on the subject of insurance or liability.
Always pack your package so that it can be dropped from a height of one meter without braking. Your package will probably experience unimaginable ordeals!