Parcel shipping costs in Europe 2026: 21 countries

What does a parcel cost in Poland, France or Norway, and what does the same box cost when you send it from the Netherlands or Germany? This article is a snapshot of the European Shipping Rates Index: 21 countries, three domestic weights and 2 kg across the border, measured on 26 September 2026 from the same rate card AirPost buys labels from every day.

Every amount is a carrier price: what the label costs, without our fee and without a sender’s fee. That way you can put it next to your own carrier contract or your current shipping platform.

Parcel shipping costs by country, measured 26 September 2026 #

Read the table by row. The first three columns are what a parcel costs that starts in that country and stays there. The last two are what a 2 kg parcel costs when it travels to that country from the Netherlands or Germany. The gap between the first and the fourth column is what you pay per order because your stock sits in the wrong country.

The median: domestic versus cross-border #

The median is the middle value: half the countries sit below it, half above. An average would be pulled up by Norway; the median is not. Domestically that middle value is €3.82. Across the border from the Netherlands it is €13.10, more than three times as much. From Germany it is €10.00: six countries can be reached from there for €7.25, but even from Germany the border costs more than twice the domestic rate at the median.

Country by country, the gap varies a lot. From the Netherlands it is widest to the United Kingdom (€16.24 against €2.92 domestic) and Latvia (€14.39 against €1.97). It is narrowest to Austria (€8.46 against €6.30) and Belgium (€7.71 against €4.33): Austria is already expensive domestically, Belgium is next door. The countries with the cheapest domestic rates, in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics, are among the most expensive to reach from the Netherlands.

Weight changes less than you might expect. Domestically the median rises from €3.82 at 2 kg to €5.23 at 10 kg. In several countries, such as Germany and Estonia, 10 kg costs the same as 2 kg. Norway is the outlier: 10 kg jumps to €16.67 there.

What the gap costs per 100 orders #

A few euros per parcel feels small on a single order. On a month of orders it is a cost line. Below are the medians, converted to 100 cross-border orders of 2 kg.

For a single country the gap can be much bigger than the median. A Dutch shop selling to Poland pays €11.18 more per parcel than a parcel that starts in Poland. Over 100 orders that is €1,118, and after fulfilment €808 is left.

Two things are not in this sum. Your own time: if you pack yourself, you pay in hours, and those disappear when someone else packs. And the batch: stock in another country starts with one shipment to that sender. How the model works in practice, country by country, is in Ship domestically in Europe without a warehouse.

Why crossing a border costs so much more #

• Two networks instead of one. A domestic parcel goes from drop-off point to sorting centre to courier. A cross-border parcel also goes to an international hub, travels by truck to the destination country and is handed to the local delivery network there. Every handover costs money.
• You pay for the last mile anyway. A parcel from the Netherlands to Poland is usually delivered by the Polish network. So you pay for the domestic work plus everything before it.
• Volume. Domestic rates are built on large flows of parcels over the same routes. Far fewer parcels travel on each cross-border lane, and that shows in the price per parcel.
• Customs outside the EU. Norway and the United Kingdom are outside the EU. Every parcel needs a customs declaration, and the recipient may pay import duty or VAT. That partly explains why they are the two most expensive destinations from the Netherlands.

The gap is well known in Brussels. EU Regulation 2018/644 on cross-border parcel delivery requires parcel delivery providers to publish their tariffs, so that regulators can assess whether they are reasonable. The regulation does not set the prices themselves.

Pickup point or home delivery: what the index measures #

For each weight point the index takes the cheapest service available in that country. In many countries that is a service to a pickup point or parcel locker. In Latvia and Estonia, for example, Unisend offers both a parcel-locker and a home-delivery service; in Poland the options include InPost, DPD, ORLEN Paczka and Poczta Polska; in the Netherlands PostNL, DHL, DPD and UPS with an Access Point.

If your customer picks home delivery, the rate can be higher than in the table: the table shows the lowest rate, not every service. Which services exist in each country and what each costs is on /en/shipping-options. When to offer which is covered in Pickup point vs home delivery in Europe.

How the index is measured #

• Source: AirPost’s live rate card, the same one behind the prices on /en/countries and in the order flow. No survey, no brochure list.
• Carrier price: the rate minus our €0.85 platform fee, without a sender’s fee. An index should not be a product price.
• Domestic: per country, the cheapest service from that country to the same country, at 2, 5 and 10 kg.
• Cross-border: the cheapest route for 2 kg from the Netherlands and from Germany to each country. Those are the two largest home countries of the shops on AirPost.
• Median: the middle value across the countries in the table. Domestic covers 21 countries, cross-border 20 (the origin country itself does not count).
• Europe only. Countries outside Europe that AirPost also ships from are not in the index.

How this works with AirPost #

AirPost lets the parcel start in your customer’s country. You place a batch of stock with a verified sender there, and each order becomes a domestic parcel at the domestic rate from the table. It works like this:

1. 1

   Find a sender

   Filter by price and parcel size. Everyone is ID-verified, with reviews alongside.

2. 2

   Send your stock

   A test batch of your products and your own packaging. No contract, no minimum.

3. 3

   Queue your orders

   In the chat, with address and size, or automatically through the Shopify integration. To one sender, or to all your senders in that country at once. A sender only sees your customer’s address once they pick up the order.

4. 4

   We handle the label

   We find the cheapest rate within the service level you choose. You pay from your balance.

5. 5

   Track the shipment

   Tracking comes in for both of you, in the same conversation.

Per order you pay the label, the sender’s fee (recommended €2.25 for a small parcel) and the €0.85 platform fee. How the model works and who it suits is on Local fulfilment in Europe. Which countries have senders and what domestic shipping costs there is on /en/countries.