Ordinary Ledger: a euro more for the small parcel at the counter, the same €6.19 online, and 20 cents off for the Packstation

The Christmas parcel season has not started, but next year’s price list arrived on Friday morning. From 1 January 2027 a Päckchen S handed over at a post office counter will cost €5.19 instead of €4.19, tagesschau.de reports; a Päckchen M €5.79 instead of €5.19; a parcel up to 2 kg €6.79 instead of €6.19². Online, the 2 kg parcel stays at €6.19 and the 5 kg parcel at €7.69¹. Address it to a Packstation and you save another 20 cents, so the 2 kg parcel costs €5.99¹.

Desk arithmetic: the small Päckchen at the counter rises by €1, or about 24%; the medium one by 60 cents, or about 12%. The standard letter, already announced in October, goes from 95 cents to €1.15, about 21%².

What you get for the extra euro is a dull but real upgrade: Päckchen will in future include tracking and liability up to €20¹. Online, the Päckchen S starts at €4.49¹. The company cites wages, energy and inflation, and the cost of serving the whole country¹. Its own estimate of what it means for you: households spend a little over €4 a month on letters and parcels, according to the Federal Statistical Office, so the new prices add “not even 75 cents” a month¹.

The machinery behind it is a regulator, not a press release. The prices rest on a provisional decision by the Bundesnetzagentur, which still has to approve them¹. Deutsche Post is spreading the room it was given over two years; another parcel adjustment follows on 1 January 2028¹.

One thing you can do: if you post presents abroad, especially outside the EU, frank them online. Deutsche Post says counter handling of the customs data costs more, and online customers get “clear price advantages”¹.