Sending a parcel in Singapore costs anywhere from about S$2.70 to over S$50, and the gap is almost entirely about how fast you need it there. For a normal next-day or two-day domestic parcel, drop-off services like J&T PUDO start around S$2.85 and door-to-door pickup couriers like Ninja Van and J&T sit in the S$3 to S$5 band for parcels up to 30kg. Need it the same day within an hour or two? Expect S$5 to S$25 through GrabExpress, Lalamove or pandago, priced by distance rather than weight. The single biggest money mistake is paying for instant delivery when a S$3 next-day parcel would have done the job, or walking into a post office and paying retail when a booking aggregator quotes the same courier for less. This guide prices the real options for 2026, shows which service fits which job, and lists the levers that bring your bill down.
Courier pricing in Singapore splits into two worlds. Scheduled delivery (next-day or 1 to 3 working days) is priced by parcel weight and size, and it is cheap because the courier batches your parcel with thousands of others on a fixed route. Same-day or instant delivery is priced by distance and vehicle, because a rider is dedicated to your job and nothing else. Once you understand that split, picking the right service becomes a budget decision, not a guessing game.
If a parcel can wait a day or two, you almost never have a reason to pay for instant. A 2kg next-day parcel through a door-to-door courier costs roughly S$3.50 to S$5. The same parcel sent instant by motorcycle across town can cost S$10 to S$18 once the distance fare, platform fee and any surcharge stack up. That is three to five times the price for saving roughly 24 hours.
The cheapest route of all is drop-off. If you can walk the parcel to a collection point yourself, you skip the pickup leg the courier would otherwise charge for. That is why J&T's drop-off PUDO service undercuts its own door-to-door option, and why a SingPost SmartPac you post into a letterbox slot is one of the lowest-cost ways to send a small flat item.
This is the band most people actually need and overpay on. These couriers collect from your door (or a drop-off point) and deliver islandwide in roughly 1 to 3 working days, with most next-day if you book early. They handle parcels up to 30kg, so they cover almost everything short of furniture. Prices below are 2026 starting rates for the lightest tier; your actual price rises with weight and parcel size, and the courier charges on whichever is higher between actual weight and volumetric weight (length x width x height in cm, divided by 5000).
The cheapest option is dropping the parcel off yourself. J&T's PUDO (point to door) service starts at S$2.85 because you bring the parcel to a J&T branch and they only handle the delivery leg. If you would rather they collect, J&T door-to-door starts at S$3.15 with free pickup. Ninja Van's domestic rates start around S$3.49 to S$3.55, and budget aggregator EZIE quotes from S$2.89. TracX Logis (the courier formerly known as Qxpress) competes hardest on heavier parcels, with rates from roughly S$3.65 for parcels up to 30kg. If you want a national-operator option with doorstep collection, SingPost's own Speedpost Standard delivers a parcel up to 30kg in one working day from S$6.20, or S$12.30 for a bulky box, which is dearer than the e-commerce couriers but useful when you want a single trackable SingPost service.
One practical point: these rates are usually quoted through a booking aggregator such as EasyParcel rather than the courier's own counter. Booking through an aggregator gives you the same courier at a volume-discounted rate and lets you compare 10-odd couriers in one search, so it is worth getting a quote there before you commit. Treat any single starting price as the floor, not the price you will pay for a real parcel.
| Courier / service | Starting price (S$) | Max weight | Typical speed | Pickup or drop-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EZIE | 2.89 | up to 30kg | Next-day to 2 days | Pickup |
| J&T PUDO (drop-off) | 2.85 | up to 30kg | 1 to 3 days | You drop off |
| J&T door-to-door | 3.15 | up to 30kg | 1 to 3 days | Free pickup |
| Ninja Van | around 3.49 to 3.55 | up to 30kg | Next-day to standard | Pickup |
| TracX Logis (ex-Qxpress) | around 3.65 | up to 30kg | Scheduled, often next-day | Pickup |
| SingPost Speedpost Standard | 6.20 (12.30 bulky) | up to 30kg | One working day | Doorstep collection |
| SingPost SmartPac (post yourself) | 2.70 single (2.20 in 10-packs) | Small flat items | Within 2 working days | You post it |
When something has to be there today, you switch from per-parcel couriers to on-demand platforms that dispatch a dedicated rider. The fare depends on the distance between pickup and drop-off, the vehicle, the time of day and live demand, so there is no flat per-parcel price. The numbers below are starting points; a cross-island instant job in peak hours can land well above them.
GrabExpress runs Bike and Car on-demand options for items up to 10kg within roughly a 48 x 38 x 46cm box, delivered within about an hour, with fixed fares starting from around S$5.30 and same-day jobs commonly landing in the S$7 to S$12 range depending on distance. Lalamove is the platform for anything bigger or heavier, from a motorcycle courier up to a 24ft lorry. Lalamove quotes a vehicle-specific base fare live in its app rather than publishing a fixed price list, and the cheaper vehicles (courier bike, car) sit well below the larger MPVs, vans and lorries. Whatever the base fare, the real bill stacks on published add-ons: a S$0.50 platform fee per order, a CBD surcharge of S$2 (courier, car, MPV) to S$3 (van, lorry) for jobs dropping into the CBD between roughly 6.30am and 8.30pm Monday to Saturday, a late-night multiplier of 1.1x from 10pm and 1.25x from midnight to 6.59am, and a S$15 charge per pickup or delivery at secured zones like the airport and Jurong Island. Read the fee list before you assume the base fare is the price.
For food and small retail items, pandago (foodpanda's courier arm) does point-to-point delivery within about an hour from around S$5.05. Pickupp offers a cheaper same-day window of a few hours from about S$13 for items under 5kg, and UParcel does genuine one-hour rush jobs from about S$22. The pattern is clear: the tighter the time window, the higher the floor.
International courier prices dwarf domestic ones, and this is where checking before you ship saves the most. The cheapest cross-border options for a small parcel start in single digits for nearby destinations and climb fast for express service to the West. As of 2026, economy international through aggregators like EasyParcel can start from around S$7.50 to Malaysia via Aramex, while TracX Logis quotes international economy from roughly S$3.90 for parcels up to 30kg on its cheapest lanes. These are slow, economy services with multi-day to multi-week transit.
Express is a different cost universe. FedEx International Connect Plus starts from around S$29.50, and DHL Express from around S$50.03, both for fast time-definite delivery to 220-plus countries. For a single occasional parcel, those retail-level express rates are rarely worth it unless the contents are urgent or valuable. The money move for overseas shipping is to book through an aggregator that pools customer volume for a discount and to pick economy unless speed genuinely matters.
Watch the hidden costs at the other end. The recipient's country may charge import duty and tax on the declared value, and underdeclaring to dodge it is both illegal and risks the parcel being seized. Bringing goods into Singapore works the same way: goods above the S$400 import relief threshold attract GST (and duty on some categories) at the point of import, and since 1 January 2023 even low-value parcels at or below S$400 are charged GST when bought from a GST-registered overseas seller, so factor potential charges into the true cost before you decide that overseas shipping is cheaper than buying the item locally. If you shop a lot from China, the same maths shapes our Taobao shopping guide.
Before you book, check that your item is even allowed in the box. Couriers and SingPost both refuse dangerous goods, and getting caught with banned contents can mean the parcel is returned, destroyed or seized, with the postage gone. SingPost groups what it will not carry into the nine standard dangerous-goods classes: explosives like fireworks and toy-gun caps (Class 1), compressed gas and aerosols (Class 2), flammable liquids such as alcohol, perfume, nail polish and lighters (Class 3), flammable solids like matches and mothballs (Class 4), oxidisers including bleach and hair dye (Class 5), toxic and infectious substances such as pesticides and nicotine (Class 6), radioactive material (Class 7), corrosives like wet batteries and mercury (Class 8), and miscellaneous goods such as strong magnets and dry ice (Class 9). On top of those, SingPost will not knowingly carry cash, coins or other valuables and accepts no liability if you send them anyway.
A separate question is what is legal to bring across the border at all. Singapore Customs splits goods into prohibited (never allowed) and controlled (allowed only with the right permit). Prohibited items include chewing gum that is not HSA-approved dental or medicinal gum, e-cigarettes and other vaporisers, shisha, chewing tobacco, controlled drugs, obscene material, and rhinoceros horn or other endangered-wildlife products. Controlled goods such as medicines, liquor, tobacco, some electronics and certain foods need advance authorisation from the relevant agency before they can be imported, and the same rules bite when something is posted to you from overseas. If your parcel contents fall into either bucket, no amount of careful packing makes the shipment legal.
The practical takeaway: keep dangerous goods, vapes and large amounts of cash out of any courier box, and check the official Singapore Customs list before sending or receiving anything restricted. When goods do clear customs above the GST relief threshold, the duty and tax are a real cost, not an afterthought, which is the same trap covered in our Taobao shopping guide.
| Category | Examples | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Explosives and fireworks | Firecrackers, ammunition, toy-gun caps | Prohibited |
| Flammables and aerosols | Perfume, nail polish, lighters, spray cans, paint | Prohibited by most couriers |
| Corrosives and batteries | Wet/lead-acid batteries, mercury, acids | Prohibited |
| Cash and valuables | Banknotes, coins, securities | Not carried; sent at owner's risk |
| Vapes, shisha, chewing gum | E-cigarettes, vaporisers, non-medicinal gum | Prohibited import to Singapore |
| Medicines, liquor, tobacco | Pharmaceuticals, alcohol, cigarettes | Controlled: permit and duty needed |
| Perishables and live animals | Fresh food, plants, animals | Restricted: permits or packaging needed |
Speed and price get all the attention, but the moment a S$300 item is lost, the only number that matters is the cover. Most domestic couriers include a small amount of free liability and then sell or auto-attach optional insurance for higher-value parcels. GrabExpress, for example, automatically covers items up to S$500 on its on-demand jobs, and other platforms let you declare a higher value for an added premium. Read the cap before you ship something pricey: if the default cover is S$100 and your parcel is worth S$800, you are self-insuring the other S$700.
Two habits protect you cheaply. First, keep proof: photograph the item and the sealed box, and hold on to the booking receipt and tracking number, since a claim almost always needs evidence of contents and value. Second, declare the value honestly when the courier asks; under-declaring to save on insurance usually voids the very claim you would later make. For anything genuinely valuable or irreplaceable, paying a few dollars for proper cover is far cheaper than eating the full loss, the same risk-versus-cost trade-off behind any opportunity cost decision.
Most people pay more than they need to for predictable reasons: they default to the fastest option, they walk into a retail counter, and they ship one parcel at a time. Each of those is fixable.
First, downgrade the speed. Be honest about whether the parcel truly needs to arrive today. A next-day scheduled parcel at S$3.50 versus an instant one at S$15 is a S$11.50 saving for waiting one day. If you send parcels regularly, that adds up fast, and the same discipline you would apply to any recurring expense in your personal budget applies here. Small repeat convenience spends are exactly the kind of lifestyle inflation that creeps up unnoticed.
Second, book through an aggregator, not the courier counter. Platforms like EasyParcel quote the same couriers at pooled, discounted rates and let you compare them side by side, which usually beats the walk-in price. Third, batch and drop off. Combining several parcels into one pickup, or dropping them yourself at a PUDO point or POPStop, removes the pickup fee. Fourth, weigh and measure accurately before you book. Couriers bill on the higher of actual and volumetric weight, so an oversized box for a light item quietly bumps you into the next price tier.
Use this as a quick decision guide. The right courier is whichever costs the least while still meeting your actual deadline, so start from the deadline and work down to price.
For a small flat item with no rush, a SingPost SmartPac you post yourself is among the cheapest at S$2.70 single, falling to S$2.20 each in a 10-pack, with tracking and letterbox delivery within two working days. For a normal parcel up to 30kg that can wait a day or two, a scheduled door-to-door courier or a drop-off at S$3 to S$5 is the value pick. For something that must arrive today, use GrabExpress or pandago for small items and Lalamove for bulky or heavy ones, accepting the distance-based fare. For furniture or a house move, book a Lalamove van or lorry by the trip rather than paying per parcel.
For a small flat item you post yourself, a SingPost SmartPac starts at S$2.70 single and S$2.20 each in a 10-pack. For a normal parcel up to 30kg, J&T's drop-off PUDO service starts at S$2.85 and EZIE quotes from S$2.89, with door-to-door couriers like Ninja Van and J&T in the S$3 to S$5 starting band. Dropping off yourself is always cheaper than requesting pickup.
Same-day and instant delivery is priced by distance and vehicle, not weight. GrabExpress fixed fares start from around S$5.30 with same-day jobs commonly S$7 to S$12, pandago from about S$5.05, Pickupp from about S$13, and a genuine one-hour rush via UParcel from about S$22. Expect to pay roughly three to five times the cost of a next-day scheduled parcel.
Drop-off is cheaper. When you bring the parcel to a collection point yourself, the courier skips the pickup leg and charges only for delivery. That is why J&T's drop-off PUDO at S$2.85 undercuts its own door-to-door pickup at S$3.15. If you have a PUDO point or POPStop nearby, dropping off is the simplest way to shave the bill.
Scheduled couriers bill on the higher of actual weight and volumetric weight, calculated as length x width x height in centimetres divided by 5000. So an oversized box for a light item can cost more than the contents weigh. Same-day and instant platforms instead price by distance, vehicle type, time of day and live demand, plus platform fees and surcharges.
Use a booking aggregator and pick economy. Economy international can start from around S$7.50 to Malaysia via Aramex, with multi-day to multi-week transit. Express is far pricier: FedEx International Connect Plus from around S$29.50 and DHL Express from around S$50.03. Factor in possible import duty and tax at the destination, and never underdeclare value to avoid it.
Booking through an aggregator like EasyParcel usually gives you the same courier at a pooled, discounted rate, plus a side-by-side comparison of 10-odd couriers in one search. That tends to beat walking into a courier's own counter at retail price. Always get an aggregator quote before committing to a specific courier.
Lalamove's quoted base fare is not the final price. On top of it you pay a S$0.50 platform fee per order, a CBD surcharge of S$2 to S$3 on weekdays and Saturdays during the day, a late-night multiplier of 1.1x to 1.25x from 10pm, and a S$15 secured-zone charge for places like airports and certain buildings. Read the full fee list before booking.
Couriers and SingPost refuse dangerous goods across the nine standard classes: explosives, compressed gas and aerosols, flammable liquids like perfume and lighters, flammable solids like matches, oxidisers like bleach, toxic substances, radioactive material, corrosives like wet batteries, and items like strong magnets or dry ice. Cash and other valuables are sent at your own risk. Separately, Singapore Customs bans vapes, shisha, non-medicinal chewing gum and controlled drugs from import, while medicines, liquor and tobacco are controlled and need permits.
Most couriers include a small free liability amount and let you buy or declare higher cover for valuable parcels. GrabExpress, for instance, automatically covers items up to S$500 on its on-demand jobs. Check the cap before shipping anything pricey, because the default cover is often far below the item's value. Keep the booking receipt, tracking number and a photo of the contents and sealed box, since claims need proof. Declare value honestly; under-declaring usually voids the claim.
Start with the deadline, then weigh five things: the speed you genuinely need, the parcel's weight and size, whether the courier covers your pickup and drop-off areas, the quality of tracking and support, and the cover available if the parcel goes missing. For regular senders, also compare bulk discounts, scheduled pickups and platform integrations. The cheapest quote is only the best choice when it still meets your real deadline and protects the contents.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.