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Royal Mail Click & Drop Calculator UK (2026)

Royal Mail's Click & Drop service gives access to Tracked 24/48 services not sold at the post office, plus online-only pricing on standard services. This calculator shows the right service for your parcel weight and format — Letter 1st/2nd, Large Letter, Small Parcel, Medium Parcel, or Tracked 24/48 — using Royal Mail's actual current online prices.

Last verified: 10 August 2026 Source: Royal Mail Online Price Guide, August 2026 Next review: 10 February 2027
Inputs
Weight in grams. 1kg = 1000g. Round up — Royal Mail rounds up to the next bracket.
Standard UK letterbox is roughly 250mm x 38mm. Letter and Large Letter services require this; Small Parcel and Tracked don't.
Parcel —
Available services —
Cheapest option —
Fastest option —
Recommended for your preference —
500g letterbox-size — Large Letter 2nd Class with C&D
500g · Fits letterbox · Standard speed · Royal Mail · Click & Drop

500g fits the Large Letter 2nd Class bracket (up to 500g, £2.40 — Royal Mail’s actual Click & Drop online price, no further discount applies). 2-3 day delivery. For sub-1kg flat items (CDs, small books, vinyl 7”s), Large Letter is consistently the cheapest Royal Mail option.

5kg parcel — Tracked 48 with C&D
5kg · Parcel size · Standard speed · Royal Mail · Click & Drop

5kg falls in the Tracked 48 Medium Parcel bracket (up to 10kg, £7.35). Tracked at no extra cost vs. an untracked Medium Parcel at the same weight (£8.05 for 1st Class untracked — Tracked 48 is actually cheaper). Tracked 48 is the standard parcel choice for most Royal Mail Click & Drop sellers — combines tracking, reasonable speed, and, at this weight, a lower price than the untracked equivalent.

Royal Mail’s Click & Drop service is the standard online interface for prepaid UK postage. It gives access to Tracked 24/48 services not sold at the post office, plus online-only pricing on standard services, and avoids queueing — drop labelled parcels at any post office, customer service point, or designated parcel point.

The calculator above tells you which Royal Mail service applies for your weight and format, using Royal Mail’s real current Click & Drop online prices.

Service tiers, in order

Letter (1st/2nd Class) — under 100g, fits letterbox, max 5mm thick. Cheapest options for tiny items: trading cards, single sheets, small electronics components. £0.91 (2nd) or £1.80 (1st).

Large Letter (1st/2nd Class) — under 750g, fits letterbox, max 25mm thick (max dimensions 353×250mm). Sweet spot for flat items: CDs, vinyl 7"s, paperbacks, A4 prints, trading card bundles. £1.55-£2.70 (2nd) or £3.20-£3.30 (1st) by weight bracket — 1st Class effectively flattens to £3.30 above 100g.

Small Parcel (1st/2nd Class) — under 2kg, max 450×350×80mm. Untracked. Flat £3.95 (2nd) or £5.15 (1st) regardless of weight up to 2kg — no longer split into sub-weight brackets. Useful when you don’t need tracking (low-value items, repeat customer scenarios).

Tracked 48 — up to 20kg, 2-3 day delivery, fully tracked. £2.85-£11.85 depending on item format (Large Letter/Small Parcel/Medium Parcel each have their own price curve, not one weight-only scale) and weight. The default choice for most online sellers — tracking protects against buyer-protection disputes, and at several weights Tracked 48 is now actually cheaper than the untracked equivalent; Click & Drop only.

Tracked 24 — up to 20kg, 1-2 day delivery, fully tracked. £3.80-£13.85 depending on format and weight. Premium speed; typically £0.95-£1 more than Tracked 48 at the same format and weight.

Special Delivery (not modelled here) — signed-for, time-guaranteed, fully insured up to £750. £9.45+. For high-value items or time-critical shipments.

When Click & Drop saves time

Online-only pricing on standard services is one benefit. The bigger one for active sellers:

  • No queueing: drop labelled parcels at any post office or parcel shop counter. Hand over, get a receipt, leave.
  • Pre-print labels at home: lay out the day’s shipments, weigh them, label them, drop them in one trip.
  • Address book and bulk orders: import order CSVs from Etsy/eBay/Shopify; print all labels at once.
  • Tracking integration: tracking numbers feed back into your order system (or feed via API for high volume).

For sellers shipping 5+ parcels per week, the time saving alone justifies the system, on top of the online-only pricing and Tracked 24/48 access.

Weight bracket awareness

Royal Mail rounds weight up. The brackets matter:

  • Letter: 100g cap
  • Large Letter: 100g, 250g, 500g, 750g brackets
  • Small Parcel: 1kg, 2kg brackets
  • Tracked 24/48: 100g, 1kg, 2kg, 5kg, 10kg, 20kg brackets

Trim packaging where possible. A 252g parcel pays the same as a 500g parcel in Large Letter bracket — sometimes worth a few minutes’ weight reduction (lighter padding, smaller envelope) to drop a tier.

What this calculator doesn’t model

  • Special Delivery — see Royal Mail directly for time-guaranteed services.
  • International rates — UK domestic only.
  • Oversize surcharges — Large parcels above 350×250×80mm may attract surcharges.
  • Insurance beyond standard service compensation — Tracked has limited compensation; Special Delivery has £750 cover; high-value items need third-party insurance.
  • Collection fees — Click & Drop sellers can opt to have parcels collected (extra fee unless you have a Royal Mail Business Account).

See also

For comparison with Evri (typically cheaper but slower, parcel only), use the Evri vs Royal Mail comparison calculator. For including postage in your overall Vinted/eBay/Etsy profit maths, the platform-specific calculators (Vinted profit calculator, eBay fee calculator, Etsy fee calculator) all accept postage as an input.

Common mistakes
  • Buying counter postage when Click & Drop would be cheaper. Click & Drop is the only way to buy Tracked 24/48 (not sold at the counter at all), and is cheaper than stamp/counter prices on several services. Worth registering even for low-volume sellers — the time saved skipping the post office queue alone justifies it.
  • Treating Large Letter as a universal small-parcel service. Large Letter has strict size limits: 353mm × 250mm × 25mm thickness max. Anything thicker than 25mm needs Small Parcel rates. Lots of sellers cost their items with Large Letter rates only to find their padded mailer is 30mm thick at the post office.
  • Forgetting weight rounding. Royal Mail rounds weight up to the next bracket. 251g → priced as 500g bracket. Save money by trimming packaging and being aware of the 100g/250g/500g/750g/1kg/2kg breakpoints.
  • Not differentiating Tracked 24 from 1st Class. 1st Class Small Parcel (untracked) is a flat £5.15 up to 2kg. Tracked 24 Small Parcel is £4.65 — cheaper than the untracked option, not more expensive. There is essentially no reason to send an untracked 1st Class Small Parcel over Tracked 24 any more; the tracked service costs less and adds buyer-protection cover.
  • Confusing Tracked 24 with Special Delivery. Tracked 24 is tracked, aim-1-day. Special Delivery is signed-for, guaranteed-1pm, fully insured up to £750. Special Delivery is significantly more expensive (£9.45+) and only worth it for high-value or critical-deadline items.
  • Ignoring shipping insurance limits. Standard untracked services have no compensation cover. Tracked services have limited compensation (£20-£50 depending on service). High-value items (£100+) need Special Delivery or third-party insurance.
What this calculator doesn't cover
  • Doesn’t include international rates (UK domestic only).
  • Doesn’t include Special Delivery (signed-for, time-guaranteed, fully insured) — uses standard rate brackets only.
  • Click & Drop discount is approximate — Royal Mail’s actual C&D discount varies slightly by service and account volume.
  • Doesn’t model size restrictions beyond letterbox/parcel split. Large packages may need oversize surcharges (Royal Mail charges extra for parcels over 350×250×80mm).
  • Doesn’t include collection fees (free for most users; Royal Mail Business Account holders get free collection).
  • Doesn’t account for Saturday delivery or rural surcharges (not currently applied to standard UK domestic services).

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between counter rates and Click & Drop rates?

Standard stamp/counter prices and Royal Mail's online (Click & Drop) prices are now close to identical for basic Letters, but Click & Drop is still cheaper on several parcel services and is the only way to buy Tracked 24/48 (not sold at the counter at all). Click & Drop also includes drop-off at any post office or designated parcel point — no queueing required. Free to sign up; pay per shipment with no monthly fee.

When does Large Letter work and when do I need Small Parcel?

Large Letter: max 353mm × 250mm × 25mm thickness, max 750g. Once any of these is exceeded, you’re into Small Parcel territory. The 25mm thickness limit is the most-missed rule — flat items like CDs, vinyl, paperbacks, and trading cards usually fit; padded mailers and bubble-wrapped items often don’t.

Tracked 24 vs Tracked 48 — when does each make sense?

Tracked 48 is ~£1 cheaper than Tracked 24 at most weights. For most online resellers, Tracked 48 is the default — buyers expect 2-3 day delivery, and the £1 saving on every parcel adds up. Tracked 24 makes sense for: time-critical items, premium positioning (some Etsy sellers offer ‘fast shipping’ as an upsell), or items where buyers paid extra for speed.

Are Royal Mail tracked services traceable end-to-end?

Tracked 24/48 includes barcode tracking from drop-off to delivery, with delivery confirmation. Untracked services (1st/2nd Class Small Parcel) don’t have any tracking — you have no proof of postage or delivery beyond the customer saying it didn’t arrive. For Vinted/eBay/Etsy where buyer-protection disputes are common, tracked services protect you.

What happens if my parcel exceeds the bracket weight?

Royal Mail can refuse oversize/overweight parcels at drop-off, or charge an underpayment surcharge. Click & Drop labels are pre-paid based on declared weight; if your actual weight exceeds the declared bracket, the parcel may be returned with a ‘underpaid’ notice. Always weigh accurately and round up if uncertain.

Are postage costs deductible against my eBay/Etsy/Vinted income?

Yes — UK self-employment business expenses, deductible against gross trading income. Keep receipts (Click & Drop emails work). Properly tracked, postage costs reduce taxable income meaningfully for active sellers — a £4/parcel × 200 parcels/year = £800 of deductible expense.

Why is Royal Mail more expensive than Evri at most weights?

Different cost structures. Royal Mail provides every-address daily delivery (Universal Service Obligation), with higher operational costs. Evri uses contract delivery drivers and isn’t tied to USO requirements, so unit costs are lower. The trade-offs: Royal Mail is faster (2-3 days vs Evri’s 3-5), letterbox-deliverable for letters/Large Letters (Evri only has Postable for letterbox), and considered more reliable by some sellers. See the Evri vs Royal Mail comparison for side-by-side.

About this calculator. Written and maintained by Jordan Morley — years of hands-on experience selling online and creating content across multiple platforms (hundreds of products sold, hundreds of videos made). Built to be accurate, mobile-fast, and honest about its limits. Spot a bug? Email hello@payoutmath.co.uk.