Cost of sending letters and parcels to rise in France: see new rates

The price of sending letters and parcels in France is set to rise by almost 7% in January, La Poste has confirmed.

The 6.8% increase is due to a drop in “paper activity” and rise in digital activity, it said in a statement.

“These changes will ensure that the Universal Postal Service* remains, with a high level of quality, against a backdrop of inflation and declining mail volumes, and to continue to respond to our clients’ uses and needs while reducing their carbon footprint,” it states.

Specifically:

• Green letter (lettre verte, normal post): Rise from €1.29 to €1.39

• Service plus letter (services plus, important letters with tracking): €2.99 to €3.15

• International letter (lettre internationale up to 20g): €1.96 to €2.10 

• Registered letter (lettre recommandée up to 20g): €5.36 to €5.74

• Red e-letter (e-lettre rouge, overnight post): No change (€1.49).

• ‘Tracked’ letter sticker (sticker Suivi for tracking): No change (€0.50).

The price of sending parcels using the Colissimo service is also set to rise by an average of 5.2% “for all destinations combined”, says La Poste. 

Prices for business mail will rise by 5.8%, but direct marketing business prices will be capped at a rise of 3.1%, it adds.

La Poste said that these rises will help it shore up losses caused by changing consumer behaviour.

• In 2015, a household in France spent an average of €48 per year on postal products

• In 2024, this figure has almost halved to €29. 

Similarly, La Poste expects this figure to drop further by 3% by 2025, as people increasingly turn away from paper and towards digital solutions.

Diversification of services

It comes as the CEO of La Poste, Philippe Wahl, said earlier this year that La Poste will need to continue to diversify its services in future years.

It has already been focusing more on parcel deliveries and online shopping fulfilment, he said, but also increasingly delivers meals to vulnerable people, offers welfare checks on elderly residents on normal postal routes, and helps with scanning digital letters. 

Read also: French postal workers can scan priority letters for you at your home
Read also: 12 things you can do at a French post office other than buy stamps

More mobile post offices are also working to bring postal services to rural areas. 

Some busier branches have even added in-office changing rooms. These are aimed at people who buy clothes online, want to try them on as soon as they collect them, and return them instantly if they are not happy.

Read also: ‘Clothes cabins’, checks on older people: La Poste is diversifying 

In 1990, 70% of La Poste’s work was in delivering letters, but by the end of 2024, this figure is expected to have dropped to 15%. 

*The ‘Universal Postal Service’ is La Poste's stated aim to deliver and collect six days a week throughout France. It includes postal items weighing up to 2kg and parcels weighing up to 20kg, as well as registered items and items with declared value.