USPS Sunday Delivery: Yes for Packages (Here’s Why)

Last updated 3 weeks ago. Our resources are updated regularly but please keep in mind that links, programs, policies, and contact information do change.

USPS delivers some packages on Sundays. A sender who needs a guaranteed Sunday arrival can buy that commitment through Priority Mail Express where available, for an additional fee.

USPS also delivers Amazon parcels on Sundays. Qualifying USPS Connect Local business packages can receive Sunday delivery where available, for a fee. Connect Local’s expected delivery date is not guaranteed.

Ordinary mail delivery follows a Monday-through-Saturday schedule.

Which USPS services deliver on Sunday?

Priority Mail Express offers delivery in 1-3 days by 6 p.m. to most U.S. addresses and post office (PO) boxes, with a money-back guarantee subject to exceptions. USPS Connect Local is a separate service for packages handed over at participating postal facilities close to their final destinations.

Ordinary Priority Mail’s expected delivery date depends on the origin, destination and drop-off time and does not carry a money-back guarantee.

Federal law requires postal delivery at least six days a week, with exceptions for federal-holiday weeks, emergencies and certain established geographic delivery arrangements. That six-day minimum does not itself guarantee Sunday delivery for every type of mail.

Choosing a Sunday service: Express and local business shipping

Priority Mail Express

Sunday and holiday Express delivery is available in many major markets for an additional fee. The retail Sunday or holiday premium is $12.50 under USPS’s price list effective October 4, 2026.

A sender who does not want Sunday or holiday delivery can avoid that extra charge by choosing guaranteed delivery on the next delivery day. Paying for Express alone and paying for a Sunday commitment are therefore different choices.

Before mailing an urgent package, use the Service Commitments tool linked from USPS’s Express page to check the arrival date and guarantee availability for the shipment. The origin and destination ZIP Codes and the date USPS treats the item as accepted determine whether delivery takes one, two or three delivery days.

An Express item handed over after the local Post Office’s acceptance cutoff is treated as mailed on the next day that office opens. A late drop-off can change the commitment before the package even begins its trip; buying a label is not a substitute for meeting the acceptance cutoff.

Express delivery is due by 6 p.m. on the scheduled delivery day. The promised date and time are a deadline, not an appointment for the carrier to arrive at a particular hour.

USPS Connect Local packages

Connect Local packages are handed over near their destination for expected delivery that day or the next day the service operates; timing depends on the facility’s hours for accepting packages and on the shipment’s origin and destination. That expected delivery date is not guaranteed.

A Connect Local sender may request Sunday delivery where it is offered, for a fee. USPS’s price list effective October 4, 2026, sets that Sunday or holiday surcharge at $1.95. The similarly named Connect Local Mail service does not offer Sunday delivery.

Ask the USPS sales representative for the participating facilities and ZIP Codes before arranging a local shipment. If USPS does not attempt Sunday delivery of a Connect Local package submitted under the program’s rules, its terms provide an automatic refund of the additional Sunday fee.

That fee refund covers the added Sunday charge, not the whole postage; Express can refund both postage and the Sunday premium when its guarantee applies.

Why Amazon packages have Sunday routes

USPS entered an agreement with Amazon in October 2013 to deliver Sunday parcels, according to a December 2014 report by the USPS Office of Inspector General, its oversight office. Amazon announced the service on November 11, 2013, beginning in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas.

In that announcement, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe linked the new Sunday option to increasing online shopping and offering shippers such as Amazon another delivery day. Amazon said eligible customers would see a Sunday delivery promise at checkout when it was available in their region.

The inspector general described the arrangement as a contract with a single customer, a type of agreement intended to increase revenue, improve operations or provide other benefits to USPS. The agreement explains how USPS can add Sunday package delivery while keeping the ordinary letter-delivery schedule: the added service covers packages under a specific arrangement.

The audit described routing software that organized Sunday parcel routes using estimated miles and the number of packages. A parcel route can be built around the addresses receiving those packages rather than treating Sunday as another ordinary mail round.

USPS’s current customer guidance continues to identify Amazon parcels as Sunday deliveries. An Amazon label or the existence of a Sunday route does not by itself establish that a particular order is due that day. Check the upcoming delivery and tracking information in Amazon’s Your Orders section.

Sunday delivery has a longer history, and its own operating demands

USPS’s historical account says letter carriers generally did not make Sunday rounds, while premium services provided exceptions. Special Delivery, offered from 1885 to 1997, included Sunday service in many locations, as did Express Mail after its introduction in some cities in 1973.

The Amazon arrangement added another reason for Sunday package work; it did not create the first exception to the ordinary postal week.

The December 2014 inspector general audit found scanning, sorting, loading and routing inefficiencies among the 40 hubs it visited in four postal districts. At Riverside on February 23, 2014, auditors observed parcel arrival scans occurring two hours after the packages reached the hub, delaying communication of package status.

USPS management agreed in principle with the audit’s findings and recommendations. Management reported Sunday hub visits and weekly performance discussions while the operation’s tools and procedures were still developing.

The dated audit illustrates the work behind a Sunday delivery: packages need to be scanned, sorted and assigned to routes before the carrier reaches the door.

What Sunday tracking tells you

USPS Tracking shows the shipment’s latest recorded status when a recipient enters the number from the mailing label or receipt. An “Out for Delivery” status means the package has been prepared at the local Post Office for a carrier to deliver that day. That carrier may be different from the one who brings regular mail, and the package may arrive at a different time or later in the day.

USPS says it cannot determine when a carrier will arrive at a specific location. Use the shipment’s status to follow its progress; for an Express package, ask the sender to check the receipt’s guaranteed delivery deadline.

What to do when a Sunday package is missing

If tracking still says “Out for Delivery”

USPS’s Hold Mail guidance defines postal business days as Monday through Saturday, excluding postal holidays. If a package remains undelivered after one full postal business day following the “Out for Delivery” scan, USPS directs the customer to submit a service request using its tracking number. For an undelivered package scanned “Out for Delivery” on Sunday, wait until a full Monday has passed before submitting the service request; if Monday is a postal holiday, wait until the next full postal business day has passed.

If tracking says “Delivered”

If tracking says “Delivered” but the package is missing, first check household members, protected locations, the mailbox or parcel locker, and building management where applicable. After more than one postal business day without finding it, USPS allows a service request for eligible items.

After an attempted delivery

A missed Sunday attempt may leave a yellow Form 3849-SD, USPS’s Sunday delivery notice. Request free redelivery online using the tracking number or the notice’s barcode number, and check whether the service is available at the address.

The request selects a delivery date, not a specific time, and must be arranged in advance of the item’s return-to-sender date. For same-day online redelivery, USPS lists a 2 a.m. Central Standard Time cutoff Monday through Saturday. A notice from a Sunday attempt does not turn the regular redelivery process into a promise of another Sunday visit.

If a signature is required, someone authorized must be present to sign; signing the notice and leaving it for the carrier is insufficient.

Requesting a refund for a missed Express commitment

Only the sender may request an Express postage refund. When an Express refund is eligible under the postal rules, USPS refunds the postage and the Sunday or holiday premium fee. The sender needs the tracking number and mailing receipt and can apply online with a free USPS.com account or at a Post Office.

Extra services are optional additions, such as insurance, whose fees are charged beyond postage. For Express, buying additional insurance for eligible merchandise above the included $100 is one example.

The application window is 2-30 days after mailing for Express without extra services, or 30-60 days if an extra service was purchased. Use USPS’s refund page and the mailing receipt to check the applicable filing window. Related extra-service refunds must be combined into the same request for that tracking number.

Refund eligibility depends on whether USPS delivered the item, attempted delivery or made it available for collection by the date and time specified at mailing, subject to postal exceptions. A recipient looking for a missing package and a sender seeking a late-service refund therefore have different options: a service request investigates delivery, while a refund request seeks repayment of postage for a missed delivery commitment.

The exceptions include incorrect addresses, a recipient’s written hold request and specified disruptions authorized by USPS Headquarters. Late-service postage refunds are excluded for Express items to or from Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa or the Northern Mariana Islands, and for items destined to Palau, the Marshall Islands or the Federated States of Micronesia.

The manual also has special rules for live animals, hazardous materials, certain Christmas-period one-day shipments and military-address service. Check the applicable exceptions in the USPS postage-refund rules before filing.

Checking post office access and Sunday pickup

A Post Office’s staffed business hours and its PO Box lobby hours are different schedules. Some lobbies are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even though counter transactions require business hours.

Use the USPS location finder to check the facility’s “PO Box Access” hours and its “PO Box Delivery” information. Access to a box describes when someone can collect mail already there; it does not establish a new Sunday delivery commitment.

A Package Pickup request submitted on a weekend or holiday schedules collection for the next scheduled delivery day, not for that Sunday. USPS’s example says a Saturday-afternoon request is accepted for Monday pickup, unless Monday is a postal holiday.

Free Package Pickup is available for the next or a designated delivery day at eligible addresses, while paid Pickup on Demand offers a two-hour pickup window. The pickup request cutoffs are 2 a.m. Central Time for free Package Pickup and 5 a.m. local time for Pickup on Demand, Monday through Saturday.