Duties must be prepaid on all U.S.-bound postal shipments under $800 USD. Here’s how Royal Mail and Zonos make that possible:
- Use Zonos’ free tools (optional) — Before shipping, UK businesses can log in to Dashboard Lite and use Item Quoter to calculate duty rates, classify products, and understand costs.
- Royal Mail collects duties — For business account holders, Royal Mail pays duties upfront and invoices the shipper afterward. For personal senders, duties are collected by Royal Mail at postage purchase.
- Zonos remits duties — Zonos remits those duties directly to CBP as the qualified party (holding the required bond).
- Royal Mail is invoiced — Zonos invoices Royal Mail for the remitted duties.
This partnership keeps the U.S. postal lane open and fully compliant with U.S. law, while also giving you access to free tools for planning and transparent pricing.
Dashboard Lite for UK businesses
Get started with free tools to calculate duties and classify products for international shipping. While not required for shipping with Royal Mail, Zonos' Dashboard Lite is available to help you get comfortable with cross-border costs before you sell.
Calculate duties before you sell
Dashboard Lite is your free solution for understanding international costs upfront. Use Zonos Item Quoter to get HS codes and accurate duty calculations with both postal and commercial rates, helping you price competitively for DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) shipping.
What you get:
Coming soon
Dashboard Lite enhancements and access levels:
These upcoming features give businesses more insight and control over cross-border shipping while providing generous free limits:
- Item quoter: Each store will get 5,000 free item quotes per month.
- Shipment quoter: Shipment Quoter provides a full landed cost breakdown (duties, taxes, fees) plus Royal Mail shipping rate options. When Shipment Quoter launches, the same 5,000 monthly quota will be shared between item and shipment quotes.
- Ship-to support: Free quotes currently apply to the U.S. only. Worldwide quoting will be available as an upgrade.
- CSV bulk upload: Each store will get one bulk upload request (up to 5,000 items). This is a one-time benefit and does not reset monthly.
To go beyond these free levels, a Dashboard Lite upgrade will be available.
API integration
For full automation, the Zonos API will soon be available for Royal Mail business accounts (to the U.S. only):
- Landed Cost API: Returns a complete breakdown of shipping costs (product value, shipping, duties, taxes, and fees) so you can calculate and charge the true delivered cost.
- Classify API: Uses AI-powered classification to return accurate HS codes, automating tariff classification at scale.
The Zonos API can integrate directly into your systems for automated duty calculations, checkout pricing, and compliance workflows.
Who is Zonos?
Zonos is the global leader in cross-border technology.
For more than 16 years, we’ve been powering international commerce by classifying products with HS codes and calculating duties and taxes with accuracy and reliability. Today, our technology supports some of the world’s largest brands, logistics providers, and thousands of ecommerce businesses.
Our mission has always been to increase trust in cross-border trade by making it simple, transparent, and compliant. From APIs that integrate directly with custom setups to checkout experiences that make duty and tax collection easy for anyone, Zonos ensures international customers have good delivery experiences, building your brand in the process.
Royal Mail + Zonos
As of August 29, 2025, a new U.S. executive order requires duty to be paid on all shipments into the United States. Every postal shipment under $800 USD must now have duties prepaid.
Royal Mail has partnered with Zonos to help businesses stay compliant and competitive. When duties are required, Royal Mail collects them, and Zonos — a qualified party recognized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — remits them directly to CBP, ensuring your parcels move smoothly across the border.
No Zonos subscription or account is required to ship with Royal Mail. However, UK businesses can optionally use Zonos’ free tools in Dashboard Lite to learn how duties are calculated and get familiar with international pricing before shipping.