How Do I Ship to Military APO, FPO, and DPO Addresses?

Yes. You can ship an order to an APO, FPO, or DPO address, and it ships at domestic USPS prices. Use USPS: FedEx does not deliver to military post offices, and UPS can't deliver to them directly. Most of these packages also need a customs form (PS Form 2976-R), and the address has to be entered a specific way, shown below.

Which carrier delivers to APO, FPO, and DPO addresses?

APO is an Army or Air Force post office, FPO is a Fleet post office for Navy installations and ships, and DPO is a Diplomatic post office at a US embassy or other diplomatic post. All three are US postal addresses. USPS carries the package inside its domestic network, then the military postal channel carries it the rest of the way to the base or post.

That last stretch is why you ship with USPS. FedEx says it cannot deliver to US military post office addresses such as APO and FPO. UPS does not deliver to APO/FPO/DPO addresses itself; mail to them has to enter the USPS network. Each has one economy service that accepts a military address and hands the package to USPS for the final delivery: FedEx Ground Economy, and UPS Ground Saver or UPS Mail Innovations. The address and customs steps below follow the USPS rules.

How do I format an APO, FPO, or DPO address?

Treat it as a US address with fixed values in the city and state fields:

• Name: the full name of a specific person. USPS no longer accepts mail addressed to "Any Service Member."
• Address line 1: the unit or PSC designation and the box number, for example PSC 3 BOX 4120.
• City: APO, FPO, or DPO.
• State: AA, AE, or AP. AA is Armed Forces Americas, AE is Armed Forces Europe (which also covers Canada, Africa, and the Middle East), and AP is Armed Forces Pacific.
• ZIP code: the five-digit military ZIP, plus the four-digit extension if the recipient gave you one.
• Country: United States, if your checkout or label tool has a country field.

Do not add the name of the country or city where the base is located. USPS is explicit that city and country names must not appear in an APO, FPO, or DPO address, because they can pull the package into a foreign mail network. The country field in a Shopify, Amazon, or eBay checkout is set to United States; the printed address carries no foreign city or country line. Those are two different things.

A correctly formatted address, using the example from USPS, looks like this:

PFC JOHN DOE
PSC 3 BOX 4120
APO AE 09021

Do I need a customs form to ship to an APO address?

In most cases, yes. USPS requires a customs declaration for most shipments to overseas military bases and embassies, even though the postage is domestic.

The form is PS Form 2976-R, USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note. Since January 17, 2019, it has been the customs form for retail mail to APO, FPO, and DPO addresses and to US territories, replacing PS Forms 2976, 2976-A, and 2976-B at the counter.

How you complete it depends on where the label comes from. If you take the package to a Post Office counter, you fill out PS Form 2976-R first and the clerk creates the label from it. If you buy the label online, the customs declaration is created with the label. USPS Click-N-Ship tells you which customs form the destination needs and prints it with the label, so the declaration becomes part of the label rather than a separate paper form.

Either way, every item needs a specific description on the declaration that says what it is, what it is made of, and what it is for. A general category such as "electronics" is not accepted.

What can't you ship to an APO, FPO, or DPO address?

There is no single prohibited-items list for military mail. Restrictions depend on the destination, so they vary by military ZIP code. USPS publishes them through its APO/FPO/DPO Restrictions Tool, where you enter the five-digit ZIP and get the current rules for that post office. Check the ZIP on the order before you pack it rather than relying on a list you saw last year.

One rule applies to every APO, FPO, and DPO shipment: the package has to comply with US law and with the laws of the destination country. USPS Click-N-Ship flags some prohibitions and restrictions when you enter the military ZIP, but the shipper stays responsible for compliance.

DPO addresses also carry a fixed size cap: a DPO package can be no larger than 27 inches long, 14 inches wide, and 14 inches high. That cap is specific to DPO. For an APO or FPO ZIP, the restrictions tool above gives the rules for that post office.

Is it cheaper to ship to an APO address?

It is priced as domestic mail. USPS charges domestic prices for APO, FPO, and DPO shipments, even when the package ends up overseas. A military address is not priced by international shipping zone, so you pay a domestic USPS rate rather than an international one.

Transit is the part to set expectations on. After the package leaves the USPS domestic network it moves through the military postal channel, so treat the delivery date as an estimate rather than a promise. Set expectations the way you would for international shipping, even though the postage is domestic.

Related: How to format a Puerto Rico address.