What moved between the July and September editions
The Post Charges Guide is Australia Post’s own booklet of what it charges, and it
says Unless noted otherwise, prices are inclusive of GST.
The edition dated 1 September
2026 replaced one headed July 2026. The stamp change is the one Australia Post announced: its
28 August results release says the ACCC did not oppose a further $0.15 increase in the BPR,
effective 1 September, which will take the BPR to $1.85
. The BPR, the basic postage rate,
is the price of a stamped small letter.
The business letter services, which is where printed mail is lodged in volume, did not all move together. Setting each Regular-timetable price in the September edition against the same line in July gives this:
Print Post, which the guide describes as a service for the delivery of approved
periodical publications
, is the channel for magazines and newsletters, and its prices
rose by as much as the stamp. Charity Mail rose least among the services that moved. The
chart is the Regular timetable; PreSort letters on the faster Priority timetable rose further,
11.7 to 18.2 per cent across their 20 prices.
What a small letter costs now, by route
Take one small letter, a DL envelope or similar, going to an address in the same state. These are the September prices, with the July price beneath each:
The gap between the stamp and the cheapest addressed route widened. In July a barcoded Promo Post letter cost 87.5 cents less than a stamp; in September it costs 98.5 cents less (our arithmetic: $1.70 less $0.825, and $1.85 less $0.865). An unaddressed letterbox piece under 50 grams, at 40.5 cents, now costs about a fifth of a stamp.
The barcode is the discount
In both editions an unbarcoded Promo Post letter costs exactly what an unbarcoded PreSort letter costs: $1.630 in July, $1.765 now. The Promo Post price only falls once the letters carry a barcode and are sorted.
- For articles
promotional in nature
that have been pre-sorted - Minimum lodgement 4,000 barcoded letters
- Regular timetable only; prices include GST
The barcoded discount narrows a little with the sort: 86 cents for other-state direct trays and 81.5 cents for barcode residue (our arithmetic from the same table). On a 10,000-piece promotional mailing, that is $8,150 to $9,000 of postage, GST inclusive, that turns on the data work and the barcode printed on the piece.
Why the stamp keeps rising
Australia Post’s 28 August results release says Letter volumes declined in FY26,
falling a further 14.7% to 1.42 billion
. The year before, its 2025 annual report says,
volumes fell 5.4 per cent to 1.66 billion, or 11.7 per cent once federal, state and local
election mail is set aside. The Letters service lost $63.2 million in FY26, against $230.4
million in FY25 and $361.8 million in FY24, and the release says Without the BPR increases
over the past four years, the Letters loss would have been over $500 million worse
.
- 2021 and 2022Stamp 110 cents, in the annual report’s five-year table
- 2023Stamp 120 cents, same table
- April 2024Stamp up 30 cents, to $1.50
- FY251.66 billion letters, down 5.4 per cent
- 17 July 2025Stamp up 20 cents, to $1.70
- FY261.42 billion letters, down 14.7 per cent; Letters loss $63.2 million
- 1 September 2026Stamp up 15 cents, to $1.85
Across the five years that table covers, the stamp rose from 110 to 150 cents, or 36 per
cent, while the consumer price index series printed beside it rose from 118.8 to 141.7, or
19 per cent (our arithmetic). The 2025 annual report was blunt about where this ends:
don’t expect the Letters service will ever return to profit, even with further Basic
Postage Rate (BPR) increases
. Its new corporate plan says the reserved letters business
has been in terminal decline for 17 years
and that Australia Post relies on periodic
changes to letter prices
.
“This volume decline will only accelerate as digital alternatives continue to replace traditional mail.”
are now at levels last seen in the 1930s.
What it means for a printer or print buyer
Our view. Postage on a mailing is a pass-through line, and it has a
direction. The results release says further price increases and efficiencies will be
required
; it gives no date or amount, and neither does the corporate plan. So a quote that
bundles postage at today’s rate is carrying a risk the printer does not control. Name the
guide edition the postage was priced from, and keep postage separate from print.
The September edition also shows where the cheap addressed mail is. The stamp and PreSort took the full rise; barcoded Promo Post took about half of it in percentage terms, and Unaddressed Mail none. That makes the work around the print, clean address data, a readable barcode and a proper sort, worth up to 90 cents a piece on a qualifying promotional run. For a printer with mailing capability that is the selling point, and for a print buyer it is the first question to ask before a direct mail job is priced.
Transactional mail, the statements and notices that cannot be promotional, gets no such relief. Every Regular-timetable route in the guide open to it rose by 8.3 per cent or more, and Australia Post’s own words are that the volume behind it will keep falling.
What we check next
The next edition of the Post Charges Guide, and Australia Post’s 2026 annual report. As at 7 October 2026 its publications page listed the 2025 report as the newest.