Post Office Hours Guide

Few questions get Googled more often than "is the post office open today." The answer changes with the day of the week, and it changes completely around federal holidays. Post office hours also vary more from one location to the next than almost any other type of business, because each branch sets its window hours based on local staffing and mail volume. This guide covers the typical patterns so you know what to expect and when to plan ahead.

Typical Post Office Hours

The United States Postal Service operates retail counters six days a week. Most post offices open between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM on weekdays and close around 4:30 PM or 5:00 PM. Larger main offices in big cities often open earlier and stay open later, sometimes until 6:00 PM, while small-town and rural branches keep shorter hours and occasionally close for a lunch break in the middle of the day.

Here is how a typical week looks at the post office counter:

Is the Post Office Open on Saturday?

Yes, but plan around the shorter window. Most post offices are open Saturday morning and close by noon or 1:00 PM. Larger processing-and-distribution centers and main city offices often stay open until 2:00 or 3:00 PM, but the small neighborhood branch down the street may lock up at 11:30 AM. Saturday is the most inconsistent day of the week for post office hours, so it is worth checking your specific location.

The important thing to know is that mail and packages are still delivered on Saturdays. So even if the counter is closed by the time you get there, your outbound mail in the blue collection box will still move, and your inbound mail still arrives. If you only need to drop off a pre-labeled package, the lobby self-service area or the blue box will handle it without the counter being open.

Is the Post Office Open on Sunday?

Retail counters are closed every Sunday. You cannot buy stamps, ship a package at the window, or pick up held mail on a Sunday. That said, the post office has not gone completely dark on Sundays the way it used to. USPS delivers Priority Mail Express seven days a week, including Sundays and holidays, and it delivers Amazon packages on Sundays across most of the country. So a Sunday delivery to your door is entirely possible even though the building itself is locked.

If you need to ship something on a Sunday, you have two practical options: print a shipping label online at usps.com and drop the package in a blue collection box or lobby slot, or use a self-service kiosk if your local branch has one in a 24-hour lobby. The post office shares the Sunday-closed pattern with banks and credit unions - see our Sunday shopping guide for the full list of what is open and closed on Sundays.

Post Office Holiday Closures

The post office is closed on all 11 federal holidays, and there is no regular mail or package delivery on those days. This is the single biggest reason people end up at a locked post office - they forget a federal holiday is in play. The 11 federal holidays USPS observes are:

• New Year's Day - January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day - third Monday in January
• Presidents' Day - third Monday in February
• Memorial Day - last Monday in May
• Juneteenth - June 19
• Independence Day - July 4
• Labor Day - first Monday in September
• Columbus Day - second Monday in October
• Veterans Day - November 11
• Thanksgiving - fourth Thursday in November
• Christmas Day - December 25

A couple of rules help you predict these. When a federal holiday lands on a Sunday, the post office observes it the following Monday, so you get back-to-back closed days. When a holiday lands on a Saturday, it is usually observed the Friday before. The one delivery that never stops is Priority Mail Express, which moves even on Christmas and Thanksgiving. For a complete view of every holiday schedule across the stores we track, see our holiday store hours guide and the holiday calendar.

After-Hours and Self-Service Options

One of the most useful things to know is that you do not always need the counter to be open to use the post office. USPS has built out several ways to handle mail when the window is closed:

• Self-service kiosks (SSK) - Many post offices have an automated kiosk in the lobby that sells stamps, weighs and prices packages, and prints postage. These lobbies are often open 24 hours, so you can buy postage and ship at 2:00 AM if you need to.
• Blue collection boxes - The blue street boxes have a posted last-pickup time, usually in the late afternoon on weekdays and around noon on Saturdays. Anything dropped after the last pickup moves the next collection day. Look for the small placard on the box for exact times.
• PO Box lobbies - If you rent a PO Box, the box lobby frequently stays open well beyond the retail counter hours, sometimes 24/7, so you can collect your mail any time.
• Online shipping - Print labels at usps.com, schedule a free package pickup from your home, and skip the counter entirely. This is the fastest option when the office is closed or you want to avoid the line.

Passport and Other Counter Services

Many post offices process passport applications, but these services run on a separate, narrower schedule than the regular retail window - and they almost always require an appointment. Passport hours are often limited to a few mornings a week, and walk-ins are rarely accepted. If you need a passport, book the appointment online or by phone well in advance rather than assuming you can show up during normal post office hours.

Other counter services like certified mail, money orders, package pickup for held items, and PO Box payments all follow the standard retail window hours. If you are picking up a package that was held because no one was home for delivery, bring the yellow slip and a photo ID, and go during the counter hours listed on the notice.

How to Check Your Local Post Office Hours

Because post office hours vary so much by location, the safest move is to verify before you go - especially for Saturday trips or anything close to a holiday. The official USPS "Find Locations" tool at usps.com lets you search by ZIP code and shows the exact window hours, Saturday hours, and any lobby or kiosk availability for each branch. A quick check there beats a wasted trip to a locked door.

The same caution applies to other Sunday-closed services. Banks and credit unions keep a similar weekday-plus-Saturday-morning rhythm and are closed on Sundays and federal holidays, so if you are running errands that include the post office and the bank on the same trip, plan both around that shared schedule.

Sunday-Closed Services at a Glance

The post office belongs to a small group of businesses we track that close on Sundays. Here are the related service counters and their patterns:

Frequently Asked Questions