USPS Smart Package Lockers are free, keyless self-service compartments at select Post Offices that hold a package for you until you scan a QR code to open the door. When a package lands in one, USPS emails you the code and the locker’s address. You have five calendar days to collect it. No line, no counter, no fee beyond the postage already paid on the shipment.
How Pickup Works
Delivery triggers an email notification with a QR code and the locker location. If you’re signed up for Informed Delivery, the pending pickup also shows up in your daily digest. At the kiosk, tap the screen, scan the QR code, and the assigned compartment unlocks. Take the package and close the door firmly to end the transaction.
The pickup window is five calendar days. USPS sends two reminder emails during that time. Miss the deadline and the package doesn’t vanish: staff pull it from the locker and hold it at the retail counter, so you’ll need to collect it in person during Post Office hours.1United States Postal Service. USPS Smart Package Locker Priority Mail Express follows the same five-day rule at the locker, but if you don’t pick it up in that window it goes back to the sender rather than to the counter.
Can Someone Else Pick Up Your Package
Yes. Whoever collects it just needs the confirmation email or text message you received with the QR code. This is looser than USPS’s usual rules for redelivery, where the person accepting a package on your behalf has to be a formally designated authorized agent.2United States Postal Service. Authorizing Someone to Accept Your Redelivery For a Smart Locker, possession of the code is the key.
Shipping a Package to a Smart Locker
You can send a package to a Smart Locker near your recipient two ways: through a self-service kiosk inside a Post Office, or through Click-N-Ship online. At the kiosk, choose the option to mail a letter or package. If the destination ZIP code has a Smart Locker nearby, the system asks whether to route the package there. You’ll enter the recipient’s name, email address, and phone number so USPS can send them the pickup notification.3United States Postal Service. Ship to USPS Smart Locker
Once the kiosk prints your label, stick it on the package and drop it in the blue bin at the Post Office. USPS routes it to the locker you picked. It’s a useful option when the recipient works odd hours or lives somewhere porch theft is a concern.
Size Limits and What You Can’t Send
Compartments come in three sizes. Anything too big for the largest one won’t fit the locker system and gets handled at the retail counter instead. The standard USPS 70-pound cap for domestic mail still applies, and practical weight limits at a given kiosk may be lower.
Some mail categories are excluded from locker delivery entirely because they need a human at the counter:
- Certified Mail with a hardcopy return receipt, because the green card needs a physical signature
- Registered Mail, because chain-of-custody rules don’t fit automated delivery
- Collect on Delivery, because payment can’t be taken at a kiosk
- Adult Signature Restricted Delivery, because age verification needs a postal employee
- Special Handling items, which need manual attention in transit
Hazardous materials and perishables are also excluded. A prohibited item that ends up in the system may be returned to the sender.4United States Postal Service. gopost
What It Costs
Nothing beyond regular postage. There’s no fee to have a package delivered to a Smart Locker, no storage charge during the five-day window, and no account or registration to pay for.4United States Postal Service. gopost
One related service does carry a fee, and it’s worth flagging because people ask: USPS Package Intercept lets a sender stop or redirect a package already in transit. Intercept can reroute a shipment to a Post Office for hold-for-pickup, but it cannot redirect a package specifically to a Smart Package Locker. The fee is $19.45, charged only if the reroute succeeds.5United States Postal Service. Package Intercept – Stop Delivery of Letter or Package
Finding a Smart Locker Near You
Smart Package Lockers are located at select Post Offices and are still being rolled out. USPS has a dedicated search tool where you can enter a city, state, or ZIP code to find nearby units.6United States Postal Service. Smart Locker Locations If there isn’t a locker near the recipient’s address, the shipping kiosk simply won’t offer the Smart Locker option when you’re making the label.
When every compartment at a location is full at the moment of delivery, the carrier typically leaves a delivery notice and holds the package at the retail counter instead of squeezing it in somewhere else.
Smart Package Lockers Are Not the Same as Gopost
USPS runs a second, older self-service locker system called gopost, and the two get confused. Gopost units are standalone kiosks in places like shopping centers and transportation hubs, not Post Office lobbies. They require a separate registration, a mailed physical gopost card, a PIN, and identity verification. Gopost also accepts outgoing prepaid packages, which the Smart Package Locker system does not currently support in the same way, and it gives you 15 calendar days to pick up most packages instead of five.4United States Postal Service. gopost If the instructions you were given mention a card and PIN, you’re looking at gopost, not a Smart Locker.
If You Miss the Pickup Window
After the five days, your package moves to the Post Office retail counter and normal USPS holding policies take over. You’ll still get it, but you’ll be picking it up from a person during business hours, which is the situation the locker existed to avoid. Watch the email notifications and go within the window.