How much is a stamp in Ireland?

The National stamp and when its price changes

Most letters posted in Ireland need just one stamp: the National stamp, marked 'N' instead of a euro amount. It costs €1.85 and pays for a standard letter or card to any address in the Republic, and to Northern Ireland as well: An Post says postal rates to Northern Ireland are the same as those within the Republic; Northern Ireland is in Zone 1 with Ireland. So a birthday card to Belfast takes exactly the same stamp as one to Cork. For delivery within the Republic and abroad, An Post says Standard Post items are delivered on the next working day in Ireland, and international items take three to seven working days.

If you post often, National stamps also come as a booklet of ten for €18.50 or a roll of a hundred for €185.00. Both are sold at the single-stamp price, so there's no discount, but buying ahead is safe because An Post says any stamp bearing the 'N' denomination represents the national postage rate of the day and is automatically re-valued to the new rate when the national rate changes. The current prices have applied since 3 February 2026, and as of 8 November 2026, no change has been announced yet. The price history table on this page shows how the National stamp has gone up over the years, and the calculator above works out the price and the stamps for your own envelope once you choose Ireland, the envelope, the number of sheets or a weight, and where it's going.

Letters, large envelopes and packets within Ireland

Size, thickness and weight all count, and a letter that goes over any one of An Post's limits is priced as a large envelope. The National stamp covers a standard letter, which is defined by where it goes and how big and heavy it is: Ireland and Northern Ireland; up to C5 (23.5 × 16.2 cm), 5 mm thick, 100 g. That takes in a DL envelope with an A4 letter folded in three, a C6 with a greeting card or a C5 with a few sheets folded once. A DL with three sheets of printer paper weighs only about 20 g, so in everyday post it's usually a chunky card or a small gift tucked inside that pushes an envelope past the thickness limit and into the next format. A C5 full of folded documents is different, because it can go over the weight limit while it is still thin enough, so weigh a full C5 before you stamp it.

Anything bigger is a large envelope, typically A4 paper sent flat in a C4 envelope so it arrives without folds, and within Ireland it costs €3.50. The whole rule for the format fits in one line: Same price up to 500 g; up to 40 × 30 cm, 2.5 cm thick. That means a C4 with one certificate costs the same as a C4 with a bundle of documents, as long as it stays within that weight and thickness, and at today's prices two National stamps cover it with a little to spare. With ordinary paper you reach the weight limit long before the thickness limit, so weigh a full envelope before you stamp it, because a heavier one is priced as a packet.

Thicker or heavier items, such as a small box, become packets, which have their own weight steps in the price table and their own limits: Length + width + depth up to 90 cm, no side over 60 cm, 2 kg; can be paid with stamps. The last part means you can pay for a small box with ordinary stamps, just as you would for a letter. Getting the format wrong is expensive, because An Post's sending guide says that if you send an item with insufficient postage for its weight, it will be returned to you with the loss of the original postage. The calculator estimates weight from typical paper and envelope weights with no safety margin, so if a letter is close to a limit, weigh it or enter its real weight.

Sending to Britain, Europe and the rest of the world

Outside the island, An Post sorts destinations into zones, and the zone decides both the price and the stamp. Zones 2 and 3 cover Britain and most of Europe, and a letter or card to either costs €3.50 with an 'E' stamp, under the same size and weight limits as a letter at home. In An Post's Schedule of Charges the rest-of-Europe price group excludes Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine, so those five countries go at the rest-of-world rate instead.

Britain is in the European rate by design: Since 3 February 2026 a letter to Britain costs €3.50, the new rate for letters to anywhere in Europe including Britain; An Post says it introduced this rate rather than apply the higher Rest of World rate of €3.95 because more than half of its outgoing international mail goes to Britain, Germany and France. So a Christmas card to London takes one 'E' stamp, just like a card to Paris or Warsaw. This page covers post sent from Ireland; if someone is writing back to you from Britain, Royal Mail's prices are on our UK stamp prices page.

Zones 4 and 5 are the rest of the world, from the USA, Canada, Asia and Africa to Australia, New Zealand and South America, and a letter or card there costs €3.95 with a 'W' stamp. Large envelopes abroad are priced by zone and by weight: an A4 envelope with a few sheets falls in the lightest step, which costs €5.00 to Britain or most of Europe, €7.00 to the USA and €8.00 to Australia, and the table shows the heavier steps. Whatever you send abroad, An Post asks for a return address in the top left-hand corner and, on items going outside Ireland, an Air Mail label to the left of the postage area.

Registered Post at home and abroad

Registered Post is the service for documents you can't afford to lose, because it comes with cover: An Post says Registered Post within Ireland is insured for the declared value up to €320; where no value is declared, a maximum of €25 is payable. Its price works differently from ordinary post: the Registered Post price in the table is the complete price for the item, postage included, so you don't add a stamp. Within Ireland, Northern Ireland included, a registered letter, large envelope or small packet costs €10.00 in total, and a heavier packet costs €13.00. For example, a signed lease sent to a landlord in Galway costs €10.00 whether it goes in a DL or a C4 envelope.

Abroad, the rules are stricter and the price depends on the zone: Registered Post abroad is for documents only (since 3 February 2026 it can no longer be used for goods); a registered letter up to 100 g costs €16.00 to Zone 2, €17.00 to Zone 3, €23.00 to Zone 4 and €24.00 to Zone 5. So a registered letter to London goes at the Zone 2 price, one to Madrid at the Zone 3 price and one to New York at the Zone 4 price. If you need to send goods abroad, you'll need a different An Post service.

Christmas 2026: last posting dates and stamps

These are An Post's latest posting dates for Christmas delivery in 2026, for letters and large envelopes. Find the row for where your cards are going and the column for the service you're using:

Two rows are easy to misread. Northern Ireland's date is earlier than the rest of the island's even though a card there takes the same stamp, and the USA has its own date, later than the one for the rest of the world, so a card to Boston can wait a few days longer than one to Toronto or Sydney. Registered Post to the USA works the other way round, with a last date before the Standard Post one.

If you're stocking up, An Post has two Christmas offers. For Christmas 2026 An Post sells a booklet of 13 National stamps for €20.00, issued on 2 November 2026, and An Post's Christmas 2026 'Everywhere' bundle costs €45.00 for three booklets: 13 National, 5 European and 5 International stamps. At today's prices both work out cheaper per stamp than buying the same stamps singly, so the booklet suits a list of cards at home and the bundle one that also goes abroad.

If your list runs to dozens of cards, you can print the addresses on labels instead, 21 to an A4 sheet, and if they're in a spreadsheet you can use mail merge to print one label per address from Excel, which needs a free account. Check the list before you print, because An Post's sending guide asks that addresses in Dublin include the postal district number (for example Dublin 3) and the Eircode; our guide on how to address an envelope shows where everything else goes. The labels only take care of the addresses: OpenLabelMaker doesn't sell or print postage, so the stamps still come from An Post.