Shipping Country Codes (ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2) for USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL

Every major carrier API identifies a country by its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code: two letters, uppercase. UPS, FedEx, USPS and DHL all use the same standard, so the country code that works for one carrier works for the others.

The full list is further down this page. Most of the trouble people run into is not finding a code, though, but picking the wrong one, so start here.

Commonly confused country codes#

The codes are not abbreviations of the English name. They come from the country's own name in many cases, which is why Germany is DE and Spain is ES. Guessing produces exactly the errors above.

"What country is CN?"#

CN is China. It is not Canada, which is CA.

This comes up constantly because a shipment marked CN looks like it should be Canadian, and a mis-keyed country code is one of the more expensive mistakes in shipping: the label prints, the rate quotes, and the package goes to the wrong continent before anyone notices. If you are reading a tracking record or a rate response and see CN, the destination is China.

United States territories#

US territories have their own ISO codes, but USPS treats them as domestic destinations. Address them with the territory's two-letter abbreviation in the state field and a normal ZIP code, and send US as the country:

So an American Samoa address uses state AS and a ZIP in the 96799 range, not country code AS. UPS and FedEx differ here: they generally treat Puerto Rico as its own country code (PR) for international rating, even though USPS does not. Check the rate response rather than assuming.

The United Kingdom is GB#

UK is not an ISO 3166-1 code. The United Kingdom is GB, and most carrier APIs reject UK outright. Northern Ireland is part of GB; the Republic of Ireland is IE. The Channel Islands (Jersey JE, Guernsey GG) and the Isle of Man (IM) have their own codes and are frequently rated as separate destinations.

Country codes in RocketShipIt#

Country codes go in the country field of any address, and the same value is used for every carrier:

{
  "carrier": "ups",
  "action": "getallrates",
  "params": {
    "to_city": "Shanghai",
    "to_state": "Shanghai",
    "to_postal_code": "200000",
    "to_country": "CN",
    "from_postal_code": "97210",
    "from_country": "US",
    "weight": "5"
  }
}

See RocketShipIt Parameters for the full list of address fields, and Address Validation for checking an address before you buy a label. Address validation is only offered in some countries: see Supported Address Validation Countries.

Full country code list#

248 countries and territories, as published by USPS. Sorted by country name; use your browser's find function to jump to one.

See also#

• Supported Shipping Carriers - every carrier RocketShipIt can ship with
• Address Validation - verify an address with UPS, FedEx or USPS before printing a label
• RocketShipIt Parameters - all address and shipment fields