How long does mail take from California?

How long does mail take from California to each state?

The map shades each state by the number of days USPS most often gives a First Class letter from California, and the table under it gives the usual range for every state, so you can read off a trip like California to Florida at a glance.

How long does a letter take within California?

USPS's directory gives 2 days to 35 percent of the letters that start and end in California, 3 days to 47 percent and 4 days to 18 percent. About 21 percent of the people in California live in ZIP codes whose letters get a day more than the rest of their 3 digit ZIP area, which is the 2025 rule for post offices more than 50 miles' drive from the plant that sorts their mail. If you mail from one of those towns, expect the slower end of each range on this page.

Which states get mail from California fastest?

USPS most often gives 3 days or fewer to letters from California bound for 4 other states, which are Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Oregon. To Nevada, 82 percent of letters have a standard of 3 days or less.

Which states take the longest from California?

USPS gives 5 days to most letters from California going to 33 states, including Florida and New York. A letter on one of these trips that goes out with Monday's pickup is due on Saturday, or a day later when a holiday falls in the week.

How much of the country is within 3 days of California?

If you sent one letter from California to every person in the country, California included, USPS would give 15 percent of them a standard of 3 days or less. That ranks California 36th of the 50 states and DC, and the state in the middle of that list is at 22 percent.

How do I find the exact days for one letter?

Each range on this page covers many ZIP codes, and one letter has a single number. For example, USPS gives a letter from ZIP 92336 in California to ZIP 34787 in Florida 5 days. Our delivery time tool shows that number for any two ZIP codes and counts it out on the calendar, skipping Sundays and holidays.

How were these days worked out?

The days come from USPS's own service standard directory for First Class Mail, effective October 1, 2026, which we download from USPS's Service Standards Files API. It gives the days from every 3 digit ZIP area to every other, plus the 5 digit ZIP codes whose letters get a different number. For California we took each of its 1,763 populated ZIP codes as a starting point and each 3 digit ZIP area of the destination state as an end point, and weighted every pair by the people who live at both ends, using the Census Bureau's 2023 population counts. "Usually" is the range that covers the middle 8 of every 10 letters, and "most often" is the single most common number.

A service standard is USPS's target for a stamped letter mailed before the day's last pickup, and First Class Mail has no delivery guarantee. Sundays and the 11 federal holidays USPS observes don't count as delivery days.