From the 7th of April 2026 stamp prices are going up again. The price of First Class stamps will be £1.80, an increase of 10p and the price of Second Class stamps will increase by 4p to 91p.
You can find the full price rises for consumers and marketplace sellers on the Royal Mail 2026 Prices webpage.
Currently, at £1.70 and and 87p respectively, the price of a First Class stamp is over double that of Second Class. With this latest price rise, the price of Second Class dips just below half the cost of First Class again.
It’s from 2020 that the price differential jumped hugely, making First Class a very premium price in comparison to Second Class, but unfortunately the service you might expect from the higher cost simply hasn’t materialised. It’s so bad that Royal Mail bosses have been called into Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee to answer MPs questions about how bad the service has become and remained in recent years.
Royal Mail say that stamp prices, even after the rises, will remain below the European average and that stamp price rises reflect the continued rise in cost of delivery for every letter as letter volumes decline and the number of addresses increases.
We always consider price changes very carefully, balancing affordability with the rising cost of delivering mail. On average, UK adults now spend just £6.50 each year on stamps and there are 70% fewer letters sent than 20 years ago. In the meantime, the number of addresses we deliver to has increased by four million to 32 million addresses across the UK.
As the UK’s designated postal Universal Service Provider, we’re proud to be the only company to deliver a one-price-goes-anywhere service, six days a week, from St Ives to Stirling, but there is a high cost associated with doing this. To protect the service for the future we need to urgently move forward with implementing Universal Service reform to support a more modern, more reliable and more sustainable service for our customers.
– Richard Travers, Managing Director of Letters, Royal Mail
One Response
to much for stamps I have saved some of the other one’s at the old price for my own use. can’t believe how much it would cost to send a greetings card.?.