Rating overview | Canada Post Developer Portal

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What it does

The Canada Post rating API returns all available shipping options and costs for package shipments.

How it works

The Rating API lets ecommerce customers quickly and easily compare shipping options and associated costs to ship their packages. During checkout, customers can select the shipping service that best fits their timelines, needs, and budgets based on package weight, size, and destination.

Latest updates in this version

April 30, 2026

We've updated our APIs to improve security and performance. Protocols are now REST-only with JSON standardization (XML and SOAP are no longer supported), and OAuth 2.0 Bearer tokens are now mandatory for all requests. We've also added YAML configuration files and expanded support for 10 programming languages.

For full details, read the release notes.

Rating workflow

The Rating workflow begins with the API receiving shipment information that was gathered from a client app. Based on the shipment information, the API determines available shipping services or rates for a given item. Details of the service are displayed. Once a service is selected, the API retrieves option details.

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Rating calls

Rating service functionality is provided through the following calls:

Rating calls
Service	Description
Get Rates	Uses the destination address and package information to return a complete list of available shipping services, prices, and transit times.
Discover Services	Returns the list of postal services available given the origin, destination, customer, or contract.
Get Service	Returns the minimum and maximum weight and dimensions for each available postal service as well as any add-on options available.
Get Option	Returns information about each available add-on option, including how it can be used and whether it requires or conflicts with other options.