USPS
Ground Advantage
2 to 5 days$11.40
all-in · no surprises
REST, JSON, one Bearer header.
No subscription in front of the endpoint.
A shipping API built for developers
No subscription in front of the endpoint.
The GoatLabels shipping API is a REST label API that authenticates with one Bearer header and gets to a purchased label in a few calls, with USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates side by side, labels pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet, and no monthly fee in front of the endpoint.
Four carriers in one response
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates returned side by side, from US and Singapore origins, without your own carrier accounts.
all quotedFour quotesOne rates call.
No carrier accountsNothing to connect first.
Bearer authOne header, no signing.
A wallet, not a platform fee
Fund a prepaid wallet and the API spends it label by label, the same balance as the dashboard.
PrepaidSpent label by label.
No monthly feeStaging costs nothing idle.
Pay as you goThe bill is the labels.
Shipping APIs, side by side
What should a developer look for in a shipping API?
The GoatLabels shipping API is a REST label API that authenticates with one Bearer header and gets to a purchased label in a few calls, with unlimited API calls on every plan and no monthly fee in front of it. Create the shipment, compare USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates, buy the label, and auto-print it via PrintNode, all paid from a prepaid wallet. The table sets that against how shipping APIs are typically structured.
| GoatLabels | Typical shipping APIs | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | One Bearer header on every request. No request signing, no per-endpoint keys. | Varies: API keys, signed requests, or OAuth flows depending on the vendor. |
| Getting to a live label | Create the shipment, compare USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates, buy the label. REST and JSON throughout. | Comparable call sequences are common; some require a carrier account per carrier first. |
| What a call costs | Labels are pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet. There is no monthly fee in front of the API. | Often a monthly platform fee, a per-label fee, or both — see the vendor's pricing page for current terms. |
| Carrier accounts | Not required. USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL are quoted from US and Singapore origins without bringing your own contracts. | Some APIs need you to connect your own carrier accounts before rates are returned. |
| API calls | Unlimited on every plan. Quoting, re-quoting, and tracking reads are not metered. | Often metered per call or per label, or packaged into usage tiers. |
| Testing | Live and test keys, and the test keys are usable in CI. | Sandbox access is common; its scope and limits vary by vendor. |
| Safe retries | Send an Idempotency-Key header and a retried purchase does not buy a second label. | Supported by some vendors, not all. |
| Webhooks | Signed and replayable, so a missed delivery can be sent again. | Webhooks are common; signing and replay vary. |
| Spec | OpenAPI 3.1 at /api/v1/openapi.json, with rate-limit headers on responses. | Published specs and client libraries vary by vendor. |
| Printing the result | Auto-print via PrintNode to a named printer, or render in the browser. | Usually a label URL or base64 blob you route to a printer yourself. |
| Non-API orders | The same wallet backs the dashboard, 13 storefront connectors, bulk CSV import, and the AI assistant, so ops can work orders your code never touched. | Dashboard tooling varies; some API-first vendors offer little beyond the endpoints. |
The right-hand column describes common patterns, not any one vendor. Auth schemes, fees, and carrier requirements change — check each vendor's current docs and pricing page before you decide.
Updated 2026-09-11
Why do developers pick this API?
One header, three calls, a label
A shipping API should not need a signing library. Send a Bearer header, create the shipment, read back USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates in one response, and buy the one you want. The label comes back in the same round trip.
No subscription standing in front of the endpoint
Labels are pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet with no monthly fee, so a side project, a staging environment, and a production integration all cost exactly what they print. Nothing is a tier you clear before the API answers.
The ops team gets a dashboard for free
The same wallet backs the dashboard, the 13 storefront connectors, bulk CSV import, auto-print via PrintNode, and the AI assistant. Orders your integration never sees can still be worked in the same To Ship queue.
And when you should stay where you are
- You need carriers outside USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, or origins other than the US and Singapore.
- Your integration depends on a specific vendor feature this page does not list. Check the API docs before assuming parity.
- Your existing integration is stable and nobody is unhappy. A simpler auth scheme is not on its own a reason to rewrite it.
Orders in, labels out
Connect the stores. Import the rest. Print at the station.
Connect a Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop, Etsy, Walmart, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Square, Magento, or Temu store and its orders land in the To Ship queue. Orders that arrive as a spreadsheet come in through bulk CSV import, where header aliasing maps whatever the sender called each column. Orders that arrive as a message or a screenshot go to the AI assistant, which drafts the label for you to confirm. Every label is rate-shopped across USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, paid from a prepaid wallet with no monthly fee, and auto-printed through PrintNode or the browser at the station that needs it.
1
Every source, one queue
Connector, CSV, API, or message
ops_northside
Rush order: 3x cartons (12 lb) to Maya R., Austin, TX 78701 — needs to go today
Shopify
Synced into To Ship
TikTok Shop
Synced into To Ship
CSV import
- Order
- #1847
- Customer
- Jordan Lee
- Items
- 1x Carton (12 lb)
- Address
- Brooklyn, NY
Drop the CSV or paste the order
13 connectors, bulk CSV with header aliasing, the REST API, and pasted orders — one To Ship queue.
2AI assistant
Drafting the order that arrived as a message.
- Reads a pasted order, an email, a voice note, or a screenshot
- Fills in the recipient, the address, and the parcel details
- Rate-shops USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL side by side
- Hands the drafted label back for you to confirm
Drafted. Checked. Yours to confirm.
3
Label out at the station
Bought from the wallet
Paid from your prepaid balance
Pay-as-you-go, no monthly fee
$12.47
Label purchased
USPS Priority Mail — rate shown is the debit
$12.47
Auto-print via PrintNode or the browser. Tracking is pushed back to the connected store when the label prints.
Where the orders actually come from.
13 connectors for the stores, CSV and API for everything else.
Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop, Etsy, Walmart, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Square, Magento, and Temu sync into To Ship and get tracking pushed back when you print. Orders that never lived in a storefront — a spreadsheet from a client, a call from a WMS, a pasted email — go into the same queue by CSV import, the REST API, or the AI assistant.
Shopify
Etsy
WooCommerce
TikTok Shop
Amazon
eBay
Squarespace
Wix
WalmartShopify PlusSoon
Square
BigCommerce
Magento
ZapierSoon
NetSuiteSoon
EcwidSoon
Temu
SheinSoon
ChannelAdvisorSoon
SkuVaultSoon
Zoho InventorySoon
PatreonWhat an operation keeps, and what it stops paying for.The connectors, the carriers, the API.
The connectors, the carriers, the API.
Without a subscription under them.
Moving a label engine should not cost you the carriers, the store sync, or the API. Those all come with you. What does not come with you is a monthly fee sized to your peak month — and what is new is an assistant that turns an unstructured order into a drafted label.
One prepaid wallet,
spent label by label
Fund the wallet and every label is a pay-as-you-go debit against it. There is no monthly fee and no plan tier to clear, so the balance you fund is the only number to reconcile at month end.
Wallet balance
$1,247.36USD
AI
AI drafting for orders
that are not structured
An email from a client, a screenshot of a form, or a spoken address is not an order record. The AI assistant reads it and drafts the whole label — recipient, parcel, and service — for you to confirm.
BillyLIVE
Where's the package to Maya?
It's in transit via UPS. Expected Friday, Aug 7.
1Z8923A6B05G4123456
In transit
Austin, TX → Dallas, TX
Ask Billy anything...
No monthly fee
to print
Fund the wallet, pay for each label as you go, and pay nothing in a month with no shipments. Free covers 50 shipments a month; Pro is one flat monthly plan with unlimited shipments.
Shipment summary
UPS Ground$12.49
Insurance$0.75
Fuel surcharge$0.32
Total$13.56
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL
in one quote
Live rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL side by side, from US and Singapore origins, on every parcel. That is the honest carrier list; if you need one outside it, a broader network is the reason to stay elsewhere. Thirteen storefront connectors sync into To Ship and push tracking back when you print, but a connector is never a prerequisite.
Compare rates
UPS$12.48FedEx$13.22DHL$14.10USPS$11.79
Duties & taxes paid
The API your
warehouse system calls
REST and JSON with one Bearer header. Create the shipment, compare rates, buy the label, and auto-print it via PrintNode — the dashboard and the API spend the same prepaid balance.
POST /v1/shipments
{
"to": { "name": "Maya" },
"from": { "name": "Alex" },
"service": "ups_ground",
"label_format": "pdf"
}
Webhook delivered
Label ready
CL-1038 · Brooklyn, NY
The dock, not the desk
An email is a valid order input.
Subscription platforms expect the order to already exist somewhere they can read. When it arrives as a message, you become the integration — retyping a name, an address, and a weight into a laptop you are not sitting at. GoatLabels takes the message itself, on the phone that is already at the pack station.
Paste the order or drop a screenshot — the AI assistant pulls out the recipient, the address, and the parcel.
Bulk CSV import with header aliasing for the files that arrive by the hundred.
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL come back as four rates on one screen.
Buy from the prepaid balance and auto-print via PrintNode or the browser.
Hold the mic at the station and say the address — the assistant drafts it and reads the rate back.
Hands full of cartons
Talk to the assistant, not to an import screen.
Packing is a two-hands job, and most software's answer is a form. Hold the mic, say who the parcel is going to, and the assistant drafts the label, rate-shops USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, and queues it against your prepaid balance — then answers for it afterwards when a client asks where the parcel is. This is the real product, not a render.
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments — assistant
Listening
"Where's the Austin rush order?"
Out for delivery
CL-1039 · Austin, TX · by 6 PM
Plain English in — names, addresses, weights, carriers, services · nothing to import and nothing to map · reads the rate back before a cent leaves the wallet · phone or browser.
Side-by-side quotes
The quote is the debit.
Carriers quoted on the same parcel, each a number that is the exact amount leaving your prepaid balance. Nothing is added on the way through, and nothing has to be reconciled against a subscription invoice at month end.
CA → NY2.6 lbs12×8×4 in
Cheapest
UPS
Ground
1 to 5 days$9.85
all-in · no surprises
FedEx
Ground
1 to 5 days$11.20
all-in · no surprises
Pay-as-you-go, label by labelOne wallet across every clientMulti-currency display
Public API v1
An operation with a WMS behind it.
A warehouse system already knows the order, the bin, and the box. REST, JSON, and one Bearer header let it request the rate and the label directly, and auto-print via PrintNode puts the result at the station. The dashboard and the API buy from the same prepaid balance.
Create, rate-shop, and buy — a few calls, no SDK required
One Bearer header — no signing scheme to implement
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates in one response
Auto-print via PrintNode from the same call
Read the API docs Get an API key$0 monthly fee
curl https://api.goatlabels.io/api/v1/shipments
201 Created · 187msPOST /api/v1/shipments
Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…
Idempotency-Key: ord_8421
{
"to": { "name": "Joyce", "city": "Berlin", "country": "DE" },
"parcel": { "weight": 2.6, "weight_unit": "lb" },
"service": "fedex_intl_priority"
}
No tier to clear first
No plan tier to clear first.
Labels are pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet, with no monthly fee. The 13 connectors, bulk CSV import, the REST API, auto-print, and the AI assistant all sit underneath that. Free covers 50 shipments a month with unlimited API calls; Pro is one flat monthly plan with unlimited shipments.
Pro
Most popular$40/ month
Unlimited shipments on one flat monthly plan
Cheaper label rates
AI assistant — draft a label from a message, screenshot, or voice
API access on the same prepaid balance
Volume pricing
illustrativeless volumemore volume
pay for labels, not for seats
Free
$0 / forever
Enough to run an operation through a slow quarter without a subscription under it.
50 shipments a month, unlimited API calls, no monthly fee
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rate-shopped on every parcel
The REST label API with one Bearer header
AI assistant that drafts labels from a message or screenshot
13 storefront connectors and bulk CSV import included
The assistant is not a paid tier
The AI assistant that reads an email, a screenshot, or a voice note into a drafted label is part of the product, not an add-on.
Web, every planTelegram, Pro
API on every plan
GET /api/v1/shipments
200 OK · plan: free
One Bearer header. The same wallet as the dashboard.
Bring the invoice you pay today
Put a real parcel through and compare the side-by-side rate against what that label costs you on
ShippoPirate ShipShipStationNo contractsNo monthly feeStart in seconds
Label prices are quoted live from USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL and shown as one number — the same number that leaves your wallet. Other vendors' plans and fees move, so compare against their current pricing page rather than a figure on ours. Full pricing details
Which operations this actually suits
Not every operation should move.
These are the teams for whom pay-as-you-go labels, one queue, and a label API add up to a real difference. The operations that should stay put are named on this page too.
Operations with a rotating client roster
Clients come and go monthly
Volume that arrives per client fits a prepaid wallet better than a seat count. Onboard a client, connect their store, and pay for their labels only when they ship.
4 carriers per quote no monthly fee bulk CSV
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments
Warehouses with a WMS already in place
REST API, one Bearer header
Let the warehouse system request the rate and the label, and auto-print the result at the station through PrintNode. Nothing is retyped between the two.
One queue, connector or not
Order #1024 · created via API
Ops teams living in email and chat
The orders that never became a record
rush cartons to Austin, can they go today?
Label drafted · CL-1024
Multi-channel merchants outgrowing one store
13 connectors, one balance
1
wallet behind every store and the API
Real sellers, real words
Teams that stopped paying a subscription to print a label.
A video took off and I had 80 TikTok Shop orders by morning. I printed every label from my phone on the bus to the post office.
Early customer · TikTok
TikTok Shop seller
I run my Etsy shop from the kitchen. The AI reads the order, picks the carrier, the label prints. That's the whole workflow now.
Early customer · Etsy
Etsy maker
The API is what every shipping API pretends to be. Idempotency that actually works.
Sasha R.
Staff engineer, marketplace
Shipping API for developers — FAQ
- What is the simplest shipping API for developers?
- A REST label API that authenticates with one Bearer header and gets to a purchased label in a few calls. GoatLabels works that way: create the shipment, compare USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates, and buy the label, with labels pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet and no monthly fee in front of the endpoint.
- How do I authenticate with the GoatLabels API?
- Send one Bearer header with your API key on every request. There is no request signing and no OAuth flow to implement. The full reference is in the API docs.
- Does the shipping API charge a monthly fee?
- Not to start. API calls are unlimited on every plan, Free covers 50 shipments a month with no monthly fee, and Pro is one flat monthly plan with unlimited shipments. Labels are pay-as-you-go from a prepaid wallet, and the API spends the same wallet as the dashboard. A month with no API calls costs nothing that month.
- Do I need my own carrier accounts to use the API?
- No. USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates come back side by side without connecting your own carrier contracts, from US and Singapore origins.
- Is there an SDK?
- No. Generate one from the OpenAPI 3.1 spec served at /api/v1/openapi.json, or call the REST endpoints directly with JSON in and out.
- How do I print a label returned by the API?
- Use auto-print via PrintNode to send it to a named printer at the station, or render it in the browser. Either way the label your code bought is the one that comes out of the printer.
- Can ops use a dashboard alongside my integration?
- Yes. The same prepaid wallet backs the dashboard, 13 storefront connectors, bulk CSV import, and the AI assistant that drafts labels from a pasted message. Everything lands in one To Ship queue, whether your code created it or not.
Related reading:the API docs, shipping webhook recipes, the Shippo alternative for API developers, shipping software for 3PLs, the ShipEngine alternative, what a free shipping API includes, compare shipping APIs side by side, enterprise shipping software and APIs compared, B2B shipping software with an API on every plan.
Test it on the next order that lands.
Keep the carriers and the connectors.
Drop the monthly fee.
Fund a prepaid wallet, put through the next order you would have shipped anyway, and compare the side-by-side USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rate against what that label costs you today.
No contract. No card required. No monthly fee.