Parcel
Railway parcel charges calculator
Approximate freight for boxes or a car by train, from the railway’s published rate tables — the parcel office’s quote is the price. Sending a motorcycle or scooter? Use the bike parcel charges calculator.
Approximate charge
Freight from the railway’s published parcel rate tables; tick GST for the figure the counter asks for, and add the packer’s quote if you have it.
approx. ₹211 all-in — example: 130 kg over 500 km
- Premier scale, 491–500 km slab
- 130 kg chargeable = 13 slabs of 10 kg → ₹201 base
- Railway freight ₹201 + GST ₹10 = ₹211
Across all scales, approx. ₹201 (Premier) to ₹376 (Rajdhani) railway freight, before GST and packing. The parcel office assigns the scale by train; you cannot pick it.
Source: Indian Railways parcel rate tables for Scales P, R and L, as published on parcel.indianrail.gov.in, and the railway’s explanatory notes to them; GST at 5% per CBIC Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), Heading 9965 — transport of goods by rail, 5% (2.5% CGST + 2.5% SGST). Last checked . The official Calculate Approximate Freight tool is the authority; the parcel office’s quote is the price. The percentage charge on any value you declare above the railway’s liability is extra, quoted at the office.
Boxes, household goods, a bundle of anything that is not a vehicle. The parcel office weighs it, measures it, checks what is in it, and charges by the greater of weight and volume — a light, bulky thing is not cheap because it is light.
What to bring
- Your photo ID and a copy.
- A contents list. The counter will ask what is inside, and some things cannot go at all.
- The name and number of whoever collects at the other end.
Before you go
- Pack for handling, not for display. It will be lifted, stacked and moved several times; a box that is fine in a car boot is not fine in a luggage van.
- Nothing flammable, pressurised or perishable — gas cylinders, fuel, paint, aerosols, and anything that leaks. The counter refuses these and is right to.
- Label every piece on two sides: name, phone, destination station. Number the pieces if there are several.
- Weigh it at home if you can, so the quote does not surprise you.
At the parcel office
- Forwarding note: contents, number of pieces, declared value, destination.
- Volumetric weight is worked out from the dimensions; if it is more than the scale weight, that is what you are charged on.
- Keep the receipt — the reference number on it tracks the consignment.
What the charge is made of
- Distance and chargeable weight — the greater of actual and volumetric — set the base freight.
- A percentage of the declared value is added as cover.
- Packing, if the station's packers do it, is separate.
- Demurrage at the destination after the free period.
Collecting it
- Destination parcel office, with the receipt and ID.
- Count the pieces and check them before signing.
- Collect promptly — storage is charged by the day.
For the exact figure: the railway's own portal has a Calculate Approximate Freight tool that knows the train and the distance, and the parcel office quotes on the day. The calculator above is the same published tables worked by hand; it is approximate, and it says so beside every number.
Ask TrainBot about your parcelLive status, PNR, seats and schedules — answered on this site, in any language.
TrainBot India is an independent service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Indian Railways, IRCTC, or any rail operator or ticketing organisation. Parcel booking is done at the railway’s parcel office or on its portal; the form above reaches a private transport partner, not the railway.
How this railway parcel charges calculator works, and why it is approximate
The calculator uses the rate tables the railway publishes, worked by the railway’s own rules: a minimum of 50 km and a minimum charge, ten-kilogram weight slabs, every fraction rounded up to the next rupee, volume counted as weight when it is larger, a single package over 100kg charged double, a motorcycle charged on a standard weight set by its engine size rather than weighed, and a surcharge on Rajdhani-class trains. What it cannot know is which scale the parcel office will apply to the train your consignment travels on — the railway assigns that by how full the train’s luggage van runs — so the band across scales is the honest answer until the counter names the train. GST can be added at the rate charged on the parcel way bill; packing is whatever the packer beside the office quotes, so the calculator takes that number from you rather than guessing it; the percentage charge on a declared value above the railway’s liability is not in the figure. A rate table copied onto a website is right until the tariff changes, which is why the page says when it was last checked and a test on this site fails when that date is six months old.
Indian Railway car parcel charges, and a cycle
A car goes as a parcel too, but not from every station and not on every train — it needs a service with a van that takes one, so the first call is the parcel office or the railway’s portal to confirm the route runs at all. Once it does, the charge is worked the same way as anything else, with one difference the calculator applies for you: a single package over 100 kg pays double the freight for its weight, and a car is comfortably over. A bicycle is the opposite case — light, and bulky for its weight — so it is usually charged on the space it takes rather than what it weighs. Put its size into the calculator and the greater of the two is what you get, which is what the counter does.
Railway parcel charges per kg, and why the railway does not price it that way
People search for a per-kilogram rate and there is not one, which is worth saying plainly rather than burying. The railway charges in 10-kilogram slabs, so a consignment a kilo over a slab costs the same as one at the top of it, and the freight comes from that slab together with the distance. Two things then override the weight on the scale: anything below the 50-kilometre minimum is charged as though it travelled that far, and a package that is large for its weight is charged on the space it fills instead. That is the whole reason the calculator asks for size as well as weight — a per-kilo number could not express any of it, and one quoted elsewhere is describing a tariff the counter does not use.
Railway cargo, goods train and freight charges are a different service
This is the most common wrong turn, so it is worth being direct: if you searched for cargo charges, goods train charges or a freight calculator, you may be on the wrong page. Parcel means a consignment that rides in the luggage van of an ordinary passenger train, booked at the parcel office, carrying a parcel way bill. Goods means wagon-loads on goods trains, booked through the railway’s freight system on a completely separate tariff, and tracked by a freight number rather than a way bill. The two are priced nothing like each other. Boxes, a bicycle, a motorcycle or a car go as parcel, and this calculator is for them; a wagon-load does not, and no number on this page will be right for it.
Railway luggage charges: what travels with you, and what travels without you
Luggage and parcel are different counters and different rates, and the word people search for is not always the service they need. Luggage travels on the same train as you, on the strength of your own ticket, and you get an allowance before anything is charged at all. A parcel travels without you: it is handed in, the railway puts it on a train of its choosing, and somebody collects it at the far end with the way bill. If you will be sitting on the train with your bags, you are asking about luggage and the allowance is where to start. If the thing is travelling on its own, it is a parcel, and the figure above is the one you want.
Checking the train it travels on
A parcel travels on a specific train, and where that train is right now is the same question as where any train is. If you want to know whether the service carrying your bike has left, or how late it is running, that is what the WhatsApp assistant is for — send the train number and it answers. The guide on picking the right datematters here too, because a parcel booked yesterday travels on yesterday’s run. For how many days the whole thing takes, booking to collection, the railway parcel tracking page has a delivery-time predictor from the same published material.
Questions people ask
What are railway parcel charges per kg?
There is no per-kilogram rate. The railway charges in ten-kilogram slabs, so ninety-one kilograms and one hundred kilograms cost the same, and it works the freight out from that slab and the distance the consignment travels. It also charges a minimum distance even for a short hop, and if the package is large for its weight it is charged on the space it occupies instead. That is why the calculator asks for weight, size and distance together rather than offering a rate per kilo, and why a per-kg figure quoted anywhere else cannot be right.
Is this a parcel rate, price, cost or fare calculator — are they different things?
They are the same thing and this page is all of them. The railway's own word is freight, which is what you pay to send a consignment. Fare is a passenger word: it is what a person pays to travel, and a parcel does not have one. So whichever word you searched, the number you want is the freight, and the calculator on this page works it out from the railway's published rate tables.
Are railway cargo charges and goods train charges the same as parcel charges?
No, and this is the most common mix-up. Parcel travels in the luggage van of an ordinary passenger train, is booked at the parcel office, and gets a parcel way bill with a PRR number on it. Goods or cargo means wagon-loads on a goods train, booked as freight through the railway's freight system with a forwarding note and a railway receipt, and it is priced from an entirely different tariff. If you are sending a few boxes, a bike or a car, you want parcel and this calculator. If you are sending a wagon-load, you want the freight side and this page will not give you the right number.
What is the difference between luggage and parcel on Indian Railways?
Luggage travels with you on the strength of your own ticket, in the same train you are on, and you get a free allowance before anything is charged. A parcel travels without you: you hand it in at the parcel office, it goes in the luggage van of a train the railway chooses, and somebody collects it at the other end. The counters are different, the paperwork is different and the rates are different. This calculator is for parcel, the one that travels without you.
How do I calculate parcel charges in railway myself?
Take the heavier of two numbers: the actual weight, and the weight the volume works out to when the package is bulky for its size. Round that up to the next ten-kilogram slab. Take the distance, and treat anything shorter than the railway's minimum as that minimum. Read the rate for that weight and distance from the scale the train falls under, then apply the extras that apply to you: double rate for a single package over the bulky limit, a surcharge on Rajdhani-class services, and GST on the way bill. The calculator above does all of that from the published tables, which is faster and less error-prone than doing it by hand.
Why does the calculator show a band instead of one price?
Because the rate depends on which scale the railway applies to the train your consignment actually travels on, and that is decided by how the train's luggage van is used and leased. Nobody outside the railway can know it in advance, and the parcel office assigns it when it books the consignment. Showing one number would mean picking a scale and hoping. The band is the honest answer until the counter names the train, and the counter's quote is the price.
What does it cost to send a car by train?
A car is charged as a parcel, with one difference that matters: a single package above the railway's bulky limit pays double the freight for its weight, and a car is comfortably above it. The calculator applies that for you. The harder part is not the money, it is the route. A car needs a service with a van that will take one, which does not run from every station or on every train, so the first call is the parcel office or the railway's portal to confirm the journey is possible at all.
Is the FOIS freight calculator the same as this?
No. FOIS is the railway's Freight Operations Information System, and it covers goods traffic — wagon-loads moving on goods trains, tracked by a freight number rather than a parcel way bill. Its rate tables are not the parcel tables and its numbers will not match a parcel booking. If you searched for a freight calculator but you are sending boxes, a bike or a car in the van of a passenger train, this parcel calculator is the one you want.
Does Indian Railways deliver to the door like a courier?
No. The railway's parcel service runs station to station: you hand the consignment in at the parcel office at one end and somebody collects it from the parcel office at the other, with the way bill. There is no pickup from your house and no delivery to an address, which is the main thing that separates it from a courier — and the main reason it costs what it does over long distances. If you need door to door, the enquiry form on this page reaches a private transport partner who arranges that part around the rail leg.
रेलवे पार्सल रेट कैलकुलेटर से चार्ज कैसे पता करें?
ऊपर दिए गए कैलकुलेटर में सामान का वज़न, उसका आकार और कितनी दूरी तक भेजना है — यह तीनों डालिए। रेलवे प्रति किलो के हिसाब से नहीं, दस-दस किलो के स्लैब में चार्ज करता है, और अगर सामान वज़न के मुकाबले ज़्यादा जगह घेरता है तो जगह के हिसाब से चार्ज लगता है। कैलकुलेटर रेलवे की अपनी प्रकाशित दर तालिका से अनुमानित भाड़ा बताता है। असली रकम पार्सल ऑफ़िस काउंटर पर ही तय होती है, क्योंकि ट्रेन का स्केल वहीं तय होता है।
Last updated 16 September 2026.