Setting Up a German PO Box: Step by Step

You apply for a Deutsche Post PO box online through their shop. It requires a deliverable home address in Germany. Private customers pay €29.90 a year, business customers €49.90. Your box number arrives by mail after about ten days, and you pick up the key at the branch with ID. If you'd rather read your mail on your phone than pick it up in person, a digital mailbox is the alternative, set up in minutes.

Quick note: this article covers a physical PO box for letters. If you're looking to set up an email inbox in Outlook or on your phone, your email provider's own guide will help instead.

Setting up a Deutsche Post PO box: the steps

1. Check the requirements

Deutsche Post requires:

• a valid, deliverable home address in Germany
• your name clearly displayed on your mailbox at home
• an ID document to collect the key

Without a fixed residence, Deutsche Post won't issue you a PO box. For what to do instead, see Away for longer, or no fixed address.

2. Apply online

The application runs exclusively through Deutsche Post's online shop. You need a customer account, choose your branch, and provide your home address. A new PO box can no longer be set up by phone, partly because payment is by direct debit, and bank details can no longer be collected over the phone for privacy reasons.

3. Wait for confirmation

The email confirmation arrives immediately. The letter with your box number reaches your home address after about ten days.

4. Pick up the key

Collect the key at your chosen branch with ID. Two keys are included in the price; up to three additional ones cost €7 each, for a maximum of five per box.

5. Share your box address

Let your senders know the new address. Banks, insurers, and public authorities often still require your home address regardless. The PO box is an additional postal address, not a replacement.

What doesn't automatically land in the box

This surprises a lot of people: not everything sent to your PO box address actually ends up in the box. Parcels, small parcels, express shipments, and customs items from non-EU countries don't get delivered to the box at all; they go to your registered home address instead.

Registered mail (Einschreiben) is a special case: it isn't inserted automatically. You get a pickup notice in the box instead, and you collect the actual letter in person with ID at the counter. For a cancellation notice, a reminder, or an official letter sent by registered mail, that means you get a heads-up in the box, but you still have to go to the branch yourself to actually get your hands on it.

PO box or digital mailbox?

| | PO box (Deutsche Post) | Digital mailbox | |---|---|---| | Setup | Online application, ~10 days, pick up a key | Online, in minutes | | Requirement | A home address in Germany | Depends on the provider | | Reading mail | Pick up at the branch | As a scan in the app | | Address | A box number | A street and house number | | Registered mail | Only via pickup notice, in person at the counter | Yes, if accepted by staff | | Parcels | No, go to your home address | Yes, depending on the plan | | Personal cost | €29.90 a year | from €9.95 a month | | Works for an Impressum | No | Depends on the provider |

A PO box is cheap and solid if you're regularly near the branch and mainly want to avoid listing your home address everywhere. A digital mailbox costs more but saves you the trip and still works when you're not in town.

An example: the PO box that never got emptied

Picture a project manager from Hamburg who spends weekdays on construction sites across northern Germany. He sets up a PO box so mail doesn't pile up in his home mailbox. In theory, that's a good idea.

In practice, he only gets to the branch on Saturdays, when it's open until noon. He misses that window twice, and a letter from his health insurer sits in the box for three weeks. When a pickup notice for a registered letter shows up at home too, he realizes the PO box hasn't actually solved his problem: he still has to show up in person.

He switches to a digital mailbox instead. Mail now lands as a scan on his phone, whichever site he happens to be working at.

Setting up a digital mailbox: how it works

A digital mailbox works differently from a PO box. You get a real street address where your mail gets accepted and scanned. At Clevver, setup looks like this:

1. Choose a location, for example Berlin, Hamburg, or Munich
2. Pick a plan based on your mail volume
3. Register online
4. Use the address: senders, authorities, and online shops write to your new address
5. Read your mail in the app: you get notified the moment a letter arrives, and decide whether it gets opened and scanned, forwarded, archived, or destroyed

Clevver's digital mailbox is explicitly built for private individuals too. It starts at €9.95 a month including VAT and cancels monthly with 14 days' notice. Mail scanning: what it is, how it works covers the scanning process in detail.

FAQ

How do I set up a PO box with Deutsche Post? Apply online through Deutsche Post's shop, wait for the confirmation with your box number, and collect the key at the branch with ID. This takes about ten days.

What does a PO box cost? €29.90 a year for private customers and €49.90 for business customers at Deutsche Post. A digital mailbox starts around €10 a month, and you don't have to pick anything up.

Can I set up a PO box without a fixed address? Not with Deutsche Post, which requires a home address in Germany. A digital mailbox can be an alternative.

Does registered mail arrive at a PO box? Not automatically. You get a pickup notice in the box and collect the registered letter in person with ID at the counter. Parcels and express shipments go directly to your home address.

Can I list a PO box in my Impressum? Not as the only address. A PO box isn't a serviceable address. More in PO boxes in a German Impressum.

Deutsche Post prices and terms as of October 2026, no guarantee. Check deutschepost.de for current information. Still have questions? → Contact us