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Brazil Postal Codes and Addresses Guide
How Brazil's eight-digit CEP postal code works, how Brazilian addresses are written, and how a UPCS exact-location code fits alongside them.
Updated 14 October 2026 · 3 min read
Brazil's postal code is the CEP (Código de Endereçamento Postal), an eight-digit number written as 00000-000. The national postal operator is Correios. The CEP is deeply embedded in daily life: online shops, delivery apps and forms use it as the first step in an address, and in many cities it can pinpoint a street or even a single building.
How the national system works
The CEP is built in layers, from a broad region of the country down to a specific delivery point. The first digit is a region, the following digits narrow it down through sectors and subsectors, and the final three digits, after the hyphen, are a suffix that identifies the individual delivery point. In large cities, each street, or each stretch of a long street, tends to have its own CEP, and some large buildings and organizations have a unique one. Smaller municipalities may use a single general CEP for the whole town. See Brazil CEP format explained.
How addresses are written
A Brazilian address names the street type and name, the number, a complement for the unit, the neighbourhood (bairro), the city, the state abbreviation and the CEP:
Jane Doe
Rua Exemplo, 123, Apto 45
Bairro Exemplo
Cidade Exemplo - UF
00000-000
The street number follows the name. The state is a two-letter code such as SP or RJ. More detail is in how to write a Brazilian address.
How UPCS codes work in Brazil
UPCS (Universal Post Code System) gives a point on the map a short code. In Brazil, the code starts with BR, then two blocks of letters and digits, for example BR-XXXX-XXXX (a placeholder). Each code stands for a 3 m by 3 m cell, and the same coordinates return the same code.
A UPCS code is not an official postal code, is not issued by Correios or any government body, and does not replace the CEP. It is meant to accompany a normal address, which helps when a CEP covers a whole small town or a street is long and irregular.
Why the CEP matters online
Brazilian online shops typically ask for the CEP first and fill in the street, neighbourhood and city automatically, then request the number and complement. This makes the CEP the key that drives shipping quotes and delivery zones, so a mistyped digit leads quickly to a wrong address.
In this guide
The section has four more pages. Open CEP format for the structure of the code. Address format covers line order and terms such as bairro and complemento. Find a CEP explains lookup and verification. Delivery and addressing covers the practical challenges. The countries hub lists other countries.
In this guide
Frequently asked questions
What is a CEP?
CEP stands for Código de Endereçamento Postal, the Brazilian postal code. It has eight digits, written as five digits, a hyphen and three digits.
What do Brazilian UPCS codes look like?
They start with the prefix BR followed by two blocks of letters and digits, as in BR-XXXX-XXXX. They are not official postal codes and do not replace the CEP.