How Philippine ZIP codes work
A Philippine ZIP code has four digits, assigned by the Philippine Postal Corporation to each city or municipality. It is the number that tells the post office which town an address belongs to, and it is a standard part of any complete Philippine address.
One code per city, not per street
A whole city or municipality usually shares a single ZIP code. This is different from countries where the code narrows down to a street or a block. In the Philippines the code identifies the town, and the barangay does the finer work of locating an address within it. That is why the barangay and the ZIP code are both needed: the ZIP gets a letter to the right town, and the barangay guides it to the right neighbourhood.
A few very large cities are split into more than one code, but for most places one code covers the entire city. If you know the city, you effectively know the ZIP code.
ZIP code and postal code
In the Philippines people usually say ZIP code, while postal code is the more general term used elsewhere in the region. They mean the same thing here: the four-digit number for a city or municipality. On forms you may see either label, and the same number fits both.
In an address
The ZIP code follows the city or municipality on the same line, before or in place of the province:
ZIP code is not the area code
The ZIP code is sometimes confused with the telephone area code, but they are different things. The area code is for phone numbers, while the ZIP code is for mail and is tied to a city or municipality. A form that asks for a postal or ZIP code wants the four-digit mail code, not a phone prefix. Keeping the two apart avoids a common mix-up on delivery and registration forms.
ZIP codes on online forms
Many online checkouts and delivery apps ask for a ZIP code as a separate field, and some use it to estimate shipping or to preselect a city. Entering the correct four digits helps the form pull up the right city and avoids a mismatch between the city you type and the code you enter. If a form rejects your address, a wrong or missing ZIP code is a common cause, so check it against the city first.
When a code is missing or shared
Newly created cities may not yet have a widely listed code, and a handful of large cities are split across more than one. When a single code is missing, using the code of the parent city or the nearest listed city is usually enough for delivery, because the barangay still guides the final step. When you are unsure, look up the city rather than guess a number.
How the directory is organised
Addresses in the Philippines are grouped as region, then province, then city or municipality. The ZIP code belongs to that last level. On this site you browse the same way: pick a region, then a province, then a city to see its ZIP code. Metro Manila is arranged by district rather than a single province, but the code still belongs to the city.
Finding a ZIP code
Browse by region and province at the Philippines page to find a city and its ZIP code. Each city page shows the code and a ready-to-paste address format you can copy straight into a form. If a code looks wrong, please report it so we can check it.