Dubai Zip Code and UAE Postal Codes Explained
There is no Dubai zip code and no UAE postal code - the country does not run a postal code system at all. Here is what Emirates Post asks you to write instead, what a P.O. Box costs, and what a Makani number does.
Every checkout page that demands a zip code assumes the country you are standing in has one. The UAE does not. That is the whole of the answer to the Dubai zip code question, and it leaves a more practical one behind it: what to write instead.
We deliver rental cars to addresses around Downtown Dubai and nearby, so turning an address into a doorway is part of our day. Here is what the UAE uses instead of postal codes, what Emirates Post actually asks you to write, what a P.O. Box costs and what a Makani number does.
The short version
The UAE does not use postal or zip codes - Gulf News states it plainly, and Emirates Post's own published address format has no line for one.
Post is addressed to a P.O. Box number, and Emirates Post asks for the box number and the physical address together.
A personal P.O. Box starts at AED 300 on Emirates Post's own published plans, with home-delivery plans above that.
Makani is Dubai's official addressing system - a 10-digit number that pins a building entrance to within a metre.
If a form will not accept a blank zip code, there is no official value to type, so put your effort into the box number and the physical address.
There is no postal code in the UAE
The direct answer is that there is no Dubai zip code, no UAE postal code and no Abu Dhabi or Sharjah equivalent, because the country does not run a postal code system at all. Gulf News puts it plainly: the UAE does not have zip or postal codes for areas, and the postal system is organised by post office box number instead.
The second piece of evidence is quieter and harder to argue with. Emirates Post is the official postal operator across all seven Emirates, and the address format it publishes for mail coming into the country runs to six lines. None of them is a postal code.
So when a form refuses to go forward without one, you are looking at a page built for somewhere else. The figures published online for a UAE zip code trace back to commercial websites rather than to Emirates Post or to any UAE authority, which is worth knowing before you copy one into a customs form. If a field is compulsory and nothing official fills it, the parts of the address that actually move the parcel are the box number, the building and the phone number.
What Emirates Post asks you to write
Emirates Post publishes the format it wants for mail addressed into the UAE, and it is worth copying out in full, because it answers the question better than a code would. In order: the word To, then the title and name, then the P.O. Box number, then the physical address - building name, street name, flat number - then the Emirate, then a telephone number.
Two things stand out. The first is that the box number and the physical address are both wanted, not one or the other. The second is the telephone number, which Emirates Post asks for alongside the physical address rather than instead of it.
If you are sending something to a company, you will need its P.O. Box number. If you are sending to a person who has none, couriers can work from the physical address and the telephone number, but ordinary post has nowhere to land without a box number. The same logic applies to the address you hand over when you rent a car: the useful part is the building and a number someone can ring.
What a P.O. Box costs
Emirates Post rents personal boxes on three published plans. MyBox, a physical box at an Emirates Post branch, is AED 300 - Gulf News gives the same figure. Above it sit two home-delivery plans: MyHome at AED 695, which brings mail and parcels to your home once a week, and MyHome Instant at AED 995, which delivers daily. There is a registration fee of AED 70 on top, and Emirates Post states all of these VAT inclusive.
Those two home-delivery figures are Emirates Post's own published prices at the time of writing, and they are not the only ones in circulation: Gulf News gives AED 995 for MyHome, where Emirates Post's current plans put AED 995 on MyHome Instant and AED 695 on MyHome. Confirm the price with Emirates Post before you pay rather than trusting any write-up, this one included.
To open a box, Gulf News says you need your full name, Emirates ID number, mobile number and email address, and you can apply on the Emirates Post website or at a branch. Plan names and prices change, so check at the counter.
Makani - the address that finds your door
What the country has instead, in Dubai at least, is Makani. Dubai Municipality describes it as the official geographic addressing system in the emirate of Dubai: a 10-digit number that identifies a building entrance to an accuracy of one metre, with no names, codes or directions needed. Gulf News describes the same system and the same accuracy, and notes that Makani means my location in Arabic.
Your number is on a plate at the building entrance, and you can look it up on the Makani website or in Dubai Municipality's Makani app, which searches by Makani number, place name, plot number, map pin or QR code. A villa has its own number. In an apartment building, Gulf News says the number you will find is the one for the main entrance, displayed in the lobby.
Makani is not only a Dubai system - Dubai Municipality says the app now covers Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah as well. If you are having anything brought to you, from a sofa to a car, a Makani number or a dropped map pin is the most precise thing you can send - one metre, against a building name someone has to hunt for. It is as useful for arranging a car delivery as it is for meeting someone at the airport.
Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the rest of the country
The per-emirate question has one answer everywhere, because a single operator runs the post across all seven Emirates. There is no Abu Dhabi zip code, no Ajman postal code and no Fujairah one, for the same reason there is no Dubai one.
Sharjah is the one interesting exception, and worth explaining. In April 2015 Sharjah's Urban Planning Council launched a postal code system, the first sign going up in Al Majaz 2, with the launch led by Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi. The National reported it at the time. What we could not find is any current source describing that system in general use, or any published structure for the codes - and the standing guidance from Gulf News is still that the UAE does not have postal codes. Until something more recent says otherwise, the box number is what post runs on in Sharjah too.
For one specific area the answer takes the same shape but the detail differs, which is why Jebel Ali and its free zone are written up on their own.
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Sources
Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.
FAQ
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