DHL Shopify integration with Karl

You don't need a separate DHL API contract: the API connection runs through Karl's shared API. You do need your own GKP access (DHL business customer contract), which you connect to Karl. From Karl Pro, FedEx uses your own customer number and you connect UPS by logging in to your UPS account and authorising Karl, plus your customer number (no API credentials of your own), while DHL Express and DPD use your own account plus your own API credentials (bring your own API key).

Yes, Karl Start: €0 a month, €0.25 per label, for shipping within Germany. DHL Paket is only available to senders in Germany. You connect your own DHL business customer contract (GKP), and Karl's shared API provides the API connection. Karl Start has no monthly fee: you pay €0.25 per label, up to 1,000 labels (€250) per 30 days; after that you continue in the next period or straight away on Karl Pro. DHL return labels, surcharge protection and cross-border shipping come with Karl Pro.

From Karl Pro, for DHL Express, Karl checks before the label is printed whether the delivery address falls in a remote area (Remote Area Surcharge). Karl runs no such check for DHL Paket. DHL lists no remote area or island surcharge for DHL Paket on dhl.de (as of 5 October 2026); your own contract is what counts. If Karl detects a DHL Express surcharge and another of your connected carriers serves the route without it, Smart Routing switches to that carrier, and the surcharge does not arise. If there is no such carrier, you see the surcharge before printing.

DHL Paket charges business customers an energy surcharge (a percentage of the base price), a toll and CO2 surcharge per shipment, a peak surcharge in November and December, and a bulky goods surcharge for parcels outside the standard dimensions (dhl.de, as of 5 October 2026). The energy, toll and peak surcharges sit on every shipment; no shipping app can avoid them, and neither can Karl. The current rates and the bulky goods dimensions are in our blog post “DHL surcharges 2026”.

Yes. Warenpost (Internetmarke) runs through your Portokasse: no DHL business customer contract required. It's the simplest option for light shipments and is already covered in Karl Start.

Karl is not a reseller. DHL always bills you directly, at your own GKP rates for DHL Paket, or via your Portokasse for Warenpost. Karl is only the routing and printing layer and is never part of the shipping rate.

Yes, from Karl Pro. You connect DHL Express with your own account and ship within the EU and EFTA, or to 190+ countries with Karl Enterprise. Smart Routing decides automatically between DHL Express and the other carriers based on weight, destination, order value and Incoterm. Customs documents, ETD and DDP are covered in the Karl Enterprise plan.