USPS Price Hikes Are Coming—Here’s How to Save on Business Mail in 2026
Announcements of price increases by the Post Office have been happening with regularity recently.
- Fall of 2025: The Post Office announced an increase in costs for shipping items via USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express.
- January 18, 2026: The price increases for Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express take effect. First-Class Mail stamps remain $0.78.
- April 6, 2026: The U.S. Postal Service approved a March 25th proposal for a time-limited 8% increase associated with the current market transportation costs for Parcel Select, USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express, to be effective April 26, 2026 through January 17, 2027. See proposal.
- April 9, 2026: The U.S. Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of mailing service price changes to take effect on July 12. The new rate increases the price of First-Class Mail stamps from $0.78 to $0.82. Metered 1 ounce letters will increase from $0.74 to $0.78. See proposal.
- April 26, 2026: The time-limited price increase takes effect.
- July 12, 2026: Pending favorable review by the PRC, the First-Class Mail stamp price would increase.
With many types of communications moving online, sending letters, donation requests, notifications, bills, and marketing pieces through snail mail can be an effective way to capture people’s attention because the volume of competition is much lower. But every business still wants to be as cost-effective as possible when they choose to send mail. So, what are the best ways to help keep those costs as manageable as possible?
You can always stock up on Forever Stamps before price increases go into effect, but that’s only a temporary solution, and only applicable to a First-Class standard letter.
Get Your Mail Picked Up
If you make trips to the post office on a daily or more than daily basis, Broadstroke can pick up your mail, including flats and large envelopes, at your place of business and take it to the post office for you. This doesn’t save you money on postage prices, but it does save you gas on company vehicles and mileage reimbursement on personal vehicles, which can add up.
The IRS recommended business mileage reimbursement rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile, which means that if the post office is even only a mile away from your office, having Broadstroke pick up your mail for you each day is saving you more than the cost of sending a letter at the increased rate the Postmaster General is recommending.
Have Broadstroke Apply Postage
Not only can Broadstroke pick up your mail, but we can also apply postage to it too. How does this save you money? When you send mail pieces out you are likely either applying a First-Class stamp to your mail piece and paying a full postage amount, or you’re paying for the cost of a mail meter.
Broadstroke can apply presort postage to your mail that is less expensive than the full first-class postage amount and less expensive than maintaining your own mail meter. This is an uncomplicated way to reduce your per piece costs; you’ll just need to make sure that you print clearly in black ink and leave room at the bottom of the envelope to allow us to pass along our presort rate. Broadstroke will supply trays for your mail and pick up all pieces that need postage along with any pieces that you prefer to apply postage to yourself.
Send Marketing Mail as Marketing Mail
If you’re sending out your own marketing pieces directly to current or potential customers, you may be paying more than you need to. Both Broadstroke and Postalocity, our automated mailing platform, will send these pieces for you as USPS Marketing Mail, previously known as standard mail, which will significantly reduce your per-piece cost to reach your audience. The rate in 2026 for localized, non-addressed mail is 24.7 cents and bulk marketing mail averages 40.5 cents to 43 cents, with lower rates for higher density presorting.
Automate Your Mail with Postalocity
The most cost-effective way to send your mail is to use Postalocity.com, our online mailing platform. When you send your mail through Postalocity, you upload your PDF file, review and approve your mailing, and we print, fold, stuff, seal, apply postage at the presort rate, and get your mail to the post office for delivery.
Automating your mail allows you to reduce the number of manual hours your staff spend preparing mail. Instead of printing, folding, stuffing, sealing, and applying postage, your staff hours can be reallocated to other more critical business activities.
Automating your mail means the costs of supplies and postage are incorporated into a single price from Postalocity for your mailing that is less than the cost of each of these items on their own along with postage. With Postalocity you don’t have the separate costs that are part of mailings you don’t often think about (but still add up!), like wear-and-tear on printers, ink costs, paper costs, and envelope costs.
When you automate your mail with Postalocity, one additional benefit is our address verification service. Your addresses are compared against USPS databases to check for bad addresses before mail is ever sent, reducing your returned mail and the costs that come along with it.
None of us can avoid price increases when they’re implemented by USPS, but you can keep it more affordable by taking advantage of mailing options from Broadstroke and Postalocity that reduce direct costs and eliminate the hidden costs that can add up.
