Skip to main content
Postmarkr

Mail cost calculator

What does it really cost to send a business letter?

A letter that does the math with you. Every gold number is editable. Every assumption is sourced. Our price is exact; your in-house cost is an estimate, and we keep those visually distinct on purpose.

Postmarkr

First-Class Mail

est. 2019 · no subscription

July 2026 - postmarkr.com/mail-cost-calculator

- the gold numbers are yours to change. Tap one.

Dear business owner,
You send about letters a month, around page each, in , sent .

We would charge you exactly $205.00 a month - $2.05 a letter, no subscription - and your mail arrives in 1-5 business days.

Doing it yourself runs roughly a month once you count minutes a letter at /hr and a letter in materials. The minute post-office run is on top - it shows up in the hours below. Those are our guesses about your shop - tap any gold number to change it.

That leaves you a month and hours of someone's time.

Plainly,

POSTMARKR

P.S. - Under 22 letters a month the savings are small; it is about the time. Over 499, in-house presort can beat us. We will say so.

How this letter works: gold numbers are yours to change - tap one. Navy prices are exact, from our live pricing engine. Dotted numbers are estimates computed from your gold numbers - tap one to see how.

Sign up - $2.05 a letter

Save this estimate

Share the current inputs, print a clean result, or keep one CSV row for your budget file.

Transparent by design

Methodology and sources

This calculator compares one exact Postmarkr quote with a modeled in-house range. It is a budgeting aid, not an accounting or USPS quote. The eight gold inputs define the scenario; changing one recomputes the same shared estimate shown, printed, and exported above.

How the result is built

  • Exact Postmarkr monthly cost is the pricing-engine price per letter multiplied by monthly volume.
  • Estimated in-house cost combines the sourced labor-time range, your wage and materials inputs, and page/color adjustments.
  • Estimated savings subtract the exact Postmarkr monthly total from the in-house range.
  • Estimated staff hours combine handling time for the selected volume with the monthly post-office trip assumption.

Default assumptions

  • Wage rate: $21.64 per hour. BLS, May 2025 (opens in new tab)
  • Minutes per letter: 5 minutes. Industry estimate
  • Materials per letter: $0.87 per letter. Retail 2026
  • Post office trip minutes: 45 minutes. Industry estimate

What the exact price covers: the selected printing, paper, envelope, postage, mailing service, and the processing fee shown by the pricing engine. Certified Mail uses its service-specific price when selected.

High-volume caveat: in-house presort can outperform a per-letter vendor price when a mailing reaches USPS eligibility and the organization can support the equipment, maintenance, and operating labor. Compare presort before relying on this hand-processing model at high volume.

Postage and service-rate reference intent belongs to the USPS rates reference; this page owns the business mail cost comparison.

Paper in their mailbox, mail status in yours

Use the calculator when you are comparing tradeoffs. Use Postmarkr when you want the mailing done.

Send Your First Mail