Universal Mailworks

USPS July 2026 Rate Changes: What Mailers Need to Know Before You Drop

Quick answer

Before-and-after USPS rates for First-Class, Marketing Mail, EDDM, and Nonprofit effective July 13, 2026 — with a drop-timing decision rule.

USPS is raising direct mail rates on July 13, 2026. Here's the side-by-side on postcards, letters, EDDM, and nonprofit — and a simple rule for whether to rush a drop before the change.

## The short version USPS market-dominant rates adjust again on **July 13, 2026**. Most direct mail products move 2–5%. The biggest jumps are on First-Class postcards (+5.0%) and presort Marketing Mail postcards (+5.4%). The smallest are nonprofit letters (~3%) and saturation Marketing Mail. This is the third rate change in 18 months. USPS now adjusts twice a year (January and July), which means your postage budget needs two pricing checkpoints per year — not one. ## What's actually changing | Class | Before | July 13, 2026 | |---|---|---| | First-Class postcard (4×6") | $0.400 | $0.420 | | Marketing Mail postcard (presort) | $0.298 | $0.314 | | Marketing Mail Saturation postcard | $0.198 | $0.207 | | EDDM Retail (flat ≤ 3.3 oz) | $0.219 | $0.229 | | First-Class letter (1 oz) | $0.780 | $0.810 | | First-Class presort 5-digit letter | $0.582 | $0.610 | | Marketing Mail letter (presort) | $0.348 | $0.362 | | Nonprofit Marketing Mail letter | $0.198 | $0.204 | The full breakdown lives in our [USPS July 2026 rate-change guide](/guides/usps-july-2026-rate-changes), including flats and the planning-ahead notes for January 2027. ## What this costs you in practice The percentages look meaningful but the dollars often aren't. A 10,000-piece Marketing Mail postcard drop moves from $2,980 to $3,140 in postage — a $160 difference. A 25,000-piece nonprofit letter campaign moves from $4,950 to $5,100 — about $150. At national-political-IE or large nonprofit scale (500K+ pieces), 4% starts to matter. At 5–25K pieces — which is most local business and political mail — it's noise compared to the cost of bad creative or a stale list. ## The drop-timing rule we give every client - **Drop before July 13 if:** artwork is fully approved, list is finalized and CASS-processed, and the run is 50,000+ pieces. Locking in old rates at scale is real money. - **Drop after July 13 if:** you're under 25,000 pieces, creative still has open feedback, or your in-home date matters more than $50–$200 of postage savings. - **Either way:** ask for both quotes in writing. We re-price live against the USPS schedule and show you the delta before you commit. ## Where the savings actually live If you're worried about the postage bump, the biggest single lever isn't the class of mail — it's list quality. CASS-certified, NCOA-processed lists with apartment/unit detail and seasonal-occupancy flags often reduce undeliverables by 4–8%. That's a postage savings of 4–8% on every drop, for the rest of the campaign's life — not a one-time 4% bump you absorb. The second biggest lever is presort tier. Moving from Mixed-AADC to 5-digit presort on a Marketing Mail letter is a $0.07/piece swing at any of these rate schedules. If your list is dense enough to qualify (typically 1,000+ pieces in a single 5-digit ZIP), the savings dwarfs the July increase. ## Plan now for January 2027 USPS has telegraphed a larger January 2027 adjustment — likely 6–8% on Marketing Mail and 4–5% on First-Class. If you build annual budgets in Q4, model a 7% increase against your H1 2027 volumes now. We update [our USPS 2026 rate guide](/guides/usps-rates-2026) the day the Postal Regulatory Commission approves new numbers. ## What to do this week 1. Pull your scheduled drops between June 25 and July 20. 2. For each, ask us to quote both pre- and post-July-13 postage. 3. Decide based on the drop-timing rule above — not on the headline percentage. 4. If you have a nonprofit campaign in flight, the rate change is barely material — focus on the creative. Need help re-pricing? [Request a quote](/contact) or call (562) 261-9100 and we'll have current numbers back to you the same day.

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Universal Mailworks
6910 Aragon Circle, Suite B
Buena Park, CA 90620
Phone: (562) 261-9100