The July 12 USPS Rate Increase Is Here: What It Costs Mailers — and How to Get It Back

If your Marketing Mail invoices look bigger this week, you are not imagining it. On Sunday, July 12, 2026, new USPS rates took effect across mailing services — an average increase of 4.8%. The Forever stamp jumped from 78¢ to 82¢, metered letters from 74¢ to 78¢, and commercial Marketing Mail letters rose roughly 5–6% depending on presort tier.

For a business mailing 50,000 pieces of Marketing Mail, that works out to roughly $950–$1,100 more per campaign — every campaign, from now on.

Two Changes That Matter Beyond the Percentages

1. The new IMpb fee. Marketing Mail parcels that lack an Intelligent Mail package barcode now carry a $0.25 fee — per piece. If your operation is still producing parcels without IMpb, that is a self-inflicted surcharge.

2. The new “Heavy Printed Matter” category. USPS created a Marketing Mail category for heavier folded self-mailers and booklets. Heavier pieces moving through high-speed postal sortation demand properly tabbed, securely sealed mail — which makes professional-grade tabbing and inserting equipment more relevant than it has been in years.

How Mailers Claw the Increase Back

Here is the part the rate charts do not tell you: the gap between what automated, presorted mail pays and what unprepared mail pays remains wide. In-house presorting typically captures 8–15% in postage savings — more than enough to absorb the July increase for most operations.

Qualifying for those automation discounts takes three things:

• Clean, barcoded addressing. An address printer producing Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMb) moves your mail into automation pricing.
• USPS-compliant tabbing. Folded self-mailers and booklets — including the new Heavy Printed Matter category — must be tabbed to spec to run postal automation.
• Efficient preparation. Folder inserters and sealers that let you presort and batch in-house instead of paying single-piece or outsourced rates.

In other words: the machines pay for themselves faster today than they did two weeks ago. Every rate increase widens the gap between mailers who own their preparation and mailers who rent it.

Worth a Conversation?

We have spent decades helping mailers do this math — honestly. Sometimes the answer is a refurbished tabber that costs less than one year of the new rate increase. Sometimes your current equipment just needs service to qualify your mail. Call us at 866-430-2874 and we will walk through your volume and tell you what actually makes sense.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the new USPS rates take effect?
Sunday, July 12, 2026.

How big is the increase?
An average of 4.8% across mailing services; commercial Marketing Mail letters rose roughly 5–6% depending on presort level.

What is the new parcel fee?
Marketing Mail parcels without an Intelligent Mail package barcode (IMpb) now incur a $0.25 per-piece fee.

Can equipment really offset a rate increase?
In-house presorting and automation-compliant mail preparation typically capture 8–15% in postage savings — for most mailers, more than the July increase took away.