2021 Postage Rate Chart

The Postal Service filed new rates with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) for Market Dominant Rate Changes, and these rate changes will officially go into effect on Sunday, January 24, 2021.

This is a typical CPI (Consumer Price Index) based rate change under the laws of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) which was signed into law in 2006 that means rate changes are calculated from a pool of potential changes based on the Consumer Price Index change over the prior year. Based on August results the cap space available to the Postal Service is 1.459 which is lower than any other rate change under the PAEA law.

The postal service did go back and calculated some very small “banked cap” space carried over from years in the past which they added to the pool. In all this allowed them to use 1.836% of potential changes on First Class Mail and 1.509% on Marketing Mail.

Be sure to download our handy 2021 PS Postal Rate Chart and contact a Production Solutions expert today to discuss creative solutions for your budget.

Here are some highlights:

• The cost of a single piece First Class stamp will remain at $0.55 (zero change).
• Single Piece Postcards – $0.35 to $0.36
• 1st Class Auto Presort is increasing 1.7% as a category. 5D 1 oz increase is .009
• 1st Class Auto Postcards are increasing 3.4% as a category. 5D increase is .009
• The increase to Nonprofit Letter mail is small – under 2% at the DSCF level and 1.4% at the Automation Category level.
• Nonprofit Auto Flats under 4 oz are going up 3.4% as a category
• DSCF 5D under 4 oz is going DOWN .008
• DNDC 5D under 4 oz going DOWN .01

There are also signals of a possible second USPS rate adjustment in 2021 which could happen under what would be new Postal Reform laws to replace the current PAEA structure, and we anticipate that the earliest we will learn more about this development will be in December 2020 and more likely in Q1. We are committed to providing you with more information and update you as soon as we see signals that the Postal Service may release a new proposal.

To access the USPS Notice 123 Price List for a full outline of new prices you can access this link: https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202021%20-%20Notice123.pdf

But wait, there’s more! We’ve done the math for you to compare 2020 vs 2021 rates!

Sign up below to receive our handy postage rate comparison chart as an Excel spreadsheet! This tool will help you take a deep dive into the numbers with a side-by-side view of 2020 vs. 2021 rates for the most common postal categories broken down into percentage and exact dollar changes!