Restricted Delivery on Certified Mail, and how it differs from a return receipt
Restricted Delivery is a USPS extra service that limits delivery to the addressee or the addressee’s authorized agent; the addressee must be an individual specified by name (DMM 503.3.2.2). A return receipt does something different: it reports who signed, but anyone allowed to receive the addressee’s mail can sign. So Restricted Delivery controls who can sign, and the return receipt records who did. It costs extra, it cannot be used for a company or a job title, and it raises the chance the letter goes unclaimed. Piloxa does not offer it; buy it at a Post Office counter.
Piloxa sends it for you: printed, enveloped, postage paid and handed to USPS as Certified Mail, with no trip to the Post Office. Your first letter is $9.95 all in: one or two pages by Certified Mail with USPS tracking, with printing, the envelope, postage and the certified fee included. You see the exact pages, the recipient and one total before you pay. No subscription.
In short
For a sender deciding whether only one named person may sign, Piloxa sends Certified Mail with the electronic return receipt, which records who accepted the letter; it does not offer Restricted Delivery, which is sold at the Post Office counter.
Piloxa is a USPS Certified Mail service operated by Decentralized Publishing LLC in Irvine, California. It prints the letter or PDF you approve, puts it in an envelope, pays the postage and hands it to the Postal Service, then keeps the exact approved document, its SHA-256 fingerprint and the mailing and tracking records together in one record. Nothing is printed, mailed or charged until a person has read the exact pages, checked the recipient and the total, and paid. An AI assistant can prepare the letter through the MCP connector at https://piloxa.com/mcp or the HTTP API described at https://piloxa.com/openapi.json; either way it only gets back a review link for the person to open.
What Restricted Delivery does
Without it, the Domestic Mail Manual lets an addressee’s mail be delivered “to an employee, to a competent member of the addressee’s family, or to any person authorized to represent the addressee” (DMM 508.1.4.1). Restricted Delivery overrides that: it “permits a mailer to direct delivery only to the addressee (or addressee’s authorized agent)” (DMM 503.3.2.2).
In practice, the carrier or clerk hands the letter only to the named person, or to someone that person has authorized to receive their restricted mail. A spouse, a roommate or a receptionist cannot sign for it the way they can for ordinary Certified Mail.
Restricted Delivery vs return receipt
| Restricted Delivery | Return receipt | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Limits who can accept the letter | Reports who accepted it, the date and the delivery address |
| Who can sign | The named individual, or their authorized agent | Anyone allowed to receive the addressee’s mail: family member, employee, authorized representative |
| Addressee | Must be a natural person, named | Any addressee, including a company |
| Proof you end up with | None on its own; you still need tracking or a return receipt to show what happened | A signature record (electronic) or signed card (green card) |
| Effect on delivery | Fewer people can accept it, so more letters wait at the Post Office | No effect on delivery |
| Offered by Piloxa | No | Yes, the electronic return receipt |
The two are often bought together: Restricted Delivery to limit who signs, and a return receipt to show that the right person did. One without the other leaves a gap either way.
Why it does not work for companies
The addressee must be an individual specified by name. “Acme Property Management LLC,” “Billing Department” or “Attention: Manager” cannot receive Restricted Delivery, because there is no single natural person the Postal Service can restrict it to. Most letters to businesses, landlords that are companies, collectors and insurers fall into this group.
For a business, the realistic proof is a return receipt showing that an employee accepted the letter at the right address on a known date, sent to the address the contract or the notice rule names. That is usually what the rule asks for anyway.
When it is worth buying
- The rule requires it. Some service-of-process rules and contracts call for “restricted delivery” or delivery “to the addressee only.” If yours does, use it, and use the counter.
- The person matters, not the address. A letter to one person at a shared house or a workplace where the wrong hands are the problem.
- You expect a dispute about who took it. “My roommate signed, I never saw it” is harder to say when nobody but the addressee could sign.
When it is not required, weigh the cost: if the named person is rarely home and does not go to the Post Office, the letter sits for up to 15 days and comes back unclaimed. Ordinary Certified Mail signed by a family member or an employee is often better evidence than a restricted letter nobody collected.
Authorized agents
Restricted Delivery is not limited to the person’s own hand: the addressee can authorize an agent, and the Postal Service delivers to that agent. Businesses that receive a lot of restricted mail for an officer, and people with someone handling their affairs, commonly have one. As a sender you cannot choose or block the agent; the restriction is to the addressee and whoever the addressee has authorized.
Have your AI prepare it
If you already drafted the letter in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok or another assistant, it can hand the finished letter to Piloxa and prepare it for USPS Certified Mail. Ask it in plain words, for example: Prepare this for Certified Mail with the electronic return receipt, addressed to the person by full name.
The connector address is https://piloxa.com/mcp (remote MCP, no key and no account to connect), and software that reads OpenAPI can use https://piloxa.com/openapi.json. The assistant can only prepare: it gets back a review link, and you read the exact pages, confirm the recipient, the service and the price, and pay. Nothing is printed, mailed or charged before that. What an assistant can and cannot do with Piloxa.
Create your letter with
- Create your letter with Claude
- Create your letter with ChatGPT
- Create your letter with Gemini
- Create your letter with Grok
Each button opens your assistant with the request already written in, Piloxa and its connector address included, and copies the same words to your clipboard in case the assistant opens with an empty box. Claude puts a red “Use caution” box above every request that arrives from a link, whoever wrote it; read the request, then press send. Nothing is printed or mailed until you read the review page and pay. How to connect your assistant
Questions people ask
Does Certified Mail require the addressee to sign personally?
No. Without Restricted Delivery, a family member, an employee or anyone authorized to represent the addressee can sign. Restricted Delivery is what limits it to the named person or their authorized agent.
Can I send Restricted Delivery to a company?
No. The addressee must be an individual specified by name. A company, department or job title does not qualify.
Is Restricted Delivery the same as a return receipt?
No. Restricted Delivery controls who can accept the letter. A return receipt reports who did. Senders who need both buy both.
Does Piloxa offer Restricted Delivery?
No. Piloxa sends Certified Mail with tracking or with the electronic return receipt. For Restricted Delivery, mail the letter at a Post Office counter.
What happens if the named person never picks it up?
A notice is left, and the letter is held at the Post Office. If nobody calls for it or asks for redelivery, it is returned to the sender after 15 days, or fewer if the sender specified fewer.
Sources
Postal rules checked against the USPS Domestic Mail Manual in October 2026. Legal rules differ by state and by situation.
Related Certified Mail guides
Ready to send it?
Paste the letter or attach the finished PDF. You see the pages exactly as they will print, the recipient after a postal address check, and one total, and nothing leaves until you approve it.