Pricing
One letter. One payment.
Printing, the envelope, USPS postage and the certified fee are all in the price. There is nothing to join, nothing to top up and nothing added at the end.
From $13.18 · $16.17 with Electronic Return Receipt
One letter. One payment. No subscription, no membership, no minimum, no trip to the Post Office.
Mail my letterSee what you get back
Every figure on this page is read from the same pricing the checkout uses, at the moment you load the page. The exact total for your own letter is worked out from your own document and shown on the review page before you pay.
What one letter costs, by length
Price depends on how many pages are printed, and on which of the two services you pick. Certified Mail gives you a USPS tracking number. The electronic return receipt adds the record of who signed for the envelope.
| Printed pages | Certified Mail USPS tracking | Certified Mail + Electronic Return Receipt tracking and the signature record |
|---|---|---|
| 1 page | $13.18 | $16.17 |
| 2 pages | $13.28 | $16.28 |
| 3 pages | $13.38 | $16.38 |
| 4 pages | $13.78 | $16.78 |
| 5 pages | $13.89 | $16.88 |
| 6 pages | $13.99 | $16.99 |
| 8 pages | $14.20 | $17.19 |
| 10 pages | $14.40 | $17.40 |
Not sure how many pages your letter runs to? Paste it into the free readiness check and it will tell you, with the exact total, before you sign in. Both sides of a sheet count as two pages. The step between three pages and four is bigger than the others because USPS charges a heavier postage rate once the envelope passes one ounce. Longer letters than these are priced the same way, a little more per page; the review page always shows the exact figure before you pay.
The other way to send it: a trip to the Post Office
For most people the real alternative is not another website. It is getting in the car. That trip is usually described as free, because the only number anyone writes down is the postage. Here is the same letter — one page, Certified Mail with the electronic return receipt — counted properly.
| USPS fees at the counter | $9.28 |
|---|---|
| Driving there and back, 8 miles | $5.80 |
| Before one minute of your time | $15.08 |
The counter fee is 82¢ postage, the $5.55 certified fee and $2.91 for the electronic return receipt. The driving is eight miles at 72.5¢ a mile, the IRS standard rate for 2026, which covers fuel, insurance, tires and wear rather than the gas alone. Your paper, your ink and the envelope are not counted at all.
The same letter from Piloxa is $16.17, with nobody leaving the house. Before a single minute of your time has been valued, the trip is already within a couple of dollars of that — and the minutes are where the comparison stops being close.
And then the time
Forty-five minutes door to door is the figure used below — twenty minutes driving, five parking and walking in and out, twenty in the line and at the counter. What three quarters of an hour is worth is yours to decide, so here it is at three rates rather than one.
| Your hour is worth | Forty-five minutes | The whole trip |
|---|---|---|
| $20 | $15.00 | $30.08 |
| $40 | $30.00 | $45.08 |
| $75 | $56.25 | $71.33 |
People often quote “about fifty dollars” for a trip to the Post Office. That is roughly right for somebody whose hour is worth fifty dollars, and far too high for somebody whose hour is worth twenty. Rather than publish an average nobody can check, the arithmetic is above: change the miles, the minutes or the rate and the answer changes with it.
These are assumptions, not measurements. Some Post Offices have no line at all and some take forty minutes; if yours is two blocks away and quiet, the trip is cheap and this page is not trying to talk you out of it. Without the return receipt the same comparison is $6.37 at the counter plus $5.80 of driving, $12.17, against $13.18 from Piloxa. USPS fees are the schedule effective 12 July 2026; the mileage rate is the IRS business standard rate for 2026, published in Notice 2026-10. Both change, so check them before relying on them. Against the other online services, where Piloxa is not the cheapest, see what certified mail online really costs.
What is in the price
- Printing — your document, laid out and printed by a licensed print-and-mail partner.
- The envelope — stuffed, sealed and addressed, with the certified label attached.
- USPS postage and the certified fee — bought and paid for, at the current USPS rate.
- The certified service you chose — Certified Mail, with the electronic return receipt added when you pick it.
- The mailing record — the exact document with its fingerprint, the addresses, what you authorized and paid, and the printing partner’s own acceptance of the job, kept together and downloadable as one file.
- Tracking and signature as they are reported — every scan and receipt the printing partner passes back, recorded with its source, and a plain “no record yet” where none has been reported. What that looks like.
What you will not be charged
There is no monthly membership, no annual plan, no prepaid balance to top up, no per-account fee, no minimum order and no charge for opening an account. You pay once, per letter, and only after you have seen the exact pages, the recipient and the total on the review page. Nothing is charged until you authorize it there.
Some certified mail services advertise a lower headline price that needs a paid membership before you can use it, or quote a base rate and add the return receipt at checkout. Piloxa quotes one all-in number per service, and it is the number the card is charged. What certified mail online really costs sets out what each service charges for one letter, Piloxa included — and Piloxa is not the cheapest.
Refunds
If the letter has not yet been handed to the printer, the charge is reversed in full. Once it is printed and posted, the postage and printing are spent and cannot be refunded, but a failure on our side is ours to put right. The mailing and refund policy says exactly where that line falls.
Common questions
Is the price on this page the price I pay?
Yes, for a letter of that many pages sent to a US address. These figures are produced by the same pricing that quotes your own letter at checkout, read at the moment this page loaded. Your own total is worked out from your actual document and shown in full on the review page, before you pay.
Do I have to subscribe?
No. There is no subscription, no membership and no minimum. One letter is a complete transaction.
Can I send to an address outside the United States?
Not today. USPS Certified Mail is a domestic service; Piloxa mails to US addresses only.
What if the address turns out to be wrong?
The recipient address is checked against USPS records before you pay, and the result is shown to you. If USPS cannot match it you can correct it there and then. A letter that is later returned to sender is recorded as returned, with the date and the address used — which is often useful evidence in its own right.
Mail my letter How to send one
Sending from an assistant instead? How to connect your assistant — it prepares the letter at these same prices; you review, pay and authorize here.
Status, September 2026: Live mailing is open for letters to any US address. You see the exact letter, the recipient and the total before you pay, and nothing is printed or mailed until you authorize it. Questions: support@piloxa.com.