LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > Printing postage at home
Yes. Online postage services let you buy and print postage at home: enter the destination and weight, pay online, and print the shipping label on a regular printer. The label carries a barcode the post office scans when the item is accepted, so the postmark date and tracking are built in. After that, the parcel or envelope goes into a mailbox or drop-off point like any stamped mail.
| Method | What you print | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| USPS Click-N-Ship | Shipping label with postage and tracking barcode | Packages and Priority Mail from the US, with no monthly fee |
| Stamps.com and similar services | Postage indicia on labels or envelopes | Frequent shippers who want a postage meter without leasing hardware |
| Canada Post Snap Ship | Shipping label with postage | Parcels within Canada, with tracking included |
| Online marketplaces (eBay, Etsy labels) | Prepaid carrier label | Individual sales where the postage is generated at checkout |
The steps are the same across nearly every service. You weigh the item and measure it, enter the destination address, pick the service level, and pay. The service generates a label as a PDF with a 2D barcode containing the postage payment, the destination, and usually tracking. You print it, stick it on the package, and hand it to the carrier or drop it off. The barcode is the real postage: it is a one-time-use digital payment, recorded in the carrier's system the moment you print it.
One consequence people miss: printed postage is generally not refundable once the label exists. A stamp can sit in a drawer for years. A printed label has a mail-by date, and if you print it and then change your mind, you have to request a refund through the service, with their rules and timelines. Do not print the label until the package is packed and ready.
Less than you would think. Any working printer will do, though laser printers are the practical choice: inkjet labels smear if the package gets wet, and a smeared barcode can fail at the scanner. A kitchen scale that reads in grams or ounces is the other essential item, because postage is priced by weight and underpaying creates postage-due problems for the recipient. Plain paper with tape works for labels; adhesive label sheets or a thermal label printer make it cleaner.
You cannot print a stamp. The image of a postage stamp is a security item, and printing your own stamp-looking image on plain paper is counterfeiting, not frugality. What you print instead is a postage indicia: a square data-matrix barcode with the service name, the amount paid, and a serial number. It looks nothing like a stamp, and that is the point.
There is also one boundary worth knowing. Home-printed postage covers packages and tracked services well, but a plain personal letter still goes fastest with a real stamp from the post office. Printed label postage on a letter-sized envelope works, but it is overkill for a birthday card: stamps exist for exactly that job.
Weight accuracy is the big one. If the scale says 240 grams and the parcel is actually 310, the carrier's scanners will catch the difference and the recipient may owe the shortfall, or the package comes back to you. Round up, not down. Second: print at the correct size. Scaling a label down to fit a small envelope can shrink the barcode below what scanners read. Print at 100 percent.
Third, mind the label's mail-by date. Printed postage typically has a validity window measured in days, and mailing it after that window means the acceptance scan may flag it. Check the service's rules when you print: some allow a week, some less. And if you print through LetterAgent's shipping flow instead of doing it yourself, none of this is your problem: you describe the parcel, approve the quoted price, pay once, and receive the label PDF, with the weighing and rate logic handled before you ever see it.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com