LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > Last pickup time
It depends on the box: every USPS collection box has a placard listing its pickup times, and the last one is usually late afternoon on weekdays, earlier on Saturday, with no pickup on Sunday. Miss it by minutes and your letter waits until the next collection. Counters take mail until closing, later than the last box pickup.
On the box itself. Every blue collection box has a placard inside the pull-down door listing the scheduled pickup times, separated into weekdays and Saturday. There's no Sunday listing because there's no Sunday pickup. Different boxes have different times: a box outside a busy post office might have a 6pm final pickup while a quiet residential box gets cleared at 3pm. If timing matters, read the placard on the actual box you're using, not a general rule.
The placard times are the carrier's schedule, not a guarantee down to the minute, so treat the last pickup as ten minutes earlier than printed. A carrier running ahead of schedule won't wait for you.
| Drop point | Typical last pickup | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Street collection box | Late afternoon weekdays; earlier Saturday; none Sunday | Check the placard on the specific box |
| Post office lobby drop slot | Often later than street boxes | Inside the building, so later carrier visits |
| Post office counter | Until the office closes | Hand it to a clerk for the latest same-day acceptance |
| Your own mailbox, flag up | Whenever your carrier's route reaches you | Ask your carrier; it's the same time most days |
The letter waits. Carriers don't reopen a box they've already cleared, and there's no mechanism to flag down the truck. Missing the last pickup on a Friday afternoon is the expensive version of this mistake: the letter sits all weekend, and a letter mailed Monday morning can beat it to the destination.
If you just missed it and the letter is urgent, drive to the main post office: the lobby slot or counter cutoff is almost always later than the street box you missed. That's the practical recovery move, and it works more often than people expect.
They're two halves of the same question. The pickup time decides whether your letter starts moving today or tomorrow; the day of the week decides what happens after that. A letter dropped at 4:55pm Friday into a box with a 5pm pickup still sits all weekend, while the same letter dropped Monday at 9am moves immediately. When a letter is time-sensitive, check both: the placard and the calendar.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it's 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