LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
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The price of mailing a letter is more than the stamp: paper, the envelope, printer ink, your time, and the trip to a mailbox all add up, and add-ons like tracking or a signature cost extra. Online mailing services bundle the whole job into one quoted price, which makes honest comparison easier.
Most people price a letter as "one stamp" and stop there. The real bill has more lines:
| Cost element | What it really costs when you do it yourself |
|---|---|
| Postage | The stamp is the single biggest line item for a basic letter, but only for a basic letter. |
| Paper and envelope | Pennies per piece if you buy in bulk; much more per piece if you are buying small packs at a drugstore. |
| Printing | Toner runs a few cents a page; inkjet ink costs noticeably more per page than most people assume, and a clogged or dried-out cartridge can waste a whole print run. |
| Your time | Writing, printing, folding, addressing, and finding a mailbox easily eats half an hour for a single letter. |
| The trip | Driving to a post office or even a mailbox can cost more in gas and parking than the stamp itself: the errand is often the most expensive part. |
| Add-ons | Tracking, a signature on delivery, and registered or certified service each add a surcharge on top of base postage. |
Do the full accounting on a do-it-yourself letter: find paper, fight the printer, fold it neatly, address the envelope by hand, find a stamp (or buy a book of them at the post office), and drive somewhere to mail it. Even at a modest value of your time, half an hour of errands dwarfs the materials. Businesses learned this long ago: for a company, the labour to prepare a letter almost always costs more than the paper and postage combined. That is the gap online mailing services are priced against, not the price of a stamp.
Weight and distance are the classic drivers: heavier letters and international destinations cost more than a one-page domestic letter. Extras stack up fast: a signature on delivery, tracking, or registered service each adds its own fee, and international letters can cost several times a domestic stamp. Colour printing adds a little; extra pages add a little more. The mistake is comparing the advertised price of a service against the price of a stamp. Compare the service's all-in quoted price against your all-in DIY cost: materials, printing, and the errand, and the picture changes.
Doing it yourself wins on cash outlay if you already own a working printer, keep stamps on hand, and pass a mailbox on your normal route. An online service wins the moment any of that breaks down: no printer, no stamps, no post office nearby, or a letter you need handled while you are travelling. With LetterAgent specifically, the comparison is simple: you are quoted one price per letter up front, you approve that exact price, and it covers printing, the envelope, and postage. No subscription, no account, no top-ups.
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