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A postage meter is a licensed machine that prints postage directly onto an envelope or onto adhesive tape for parcels. Law firms, medical offices, nonprofits, and small businesses still rent them to skip trips to the post office, to print exact postage for odd weights, and to pay metered rates that run lower than the same postage bought at the counter.
You load money onto the meter through the licensed provider, weigh or key in the mailpiece, and the machine prints a postage mark called an indicia right onto the envelope. No stamps to buy, no licking, no guessing how many stamps a heavy envelope needs. When the balance runs out, you top it up online instead of driving to buy stamps.
For parcels and thick mailers, meters print the postage onto a strip of adhesive tape that you stick on the package. That tape is the postage: a clerk will treat a taped box exactly like a stamped one.
Online postage ate most of the meter market, but meters survive in a few niches. Offices that mail daily batches like the ritual of one machine doing weighing, printing, and accounting. Law firms and clinics like the neat printed indicia on client correspondence. And high-volume mailers care about the metered discount: postage bought through a meter is priced below the same postage at the retail counter, which adds up over thousands of pieces.
| Postage option | How you buy it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Stamps | Post office, online, retail stores | Occasional personal mail |
| Postage meter | Licensed rental, topped up online | Daily office batches, exact weights |
| Online postage (PC postage) | Printed from a service on your own printer | Parcels, occasional odd-size mail |
| Business reply / permit | Post office permit, printed indicia | Reply mail, bulk campaigns |
The printed indicia shows a mailing date, and that date is load-bearing. Mail metered with one date but dropped off days later can be returned to you, because the post office treats the indicia as already-cancelled postage tied to that date. Metered mail also skips the postmark: the indicia itself is the cancellation, so the printed date is your only proof of when it entered the system. If a deadline turns on the mailing date, say a tax filing or a court deadline, the meter date is what counts, which is exactly why the rules are strict about it.
No. Meters are licensed devices, and in the US they can only be leased, not owned outright, through postal-approved providers. The provider handles the funding, the inspections, and the accounting the post office requires. Canada Post runs a parallel system with its own licensed meter suppliers and similar funds-on-deposit rules. The licensing is the reason meters never went the way of the fax machine: every meter is a tiny regulated bank vault for postage money.
Almost certainly not, unless you mail enough to make the rental and the metered discount pay off. For a few letters a month, stamps or online postage win on simplicity. And if you would rather not touch postage at all, services exist that take the whole job: describe the letter to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and the printing, envelope, and postage are handled without you buying anything.
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.
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