LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Bulk mail is discounted postage for large mailings of identical pieces that you presort by destination: usually 200 or more pieces grouped by ZIP code or postal code. The post office charges less because you have done the sorting the machines would otherwise do. LetterAgent cannot send bulk mail: it mails individual letters, one recipient at a time, through the standard letter stream.
The economics are straightforward. Sorting mail is labor, and the post office prices that labor into every stamp. When a business arrives with 2,000 identical postcards already sorted into bundles by destination, the post office skips a chunk of its own work and passes the savings back as a lower per-piece rate. The catch is that the pieces must be identical (or nearly so), meet strict addressing and barcode standards, and arrive at the post office already organized. A box of random different letters does not qualify, no matter how many there are.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Presorted | Pieces grouped and bundled by destination before reaching the post office; the core requirement of every bulk rate |
| USPS Marketing Mail | The main US bulk class for advertising and announcements; minimum 200 pieces or 50 pounds per mailing |
| Presorted First-Class | Bulk-rate first-class mail for bills and statements; same presort idea, faster service than Marketing Mail |
| Nonprofit rates | Deeper discounts for authorized nonprofits on Marketing Mail; requires nonprofit authorization from USPS |
| EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) | USPS retail product: mail a flyer to every address on chosen carrier routes, no mailing list or permit needed |
| Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail | The Canadian equivalent for unaddressed admail delivered to every household in chosen areas |
Every Door Direct Mail is the exception to nearly every rule above. Instead of buying a mailing list, you pick carrier routes on a map (a pizza shop picks the routes around the shop) and the post office delivers your flyer to every address on those routes. No permit, no presort software, no list to maintain. It is the reason local restaurants, gyms, and realtors can blanket a neighborhood without a marketing department. The trade-off: you cannot exclude anyone on the route, and it is unaddressed, so it looks like a flyer rather than a letter.
More than most people expect. In the US you need a mailing permit and an annual fee, an indicia (the printed postage mark that replaces stamps) authorized on your permit, and addressing software that formats and barcodes every piece to postal standards. Pieces are trayed or sacked in a specific order and delivered to a designated postal facility with paperwork. This is why most small businesses use a mail house: the permit, software, and know-how have fixed costs that only make sense at volume.
Delivery speed is the other surprise. Bulk rates are not first-class. Marketing Mail moves when there is spare capacity in the network, so a bulk mailing can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. If your announcement has a hard date, presorted first-class or a retail mailing is the safer choice.
That is a different problem, and it is the one LetterAgent solves. Stuffing and stamping a few dozen different letters by hand is miserable work, but it is not bulk mail and does not need bulk mail. Each letter goes through the normal first-class stream at its own price, quoted up front. You describe the letters to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price per letter, pay once through Stripe, and they are printed, enveloped, and mailed. No permit, no presort, no trays: just the tedium removed.
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