Bound Printed Matter: Eligibility, Size Limits, and Pricing

To ship as USPS Bound Printed Matter, a piece must meet the bound printed matter requirements in the Domestic Mail Manual: it has to be permanently bound printed material consisting of advertising, promotional, directory, or editorial content, weigh 15 pounds or less, fit within set flat or parcel dimensions, and carry the correct marking and address. Meet those, and nonpresorted rates start at $2.55 for a one-pound flat, with presorting and destination entry driving the per-piece cost down from there.¹

What Qualifies as Bound Printed Matter

Eligibility turns on two things: what the material contains and how it’s held together. The content must be advertising, promotional, directory, or editorial matter, or any combination of those. Product catalogs, trade directories, textbooks, and magazines not mailed as Periodicals all fit. At least 90% of the sheets must be produced by a printing process other than handwriting or typewriting.²

The piece must be permanently bound by staples, spiral binding, glue, or stitching. Loose-leaf binders are not permanent fastenings, so a three-ring binder of printed pages does not qualify no matter how polished it looks.²

Several things are excluded outright. The content cannot have the nature of personal correspondence. Stationery and pads of blank printed forms don’t qualify. Anything that must be mailed as First-Class Mail or is entered as Periodicals is also out.²

Size and Weight Limits

The ceiling is 15 pounds per piece.³ At the low end, postage is always calculated on a minimum of one pound, even for lighter pieces.⁴

Dimensions depend on whether the piece is a flat or a parcel:

Flats must exceed 11-1/2 inches long, 6-1/8 inches high, or 1/4 inch thick (below that, it’s a letter), and cannot exceed 15 inches long, 12 inches high, or 3/4 inch thick. Automation flats have a 20-ounce weight cap.⁵
Parcels cannot exceed 108 inches in combined length and girth. Machinable parcels are capped at 22 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 15 inches high; larger pieces are classified as nonstandard parcels.⁵

All BPM must be packaged in wrappers, envelopes, or cartons durable enough to survive both automated and manual handling.

Marking and Address Requirements

Every piece must show the marking “Bound Printed Matter” or “BPM” in the postage area. It can be printed as part of the permit imprint, placed directly below or to the left of the meter stamp, or appear on a shipping label as a service indicator with a service icon and service banner.

The delivery address needs the correct ZIP Code or ZIP+4 and must be complete enough to match against current USPS address-matching software.² Pieces claiming carrier route prices must meet a higher carrier route accuracy standard.⁴

What You Can Include With the Piece

A BPM piece can carry more than the bound material itself, but the rules are narrow. An invoice tied to the enclosed material can go inside or in an envelope marked “Invoice Enclosed” attached to the outside, and it can list names, addresses, item descriptions, quantities, prices, order numbers, and shipping details.²

Incidental First-Class Mail items ride along without First-Class postage as long as they’re secondary to the main piece and don’t interfere with processing. A bill for the product, a statement of account, or a personal greeting all count. Postage is calculated on the combined weight of the host piece and the enclosure.²

Nonprint attachments have tighter caps. The combined weight of all nonprint enclosures cannot exceed 25% of the weight of the BPM piece itself, and each nonprint item must qualify as a “low cost” item under USPS standards. A CD tucked into the back of a training manual can work if it clears those thresholds. Sample copies of authorized Periodicals publications can also be enclosed.⁶

Minimum Pieces by Rate Category

A common misconception is that BPM requires a large mailing. That only applies to the discounted rates. Minimums are:³

Nonpresorted: no minimum. A single piece can go at BPM nonpresorted rates.
Barcoded: 50 pieces per mailing.
Presorted and Carrier Route: 300 pieces per mailing.

The nonpresorted option suits smaller publishers or organizations that ship bound materials regularly but not in bulk. Presorted and carrier route mailings must be sorted by ZIP Code or delivery route, which adds preparation work in exchange for a much lower per-piece price.

How BPM Pricing Works

BPM pricing varies by processing category and preparation level. Nonpresorted pieces are charged per half-pound up to five pounds, then per pound from five to fifteen pounds. Any fraction rounds up.⁴

Nonpresorted flats run from $2.55 at one pound to $6.69 at fifteen pounds. Nonpresorted parcels run from $3.95 to $9.06 across the same weight range.¹

Presorted and carrier route pricing splits into two components: a per-piece charge plus a per-pound charge on the total mailing weight. Presorted flats with no destination entry run $2.009 per piece plus $0.053 per pound. Carrier route flats start at $1.816 per piece plus the same $0.053 per pound.¹

Destination Entry Discounts

The deepest discounts come from destination entry, where the mailer transports prepared mail closer to the delivery point before handing it to USPS. Two tiers apply for presorted and carrier route flats:

Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF): presorted flats drop to $1.242 per piece; carrier route flats to $1.049 per piece.¹
Destination Delivery Unit (DDU): the lowest rates available. Presorted flats fall to $0.646 per piece, and carrier route flats to $0.453 per piece.¹

Barcode Requirements

Barcoding isn’t optional beyond nonpresorted. Presorted BPM parcels must carry both an Intelligent Mail package barcode (IMpb) and an Intelligent Mail matrix barcode (IMmb). Barcoded flat-size pieces need an Intelligent Mail barcode encoded with the correct delivery point routing code matching the address.⁴

Mailers who comply with the Full-Service Intelligent Mail option can claim an additional per-piece discount on presorted and carrier route flats. Full-Service requires every piece to bear a unique Intelligent Mail barcode and involves electronic documentation and tracking.⁴

Paying and Documenting the Mailing

BPM postage can be paid through a permit imprint drawing on an advance deposit account with USPS, or through an approved postage meter.³

Every mailing requires a completed postage statement. The current form is PS Form 3605-R, which covers all Package Services including BPM and documents volume, weight, preparation method, and rate claimed.⁷ You generally deposit the mailing at the Post Office holding your permit; destination entry mailings go directly to the designated facility.³

Mailers claiming presorted or destination entry prices also owe an annual mailing fee, assessed yearly regardless of volume and separate from any permit application fees or account deposits.

1
United States Postal Service. Notice 123 – Price List
2
United States Postal Service. 260 Commercial Mail Bound Printed Matter
3
United States Postal Service. 260a Quick Service Guide – Commercial – Bound Printed Matter Flats
4
United States Postal Service. DMM 263 Bound Printed Matter Prices and Eligibility
5
United States Postal Service. 200 Commercial Letters, Flats, and Parcels Design Standards
6
United States Postal Service. USPS Domestic Mail Manual – 263 Bound Printed Matter Prices and Eligibility
7
United States Postal Service. PS Form 3605-R Postage Statement – Package Services and Parcel Select Destination Entry