Yes, USPS forwards magazines to a new address, but only for 60 days after your change of address takes effect, which is much shorter than the 12 months you get for letters and bills.1United States Postal Service. DMM 507 Mailer Services – Periodicals Forwarding And that 60-day rule only applies to paid subscriptions. Free and promotional magazines often don’t forward at all. The practical takeaway: file your change of address as usual, but treat the 60 days as a grace period to update each publisher directly.
Paid Subscriptions Versus Free Magazines
Whether your magazine follows you depends on how the publisher mailed it, not on anything you can change after the fact.
Most paid magazine subscriptions ship as Periodicals, a postal category covering newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. USPS forwards Periodicals at no charge for 60 days after your change of address takes effect.1United States Postal Service. DMM 507 Mailer Services – Periodicals Forwarding Once that window closes, undeliverable copies go back to the publisher with your new address attached, which usually prompts them to update your account.
Free magazines, promotional catalogs, and advertiser-funded publications typically ship as USPS Marketing Mail instead. The USPS forwarding page states plainly that Marketing Mail is not forwarded.2United States Postal Service. Standard Forward Mail and Change of Address Some senders pay extra to have their Marketing Mail forwarded or returned with a new address, but many don’t. If a free publication stops arriving after your move, this is almost always why.
How 60 Days Compares to Other Mail
Two months sounds like plenty until you realize a quarterly magazine might only produce one forwarded issue in that window. Here’s how the standard forwarding periods stack up:
- First-Class Mail (letters, bills, personal correspondence): forwarded free for 12 months.2United States Postal Service. Standard Forward Mail and Change of Address
- Periodicals (paid magazines and newspapers): forwarded free for 60 days.1United States Postal Service. DMM 507 Mailer Services – Periodicals Forwarding
- Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage: forwarded free for 12 months.2United States Postal Service. Standard Forward Mail and Change of Address
- USPS Marketing Mail: generally not forwarded.2United States Postal Service. Standard Forward Mail and Change of Address
What Happens After Day 60
Starting around day 61, magazine copies stop reaching your new address. USPS returns them to the publisher rather than delivering or discarding them, and the returned mailpiece carries your forwarding address so the publisher can correct its records. Most do, but the update isn’t instant, so expect to miss an issue or two during the transition even if the system works exactly as designed.
Premium Forwarding Service as a Workaround
If 60 days isn’t enough and you’d rather not chase every publisher, USPS offers Premium Forwarding Service Residential. Your local Post Office bundles all your mail, including First-Class items, Periodicals, and Marketing Mail, into a single Priority Mail package and ships it to you once a week.3USPS. Premium Forwarding Services
Marketing Mail is the important addition. Standard forwarding skips it; Premium Forwarding includes it. The cost adds up quickly: a nonrefundable enrollment fee of $26.40 online or $28.70 in person, plus $29.70 for each week of service.3USPS. Premium Forwarding Services Three months runs about $385, so the service tends to fit seasonal relocations or high-value subscription bundles rather than an ordinary permanent move.
Update Each Publisher Directly
Forwarding is a safety net, not a long-term fix. The 60-day Periodicals window exists to give you time to notify publishers, not to replace doing so. Contact each publisher through the customer service page on their website or the account section where you subscribed. Most magazines also print a customer service phone number on the inside cover or address label.
Give a publisher address change several weeks to take effect. Magazines are often printed and labeled weeks before the cover date, so an issue mailed just before your update was processed may still go to your old address. Filing your USPS change of address and updating each publisher around the same time gives you the best odds of catching every issue during the move.
For free publications you never signed up for, there’s usually no account to update. Those are almost always Marketing Mail and won’t follow you. If you want to keep receiving one, look for a subscription or sign-up form on the publisher’s site and register the new address there.