Permit Imprint: Costs, Minimum Volume, and How to Apply

A USPS permit imprint is a preprinted marking on your mailpieces that shows postage is paid, with the actual postage drawn from a funded account you keep at the post office. To set one up, you file PS Form 3615 with the post office where you plan to deposit mail, pay a $370 application fee, fund an advance deposit account, and commit to mailing at least 200 pieces or 50 pounds at a time. Every piece has to carry a correctly formatted indicia, and every batch has to be delivered to the post office that issued your permit.

How a Permit Imprint Works

Instead of applying stamps or running envelopes through a postage meter, you print a small block of text on each piece that identifies your permit number and the mail class. When you bring the batch in, postal staff weigh samples and the whole mailing to verify your piece count and postage, then deduct the total from an advance deposit account you keep with the postal service.¹ The account must hold enough to cover the full mailing before any of it moves; the postal service does not extend credit.

Because payment is verified by weight, every piece in a mailing has to weigh the same.² Mixed weights break the verification math and get the batch held. The one workaround is a manifest mailing system agreement, which authorizes different weights under separate rules.

What It Costs

Three separate charges are attached to a permit imprint, and it helps to keep them straight before you apply.

Application Fee

The one-time application fee is $370 as of January 2026.³ It applies when you use permit imprint for First-Class Mail, USPS Marketing Mail, Bound Printed Matter flats, and international mail.⁴ The postal service has eliminated the application fee for Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage (Commercial), Parcel Select, Library Mail, Media Mail, and Bound Printed Matter parcels.⁵

Annual Mailing Fee

If you’re using the permit for First-Class Mail Presort or USPS Marketing Mail, you also pay a $370 annual mailing fee for each 12-month period.³ The fee is charged per office of mailing, so submitting mailings at two different post offices means paying it twice.

Advance Deposit Account

You cannot pay with cash or a check at the counter. Postage comes out of your advance deposit account, which you fund ahead of each mailing and top off as needed. If the balance runs short, no mailings will be accepted, including ones already prepared, until you deposit the difference.¹

Minimum Volume

Every permit imprint mailing must contain at least 200 pieces or weigh at least 50 pounds.⁶ That 200-piece floor is the baseline, but the pricing tier you claim can require more. First-Class Mail presort rates typically require 500 pieces because the presort discount has its own volume threshold.

A couple of narrow exceptions exist. If you normally present around 200 pieces per day, the post office may accept a smaller First-Class run brought in early to help spread the workload. And if a large mailing runs across two or more consecutive days, the last batch can drop below 200 pieces as long as you explain it on your postage statement.⁶

How to Apply

The application is PS Form 3615, “Mailing Permit Application and Customer Profile.”⁷ Fill in the legal name of your business, your complete mailing address, and check permit imprint as your postage payment method. Submit it to the post office where you plan to deposit your mail, though permit numbers are often issued through the main post office in your area rather than a branch. Call ahead to confirm where to bring the paperwork.⁸

Bring two forms of identification, at least one with a photograph. Social Security cards, credit cards, and birth certificates do not count.⁷ A state driver’s license paired with a passport or employer ID is the common combination. The postal employee will verify the ID numbers against what you enter on the form.

If You’re a Nonprofit

Qualifying nonprofits can mail USPS Marketing Mail at discounted prices, but that authorization is separate from the permit imprint itself. You file PS Form 3624 in addition to PS Form 3615, and there is no application fee for the nonprofit authorization.⁹

Eligibility is limited to organizations organized and operated for a qualifying primary purpose: religious, educational, scientific, philanthropic, agricultural, labor, veterans’, or fraternal, along with qualified political committees and voting registration officials. Business leagues, chambers of commerce, civic improvement associations, social clubs, and government bodies are explicitly excluded.⁹ You’ll need to submit evidence of nonprofit status (typically your IRS exemption letter), organizing documents showing your purpose, and materials showing at least six to twelve months of actual operations. A responsible officer of the organization must sign; printers and mailing agents cannot sign on your behalf.

Designing the Indicia

The indicia is the printed block that tells the postal service the piece is prepaid and ties it back to your permit. Four elements are required:

The correct mail class marking, such as “First-Class Mail,” “USPS Marketing Mail,” “Priority Mail,” or “USPS Ground Advantage — Commercial.”¹⁰
The exact words “U.S. Postage Paid.”
The city and state where your permit is held.
The word “Permit” followed by your assigned number.¹¹

Position the indicia to the upper right of the delivery address, aligned parallel to it.¹¹ Other acceptable spots include the upper right corner of an address label or to the right of the address on an insert visible through a window envelope. Keep the text legible with reasonable contrast; bright colored backgrounds and reverse printing (light text on dark) are not permitted for required markings.¹² Do not hand-draw or typewrite the indicia.¹³

Submitting a Mailing

Most mailers deposit batches at a Business Mail Entry Unit. In smaller towns without a BMEU, you can take the mail to the retail window at your post office.¹⁴ Either way, the mail must go to the post office where you hold your permit. You cannot drop permit imprint mail into a collection box or hand it to your letter carrier.¹³

Along with the physical mail, submit a postage statement showing piece counts, weights, and the rate category. For USPS Marketing Mail, that’s PS Form 3602-R; for First-Class Mail, PS Form 3600. Postal staff weigh samples and the entire mailing to check your numbers, deduct the calculated postage from your advance deposit account, and release the mail into the processing stream once the figures reconcile.

Every domestic piece must also carry your return address.¹³ It’s easy to forget when your attention is on indicia design and postage statements, but a missing return address will hold up the batch.

Keeping the Permit Active

A permit imprint account goes inactive after 24 consecutive months of no use.¹³ Once that happens, the permit number is gone and reactivating means paying the full application fee again.¹⁵ If your mailing schedule is irregular, a calendar reminder around the 20-month mark to send a small qualifying batch keeps the clock reset.

Keep copies of every postage statement and supporting documentation for at least two years from the date of mailing. The postal service can request these records during that window, and failing to produce them can jeopardize your permit.¹⁶

Common Reasons Mailings Get Rejected

Insufficient balance in the advance deposit account. There’s no top-off-tomorrow arrangement; the full postage must be available before any pieces move.
Mixed-weight pieces in the same batch, which break the verification math.
Individual pieces dropped in collection boxes. Companies sometimes hand out brochures preprinted with the permit indicia, and recipients address them and mail them thinking “postage paid” covers delivery. It doesn’t. Those pieces come back with postage due.¹³
Mail brought to a post office other than the one holding your permit.
Missing indicia elements: no city and state, wrong mail class, or “U.S. Postage Paid” omitted.
Missing return address on domestic pieces.

1
United States Postal Service. Domestic Mail Manual 604 – Postage Payment Methods and Refunds – Section: 5.1.6 Payment of Permit Imprint Postage
2
United States Postal Service. Business Mail 101 – Permit Imprint
3
United States Postal Service. Notice 123 – Price List
4
United States Postal Service. Domestic Mail Manual 604 – Postage Payment Methods and Refunds – Section: 5.1.5 Application Fee
5
United States Postal Service. Fees Associated with Permit Imprint and Return Services
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United States Postal Service. Domestic Mail Manual 604 – Postage Payment Methods and Refunds – Section: 5.1.2 Minimum Volume
7
United States Postal Service. PS Form 3615 – Mailing Permit Application and Customer Profile
8
United States Postal Service. Business Mail 101 – How to Apply for a Permit Imprint
9
United States Postal Service. Application to Mail at Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail Prices – PS Form 3624
10
Postal Explorer. 604d Quick Service Guide – Permit Imprints
11
United States Postal Service. How to Design Permit Imprint Indicia
12
Postal Explorer. 202 Elements on the Face of a Mailpiece
13
USPS Postal Explorer. Tips for Using Permit Imprint
14
Postal Explorer. Business Mail 101 – Where to Go
15
United States Postal Service. Business Mail 101: Mailing Permit
16
Postal Explorer. Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual