Direct mail basics

Saturation mail: near-EDDM postage on your own list

If your list covers almost every home on a postal route, USPS charges you close to the EDDM price even with names on the pieces. Here is the rule, the 2026 price ladder, and when it pays.

Published Sat, Oct 17, 2026

• Saturation mail
• Postage
• Mailing lists
• USPS rules
• EDDM
• Costs

Most people meet "saturation" through Every Door Direct Mail, which is a saturation mailing addressed to "Postal Customer". The same low postage is open to addressed mail too, as long as your list covers nearly every home on each route you mail. This guide explains the rule and the prices. For the three ways to reach homes in general, start with Direct Mail 101.

What "saturation" means to USPS

USPS sorts Marketing Mail into price tiers by how completely it covers each carrier route. A route is one mail carrier's daily delivery area.

To get the saturation price, the Postal Service's rule is that your pieces must reach "at least 90% or more of the active residential addresses or 75% or more of the total number of active possible delivery addresses on each carrier route" (DMM 243.6.7.1). The pieces must also be "prepared in walk sequence", the order the carrier walks the route. Extra pieces to the same address don't count toward it.

The test is route by route. A list can qualify on some routes and miss on others, and each route pays its own price.

The rungs below saturation

If a route falls short of 90%, the pieces drop to a lower rung (DMM 243.6.4.2 and 6.3):

• High Density Plus: at least 300 pieces on the route, in walk sequence.
• High Density: at least 125 pieces on the route, in walk sequence.
• Basic carrier route: bundles or trays of 10 or more pieces for the route.
• Below that, the mail pays regular presorted or automation prices.

The 2026 price ladder

These are the USPS prices per piece for commercial flats up to 4 ounces, from Notice 123, effective July 12, 2026. The column is where the mail enters the postal system: the local delivery unit (DDU), the regional plant (DSCF), or anywhere else.

For comparison, EDDM Retail at the counter is 26¢ (USPS EDDM Retail rate, effective July 12, 2026).

Letter-size pieces have their own ladder. With no entry discount, saturation letters are 25.5¢, High Density Plus 28.6¢ and High Density 38.9¢; automation letters sorted to the 5-digit ZIP are 39.5¢ and mixed are 46.7¢ (same Notice 123).

Two things stand out. Saturation with an addressed list costs a tenth of a cent less than EDDM at the same entry point. And the drop from saturation to Basic is large: about 20¢ a piece on flats.

So why not always use EDDM?

If saturation postage is about the same, the question is what a list gives you that EDDM doesn't.

• A name on the piece. EDDM must be addressed to "Postal Customer". A saturation list can carry "Jane Doe" or "Jane Doe or Current Resident".
• Mail to the voters or customers you choose. This is where saturation and precision pull against each other. The moment you drop the homes you don't want, a route can fall below 90% and the pieces slide to High Density or Basic. A list of one party's likely voters is unlikely to reach 90% of a route.
• City limits. A route that sits wholly inside your city can qualify. A route the city line cuts in half will usually fall short, because you are only mailing part of it.

There is also one rule that applies to named lists only. Addresses on addressed Marketing Mail must be checked against USPS change-of-address data "within 95 days before the mailing date" (DMM 602.5.1). Pieces addressed "Postal Customer" or "Current Resident" are outside that rule.

The permit

Mailing at these prices means paying USPS's annual Marketing Mail fee, and paying postage through a permit imprint has its own application fee. From Notice 123, effective July 12, 2026: a one-time $390 application fee for a permit imprint, and a $390 annual Marketing Mail fee for each 12-month period. Both were $370 the year before.

That is $780 in the first year, which is real money for a single mailing. A mail house that already holds a permit can mail your list under it. Our list mail goes out under our mailing partner's permit, so you pay postage and nothing for the permit.

A worked example: 10,000 homes

Say you want to reach 10,000 homes on routes you would mail whole.

EDDM, 6.5" × 9" postcards: $2,090 for print and mail prep, plus $2,600 postage at 26¢. Total $4,690.

Our list mail, 6" × 9" postcards with names: $2,800 for printing, list cleanup, addressing and presort, plus postage usually 29¢–40¢ per piece, which is $2,900 to $4,000. Total $5,700 to $6,800.

Our list postcard is letter-size, so it pays the letter ladder above, and the final rate depends on how many of your routes reach each density rung. A list that covers whole routes sorts toward the low end of our range. A list scattered across a city sorts toward the top. We bill the actual postage after presort, on the pieces that mail.

The decision is the same one as always: EDDM is cheaper to every door, and the list buys you names and choice.

Or let us do it

Send us your list and we'll clean it, sort it for the best price each route qualifies for, print, address and mail it, and confirm the postage before anything prints. See list mail, compare EDDM pricing, or contact us with your counts.

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