What does Stamps.com's monthly fee actually pay for?

Access. The subscription covers the software (label printing, address verification, the discounted-rate table), while postage is billed separately on top. The fee is the price of admission, not the price of shipping. The plan prices and trial terms we checked are in the dated facts on this page.

Do I pay the fee in months I don't ship?

Yes — that is the defining property of a subscription. It bills on the calendar, not on your volume, so a month with zero labels costs the same as a month with a hundred. Pausing generally means cancelling the account.

How much does the fee add to each label?

Divide the monthly fee by the labels you print. At high volume it fades toward nothing; at ten labels a month it can add a couple of dollars to every single parcel before postage is even counted. That per-label maths, not the headline fee, is the number worth checking.

What does shipping without a subscription look like?

On GoatLabels you fund a prepaid wallet — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, or crypto — and each label debits its all-in price from the balance. USPS, UPS and FedEx are rate-shopped on every domestic parcel, with DHL on international lanes, and on Free a month you ship nothing in bills you nothing. Free covers 50 shipments a month; past that, Pro is a flat $40 a month with no minimum term.

Don't I need a subscription to get a postage rate?

No. GoatLabels quotes live, all-in label prices on both plans, including Free: USPS (up to 70 lb), UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels, and DHL on international lanes. High-volume shippers can ask about custom pricing, which we review account by account.

Is GoatLabels' Pro plan just another monthly fee?

It is a flat $40 monthly fee, and the difference is what it buys: unlimited shipments. You need it once you ship more than 50 a month; below that, Free prints labels with no monthly fee at all.

How do I stop paying the Stamps.com fee?

Cancel the subscription through your account or their support line before the next billing date — our step-by-step Stamps.com cancellation guide walks through it. Nothing about cancelling affects labels you have already printed.

A fee teardown, not a takedown.

Stamps.com's monthly fee, explained

What it buys. When it doesn't.

Stamps.com bills a monthly plan fee whether or not you ship, from its Basic plan up, while GoatLabels Free charges only when you actually print a label, up to 50 shipments a month.

Ship without a fee Log in

The rates without the admission price

Live USPS, UPS and FedEx rates on every domestic parcel, DHL on international lanes, with no subscription on Free standing between you and them.

DHL: international

Live quotes One all-in price each.

Quote = debit No later invoice.

Same via API Free on every plan.

Billed by the label, not by the calendar

Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto into one prepaid balance.

Prepaid Spent label by label.

Zero-ship months Cost exactly zero.

Accepted voids credited Back to the balance.

Does Stamps.com charge a monthly fee? Yes, by plan

Yes. After its 30-day trial Stamps.com bills monthly from your sign-up date, whether or not you ship: Basic at $14.99 a month, Professional at $29.99 a month or Multi-Location from $49.99 a month. It has no free plan, and postage, carrier services and add-ons such as insurance are billed on top of the plan fee. Checked October 23, 2026 on stamps.com/pricing.

Upgrading or downgrading your Stamps.com plan

Stamps.com says you can change plans at any time. An upgrade takes effect right away, with the new charge applying from the start of your next billing cycle; a downgrade takes effect at the start of the next cycle, and your current plan stays active until then (Stamps.com Help: Change Your Subscription Plan). The plan options sit under My Account, Manage Account, Account Settings, Change/Cancel Plan.

Rather stop paying the fee? Here is how to cancel Stamps.com, and how to switch from Stamps.com without a gap in printing.

The fee, line by line

Subscription postage vs a prepaid wallet.

The fee is not hidden — it is on the pricing page. What hides is the per-label cost it adds at your volume, and the months it bills when your volume is zero. Here is where each dollar goes under both models.

	Subscription (Stamps.com)	Prepaid wallet (GoatLabels)
What the recurring charge buys	Access to the software: the label printer, the address book, the discounted-rate table. The postage itself is billed on top.	Nothing recurs on Free (up to 50 shipments a month): the only charge is the all-in label price. Past 50, Pro is a flat $40 a month with no minimum term.
A month you ship in	Fee + postage. The fee amortises across however many labels you happened to print.	Just the labels, each rate-shopped across USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes).
A month you don't ship in	The fee bills anyway. This is the month the subscription model is built on.	Zero. The wallet balance sits untouched until the next order.
The per-label maths at low volume	Divide the fee by your label count and add it to every parcel. The entry plan also caps shipping labels per month, so the plan you need climbs with volume.	On Free the label price is the whole price. Past 50 shipments a month, Pro is one flat $40 that does not climb with volume.
Stopping	Cancelling is an account action, online or by phone, and because Stamps.com bills at the end of each cycle, one more fee can land after you close.	Stop shipping and the spending stops with you. There is nothing to cancel.

Stamps.com is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with GoatLabels. Their fee, trial terms, and plan structure change — check their current pricing page for today's numbers.

Why the flat fee loses at small-shipper volume.

The fee is priced for your busiest month

A subscription is a bet that every month looks like your best one. Most small shippers have a curve, not a line — and the flat fee quietly overcharges every month below the peak. A wallet charges the curve itself.

Zero-ship months are pure margin — theirs

The months you forget about the account are the months the model works best for the vendor. On Free a forgotten month is a free month, which is the correct price for a service you did not use.

Live rates don't require a fee

You do not need a subscription to see a rate. GoatLabels shows live, all-in label prices for USPS, UPS and FedEx (plus DHL on international lanes) on both plans, including Free. Access to a rate is table stakes, not a product.

And when the Stamps.com fee is fair value

You genuinely print postage every month at a volume where the fee amortises to pennies per label — then the subscription is a rounding error, not a leak.
You print postage for envelopes and mail, not parcels — NetStamps-style sheet postage is Stamps.com's home turf and not something we do.
You need a carrier or mail class outside what GoatLabels quotes: USPS (up to 70 lb), UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels, and DHL on international lanes.

What Stamps.com's own pages say, checked 2026-10-23

Stamps.com lists Basic at $14.99 a month for individuals and small offices, with 1 user and up to 25 stamps and 10 shipping labels a month; Professional at $29.99 a month for busy offices, with 3 users and unlimited stamps and labels; and Multi-Location from $49.99 a month for organizations with multiple locations, with unlimited stamps and labels, 10 users per location and 2 locations included. (Stamps.com pricing)
Stamps.com does not charge the subscription during its 30-day trial; after it, the subscription bills monthly from the original sign-up date unless you cancel first, and postage, carrier services and add-ons such as insurance are charged on top of it. (Stamps.com pricing)
Postage comes out of a prepaid account balance, topped up by at least $10 at a time or by an auto-fund setting that buys more when the balance falls to a level you choose. (Stamps.com Help: Fund Your Account Balance)
You can cancel by phone with the Customer Care Center, Monday to Friday 6am to 6pm Pacific Time, or online under My Account, Manage Account, Account Settings, Change/Cancel Plan, then the close-account link. (Stamps.com: How to Cancel Your Account)
Stamps.com bills at the end of each billing cycle, so closing the account after the trial can still bring one more service fee plus any applicable taxes. (Stamps.com: How to Cancel Your Account)
After you close the account, the remaining postage balance is refunded within 4 to 8 weeks except promotional postage, and the subscription runs to the end of the current cycle with no refund for unused time. (Stamps.com Help: Close Your Account)
Stamps.com says it supports UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL Express, with international carriers listed from the Professional plan up. (Stamps.com pricing)
An unused label with tracking is refunded through an electronic request, due within 28 days of printing for USPS and 30 days for UPS and DHL, and approved refunds return to the Stamps.com account balance within 21 days. (Stamps.com Help: Request a Label Refund)
Refund Assist, a setting you switch on, files refund requests for USPS labels not scanned within 21 days of printing and credits part of the approved refund to the account balance. (Stamps.com Help: Refund Assist)
Its SERA REST API signs in with OAuth 2.0, accepts an Idempotency-Key header on POST calls, publishes an OpenAPI specification and offers a staging environment with no service or transaction fees. (Stamps.com/Endicia REST API (SERA) reference)

Checked on 2026-10-23 from Stamps.com's own pages. Plans, fees and policies change, so confirm on the vendor's current page before you decide. Stamps.com is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with GoatLabels.

Shipping without a subscription

The label pipeline, with the fee removed.

Every step a subscription funds exists here without one. Orders arrive by store sync, API call, pasted DM, or screenshot; Billy drafts the label and validates the address; USPS, UPS and FedEx get quoted side by side (DHL on international lanes); and the all-in price you pick debits a prepaid wallet you topped up with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto. The only recurring number in the whole flow is your own volume.

Any order shape in

Store sync, API, DM, or screenshot

maya_boutique

Hey! 2x hoodies (M) 1x tee (L) 😅 Ship to: Maya R. Austin, TX 78701

Shopify

Synced into To Ship

Etsy

Synced into To Ship

DM screenshot

Order: #1847
Customer: Jordan Lee
Items: 1x Hoodie (L)
Address: Brooklyn, NY

Drop the screenshot or paste the DM

Connectors, REST API, DMs, and screenshots — one queue, and none of it behind a fee.

Billy AI

Included free — the fee never bought this.

Reads a pasted order, a screenshot, or a spoken address
Fills the addresses and the package details
Validates the address — the most expensive mistake in shipping
Rate-shops USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes) and hands back a draft to confirm

Drafted. Checked. Yours to confirm.

Clean label out

Bought from the wallet

Paid from your prepaid balance

Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto

$12.47

Label purchased

USPS Priority Mail — all-in rate

$12.47

The quoted amount is the debited amount. On Free, no subscription line joins it.

Every channel, no admission price.

Connectors for the storefronts, AI for everything else.

Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay and Wix sync into To Ship and get tracking pushed back when you print, features a subscription would meter, included here on Free. Paste an Instagram or Facebook DM, or a screenshot of one, and Billy builds the label with no connector at all.

Shopify

Etsy

WooCommerce

eBay

Wix

Connect a store Or use the API

What replaces the fee: nothing. That's the point.

Everything the subscription bundled.
Unbundled to a price of zero.

Address checking, live rates, batch printing, store sync — the bundle a monthly fee justified is just the product here. What is left to pay for is the only thing that was ever really consumable: the label.

One prepaid wallet,
five ways to fund it

Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, and crypto all top up the same balance, and every method buys identical rates, carriers, and features. Void a shipment and, after the carrier accepts the void, the credit lands back in the wallet.

Wallet balance

$1,247.36 USD

AI drafting,
included on Free

Billy reads a DM, a screenshot, or a spoken address into a drafted, address-validated label. In a subscription world this is the upsell tier; here it is part of why the label is cheap.

Billy LIVE

Where's the package to Maya?

It's in transit via UPS. Expected Friday, Aug 7.

1Z8923A6B05G4123456

In transit

Austin, TX → Dallas, TX

Ask Billy anything...

Billed on volume,
never on the calendar

On Free no fee accrues while you sleep. Ship a hundred labels in November and you need Pro ($40 a month, no minimum term); cancel it after the rush and January on Free costs you nothing.

Shipment summary

UPS Ground $12.49

Insurance $0.75

Fuel surcharge $0.32

Total $13.56

USPS, UPS and FedEx
competing on every domestic parcel

Here USPS, UPS and FedEx quote every domestic parcel (DHL on international lanes) as one all-in number each, and the exact amount you pick is what leaves the balance: no fuel line, no residential line, no day-after adjustment.

Compare rates

UPS $12.48

FedEx $13.22

DHL $14.10

USPS $11.79

Duties inside the quote where DDP applies

A free REST API
on every plan

REST and JSON, one Bearer header, idempotency keys so a retry cannot double-buy a label, and signed webhooks for tracking and label events. Unlimited calls, Free plan included.

POST /v1/shipments

{

"to": { "name": "Maya" },

"from": { "name": "Alex" },

"service": "ups_ground",

"label_format": "pdf"

}

Webhook delivered

GoatLabels mobile shipments queue with all-in carrier prices

Billy drafting a label from a pasted DM on mobile

Label ready

CL-1038 · Brooklyn, NY

The fee never covered your phone anyway

The whole workflow, fee-free and pocket-sized.

No client to install and no desk to sit at. The wallet model runs where orders actually happen: paste the message, compare carriers, buy, and print from the phone in your hand.

Paste the DM, snap the thread, or drop the screenshot — Billy pulls the name, the address, and the parcel out of it.

No install and no licence: the browser is the whole product.

USPS, UPS and FedEx come back as all-in prices on one screen, DHL on international lanes.

Buy from the prepaid balance and one-tap print to a share sheet or a thermal printer over Wi-Fi.

Hold the mic at the packing table and say the address — Billy drafts it and reads the rate back.

No meter on Billy in the web app

Ask Billy, not the billing page.

Hold the mic, say where the parcel is going, and Billy quotes USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes) on the box in your hands, reads the all-in prices back, and queues the one you pick against your prepaid balance. Nothing about using it more costs more. This is the real product, not a render.

Billy reading back a parcel's tracking history over the purchased labels list

Listening

"Where's Maya's package?"

Out for delivery

CL-1039 · Austin, TX · by 6 PM

Plain English in — names, addresses, weights, carriers, services · unlimited on the Free plan in the web app · reads the all-in rate back before a cent leaves the wallet · phone or browser, and Telegram on Pro.

All-in quotes

The only line item is the label.

Three carriers on the same parcel, each one all-in number that is the exact amount leaving your prepaid balance. No subscription line above it on Free, no adjustment line after it, and an accepted void credits the wallet rather than a card statement three weeks out.

CA → NY 2.6 lbs 12×8×4 in

USPS

Ground Advantage

2 to 5 days

$11.40

all-in · no surprises

Cheapest

UPS

Ground

1 to 5 days

$9.85

all-in · no surprises

FedEx

Ground

1 to 5 days

$11.20

all-in · no surprises

No carrier invoice the day after Accepted void → credit back to the wallet you funded Multi-currency display

Public API v1

Automation that never shows up on a bill.

REST, JSON, one Bearer header. Real idempotency keys so a retried request cannot double-buy a label, signed webhooks for tracking and label events instead of polling — and unlimited calls on every plan, so automating your shipping never moves you onto a pricier tier.

Create, rate-shop, and buy in three calls

Signed webhooks for tracking and label events instead of polling

Real idempotency keys — a retried request never buys two labels

OpenAPI 3.1 spec, no SDK lock-in, unlimited calls on every plan

Read the API docs Get an API key $0 on every plan

curl https://api.goatlabels.io/api/v1/shipments

201 Created

request response

POST /api/v1/shipments
Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…
Idempotency-Key: ord_8421

{
  "to": { "name": "Joyce", "city": "Berlin", "country": "DE" },
  "parcel": { "weight": 2.6, "weight_unit": "lb" },
  "service": "fedex_intl_priority"
}

← 201 Created // buy it with POST /api/v1/shipments/{id}/purchase
{
  "id": "shp_44819",
  "status": "draft",
  "amount": { "subtotal": 72.25, "duty_and_tax": 14.20, "total": 86.45 }
}

Pricing with nothing to explain away

Two plans. Zero access fees.

Free covers 50 shipments a month with the API, the connectors, and Billy all unlimited underneath it — the quoted label price is what you pay from a prepaid wallet. Pro is a flat $40 monthly plan for unlimited shipments, needed once you ship more than 50 a month, which is why Free, not Pro, is the front door.

Pro

Free

$0 / forever

A quiet month bills you nothing. That is the whole model.

50 shipments a month, no fee to print

USPS, UPS and FedEx on every domestic parcel; DHL on international lanes

All-in quotes — the debited amount is the quoted amount

Billy AI in the web app, unlimited — paste, screenshot, or speak

REST API with unlimited calls; fund by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto

Start free

Billy is not a paid tier

The assistant that reads a DM, a screenshot, or a voice note into a drafted label runs unlimited in the web app on Free. Pro adds Billy on Telegram.

Web, every plan

Telegram, Pro

API free on every plan

GET /api/v1/shipments

200 OK · plan: free

Unlimited calls on Free — still unlimited on Pro.

Bring the invoice you pay today

High-volume shippers can ask about custom pricing, which we review account by account. Compare it against what you pay on

Stamps.comShippoPirate Ship

No contracts No fee to print Free to sign up

Label prices are quoted live from USPS, UPS and FedEx (plus DHL on international lanes) as one all-in number, and that exact amount leaves your prepaid balance. Stamps.com's fee and plans change — verify against their current pricing page. Full pricing details

Who the fee maths bites hardest

The flat fee is flat. Your volume isn't.

The lower and lumpier your shipping, the larger the share of it a calendar-billed fee quietly eats. These are the sellers for whom removing it changes the per-label number outright.

Burst shippers

TikTok Shop & live commerce

Prepaid

A drop month followed by three quiet ones is the worst case for a subscription and the best case for a wallet. Pre-fund the rush; on Free (up to 50 shipments a month) the quiet months cost zero.

4 carriers in one account no calendar billing bulk print

GoatLabels shipments queue with purchased labels

Handful-a-week makers

Etsy & independent creators

At low volume the fee-per-label arithmetic is brutal — the admission price can rival the postage. Pay-per-label makes the label price the entire price.

No fee to amortise

Order #1024 · the label price is the whole cost

Sellers living in the DMs

Orders no desktop software sees

got the dress! can you ship to Austin?

Label drafted · CL-1024

Devs metering their own costs

REST and the UI, one balance

wallet behind the API and the dashboard

Real sellers, real words

Sellers who did the per-label maths.

A video took off and I had 80 TikTok Shop orders by morning. I printed every label from my phone on the bus to the post office.

Early customer · TikTok

TikTok Shop seller

TikTok Shop

I run my Etsy shop from the kitchen. The AI reads the order, picks the carrier, the label prints. That's the whole workflow now.

Early customer · Etsy

Etsy maker

Etsy

The API is what every shipping API pretends to be. Idempotency that actually works.

Sasha R.

Staff engineer, marketplace

API user

Stamps.com monthly fee FAQ

Does Stamps.com charge a monthly fee?: Yes. Once the 30-day trial ends, the plan fee bills every month from your original sign-up date, whether or not you ship: Basic at $14.99 a month, Professional at $29.99 a month or Multi-Location from $49.99 a month. Postage, carrier services and add-ons such as insurance are charged separately.
What does Stamps.com's monthly fee actually pay for?: Access. The subscription covers the software (label printing, address verification, the discounted-rate table), while postage is billed separately on top. The fee is the price of admission, not the price of shipping. The plan prices and trial terms we checked are in the dated facts on this page.
Do I pay the fee in months I don't ship?: Yes — that is the defining property of a subscription. It bills on the calendar, not on your volume, so a month with zero labels costs the same as a month with a hundred. Pausing generally means cancelling the account.
How much does the fee add to each label?: Divide the monthly fee by the labels you print. At high volume it fades toward nothing; at ten labels a month it can add a couple of dollars to every single parcel before postage is even counted. That per-label maths, not the headline fee, is the number worth checking.
What does shipping without a subscription look like?: On GoatLabels you fund a prepaid wallet — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, or crypto — and each label debits its all-in price from the balance. USPS, UPS and FedEx are rate-shopped on every domestic parcel, with DHL on international lanes, and on Free a month you ship nothing in bills you nothing. Free covers 50 shipments a month; past that, Pro is a flat $40 a month with no minimum term.
Don't I need a subscription to get a postage rate?: No. GoatLabels quotes live, all-in label prices on both plans, including Free: USPS (up to 70 lb), UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels, and DHL on international lanes. High-volume shippers can ask about custom pricing, which we review account by account.
Is GoatLabels' Pro plan just another monthly fee?: It is a flat $40 monthly fee, and the difference is what it buys: unlimited shipments. You need it once you ship more than 50 a month; below that, Free prints labels with no monthly fee at all.
How do I stop paying the Stamps.com fee?: Cancel the subscription through your account or their support line before the next billing date — our step-by-step Stamps.com cancellation guide walks through it. Nothing about cancelling affects labels you have already printed.

Decided the fee isn't for you? Here is how to cancel Stamps.com and the full no-monthly-fee alternative to land on. Etsy shop? See the Etsy-specific comparison, or read how label pricing works here.

Run the maths on one real parcel.

Stop paying for the calendar.
Pay for the label.

Fund a wallet with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto, quote your next parcel against USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes), and compare the all-in number against your current per-label cost, subscription included.

Create your account Talk to us

Sign up in seconds, no card required. Your first top-up may need an approved application. No monthly fee on Free, up to 50 shipments a month.

Stamps.com's monthly fee, explained

The rates without the admission price

Billed by the label, not by the calendar

Does Stamps.com charge a monthly fee? Yes, by plan

Upgrading or downgrading your Stamps.com plan

Subscription postage vs a prepaid wallet.

Why the flat fee loses at small-shipper volume.

The fee is priced for your busiest month

Zero-ship months are pure margin — theirs

Live rates don't require a fee

And when the Stamps.com fee is fair value

What Stamps.com's own pages say, checked 2026-10-23

The label pipeline, with the fee removed.

Included free — the fee never bought this.

Connectors for the storefronts, AI for everything else.

Everything the subscription bundled. Unbundled to a price of zero.

One prepaid wallet, five ways to fund it

AI drafting, included on Free

Billed on volume, never on the calendar

USPS, UPS and FedEx competing on every domestic parcel

A free REST API on every plan

The whole workflow, fee-free and pocket-sized.

Ask Billy, not the billing page.

The only line item is the label.

USPS

UPS

FedEx

Automation that never shows up on a bill.

Two plans. Zero access fees.

Pro

Free

Billy is not a paid tier

API free on every plan

Bring the invoice you pay today

The flat fee is flat. Your volume isn't.

Burst shippers

Handful-a-week makers

Sellers living in the DMs

Devs metering their own costs

Sellers who did the per-label maths.

Stamps.com monthly fee FAQ

Stop paying for the calendar. Pay for the label.

Everything the subscription bundled.
Unbundled to a price of zero.

One prepaid wallet,
five ways to fund it

AI drafting,
included on Free

Billed on volume,
never on the calendar

USPS, UPS and FedEx
competing on every domestic parcel

A free REST API
on every plan

Stop paying for the calendar.
Pay for the label.