USPS
Priority Mail Intl
10–15 days$18.30
$10.00 of taxes & duties included
all-in · no surprises
A fee teardown, not a takedown.
What it buys. When it doesn't.
Stamps.com's monthly fee, explained
What it buys. When it doesn't.
Stamps.com's roughly $19.99 monthly fee accrues to about $240 a year regardless of volume, while no-subscription platforms like GoatLabels charge only when you actually print a label.
The rates without the admission price
Discounted USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rates on every parcel — no subscription standing between you and them.
all quoted Four 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.
Voids credited Back to the balance.
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. The software is free; the only charge is the all-in label price when you print one. |
| 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, FedEx, and DHL. |
| 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 — at ten labels a month the fee alone can rival the postage. | The label price is the whole price. Volume never dilutes a fee because there is no fee to dilute. |
| Stopping | Cancelling is an account action, and the fee runs until you take it. | 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 a pay-per-label wallet a forgotten month is a free month, which is the correct price for a service you did not use.
Discounted rates don't require a fee
The discounts a subscription advertises are commercial rates — and GoatLabels quotes discounted commercial rates across USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL on every plan, including Free. Access to good rates 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 USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL — that is the honest list of what GoatLabels rate-shops.
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, FedEx, and DHL get quoted side by side; 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.
1
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
TikTok Shop
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.
2 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 all four carriers and hands back a draft to confirm
Drafted. Checked. Yours to confirm.
3
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. No subscription line ever joins it.
Every channel, no admission price.
Connectors for the storefronts, AI for everything else.
Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, and TikTok Shop 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.
Via AI tiles: an order that never became a record still becomes a label.
13 connected today 2 via AI 8 coming soon
Connected today 13 storefronts sync to To Ship
Shopify 
Etsy 
WooCommerce 
TikTok Shop 
Amazon 
eBay 
Squarespace 
Wix 
Walmart 
Square 
BigCommerce 
Magento 
Temu Coming soon Shopify Plus Soon 
Zapier Soon 
NetSuite Soon 
Ecwid Soon 
Shein Soon 
ChannelAdvisor Soon 
SkuVault Soon 
Zoho Inventory Soon
Shopify Plus Soon Zapier Soon NetSuite Soon Ecwid Soon Shein Soon ChannelAdvisor Soon SkuVault Soon Zoho Inventory Soon What replaces the fee: nothing. That's the point. Everything the subscription bundled.
Everything the subscription bundled.
Unbundled to a price of zero.
Address checking, discounted 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 the credit lands back in the wallet.
Wallet balance
$1,247.36 USD
AI
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
No fee accrues while you sleep. Ship a hundred labels in November and none in January, and January costs you nothing — the cost model finally matches how small shops actually sell.
Shipment summary
UPS Ground $12.49
Insurance $0.75
Fuel surcharge $0.32
Total $13.56
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL
competing per parcel
A subscription tool centred on one carrier makes its default your default. Here all four quote every parcel 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 & taxes paid
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
Label ready
CL-1038 · Brooklyn, NY
The fee never covered your phone anyway
The whole workflow, fee-free and pocket-sized.
Subscription postage grew up on desktop software and a printer on a desk. The wallet model runs where orders actually happen: paste the message, compare four 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, FedEx, and DHL come back as four all-in prices on one screen.
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 tier, no meter, no fee
Ask Billy, not the billing page.
Hold the mic, say where the parcel is going, and Billy quotes USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL 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.
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments — Billy
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 · reads the all-in rate back before a cent leaves the wallet · phone, browser, or Telegram.
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, no adjustment line after it, and a void credits the wallet rather than a card statement three weeks out.
US → DE 2.6 lbs 12×8×4 in
Best balance
FedEx
Intl Connect Plus
3–5 days$22.80
$11.00 of taxes & duties included
all-in · no surprises
DHL
Express Worldwide
1–2 days$26.20
$12.20 of taxes & duties included
all-in · no surprises
No carrier invoice the day after 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 — three calls, four carriers
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 · 187ms POST /api/v1/shipments
Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…
Idempotency-Key: ord_8421
{
"to": { "name": "Joyce", "city": "Berlin", "country": "DE" },
"parcel": { "weight": 1.2, "weight_unit": "kg" },
"service": "fedex_intl_priority"
}
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 — we make a little on each label instead of billing for admission. Pro is a flat monthly plan for unlimited shipments and cheaper label pricing, worth it only past a real volume threshold, which is exactly why it is optional rather than the front door.
Pro
Most popular $40 / month
Unlimited shipments — no monthly cap
Cheaper label pricing that scales down as your volume grows
Billy AI on Telegram — draft a label without opening the dashboard
API access still free and unlimited
Volume pricing
illustrative less volume more volume
more volume → lower per-label rates
Free
$0 / forever
A quiet month bills you nothing. That is the whole model.
50 shipments a month, no fee to print
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL rate-shopped on every parcel
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
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
On Pro we will work with you to beat the label rates you are already getting from
Stamps.comShippoPirate Ship No contracts No fee to print Start in seconds
Label prices are quoted live from USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL 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
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, then let the quiet months cost zero.
4 carriers per quote no calendar billing bulk print
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments
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
1
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
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
The API is what every shipping API pretends to be. Idempotency that actually works.
Sasha R.
Staff engineer, marketplace
Stamps.com monthly fee FAQ
- 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. Their pricing page has the current figure and trial terms.
- 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, FedEx, and DHL are rate-shopped on every parcel, and a month you ship nothing in bills you nothing.
- Don't I need a subscription to get discounted postage rates?
- No. Discounted commercial rates are quoted on every GoatLabels plan, including Free, across all four carriers. And because four carriers compete on each parcel, the winning quote is often below any single carrier's discount table.
- Is GoatLabels' Pro plan just another monthly fee?
- It is a flat optional plan — the difference is what it buys. Pro adds unlimited shipments and cheaper per-label pricing, so it only makes sense once your volume is high enough that it pays for itself. Printing is never gated on it: Free prints labels with no 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 guide at /how-to-cancel-stamps-com 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, FedEx, and DHL, and compare the all-in number against your current per-label cost — subscription included.
Sign up in seconds. No card required. No monthly fee.