What is USPS Informed Greetings?
Informed Greetings is part of USPS's Informed Innovations program, and signing up is free. You make a digital greeting on USPS's site, print a label with a unique barcode on Avery labels or plain paper, stick it on your card or letter and add the stamp yourself. USPS's FAQ says the recipient sees your greeting next to the scan of the envelope in their Informed Delivery email, and that "both you and your recipient will also receive an email notification when the mailpiece is about to arrive." You can load several recipients from a CSV file, and the site has more than 100 designs for birthdays, holidays and thank you notes.
USPS says it is meant to "primarily be used by consumers but may also be leveraged by small businesses." If you mail cards to family and friends, it is free and it is made for exactly that, so use it.
What does a seller need that Informed Greetings doesn't do?
A seller mails orders, not greetings. PigeonTrail reads the order files your marketplaces export, checks each address against USPS data and prints the envelope itself with the address and the barcode in the places USPS's machines read them, so there is no label to line up. Orders of $50 or more go to a Pirate Ship package list, because marketplaces want carrier tracking on those.
Your buyer gets a tracking page with your shop's logo and colors, a route map and the day USPS expects the letter, instead of a USPS greeting. The emails can come from your shop's name on Pro, and when a letter falls more than a day behind USPS's date, PigeonTrail tells you so you can reach the buyer first. Our free letter delivery time tool shows the same USPS dates for any two ZIP codes.
Can you use Informed Greetings and PigeonTrail together?
Yes, on different mail. Each envelope should carry only one USPS barcode, so use Informed Greetings for the cards you send to people you know and PigeonTrail for the orders you ship.
Informed Greetings and PigeonTrail side by side
Every Informed Greetings fact below comes from Informed Greetings's own website, read on October 21, 2026. The PigeonTrail column comes from our pricing table.
| Informed Greetings | PigeonTrail | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | 100 letters a month free; Pro $12.99 a month for 500, then 2 cents each |
| Made for | Greeting cards and letters from consumers, and small businesses | Sellers mailing orders in envelopes |
| Order imports | A CSV of recipient addresses | Mana Pool connected; order files from TCGplayer, eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, ShipStation and WooCommerce |
| Printing | A barcode label on Avery 5160 to 5163 sheets or plain paper | #10, #9, #6 3/4, A7 and 6 x 9 envelopes, Avery 5163 sheets, 4 x 2 and 4 x 6 thermal labels, and a #10 window slip |
| What the recipient gets | A digital greeting in Informed Delivery, and an email when it is about to arrive | A tracking page in your shop's colors with a route map, and emails at the first scan, or three from your shop on Pro |
| Late letters | A status of in transit, arriving soon or delivered on your dashboard | USPS's expected day for each letter, a flag when it falls behind, and an email to you on Pro |
We read every fact about another company on its own website on the date shown. Prices and features change, so if something here is out of date, write to support@pigeontrail.com and we will correct it.
Questions
Is Informed Greetings free?
Yes. USPS's Informed Innovations page offers it with a button that says Sign Up for Free. You still pay for your own stamp.
Can a business use Informed Greetings?
USPS says it is primarily for consumers but may also be used by small businesses. It has no order imports or shop branding, so most sellers will find a tool made for orders easier.
Who gets the emails?
With Informed Greetings, you and your recipient each get an email when the mail is about to arrive. With PigeonTrail, your buyer gets the tracking link at the first scan, and on Pro three emails from your shop.
Sources
- USPS, "Informed Innovations", read October 21, 2026: usps.com/business/informed-innovations.htm
- USPS, Informed Greetings site and its FAQ, read October 21, 2026: informedgreetings.usps.com
- USPS, "What's New: Informed Greetings", USPS Fact #1091, May 15, 2026: facts.usps.com
- USPS, Informed Visibility Mail Tracking and Reporting User Guide, version 2.19.9, September 2026, Appendix E.3.2 on the logical delivery event, opcode 517: postalpro.usps.com