Can you track a letter?

Can a regular letter be tracked?

A letter with a stamp and nothing else can't be tracked by you or by USPS's tracking page. USPS does run nearly every letter through sorting machines that read the address, and those machines also read a USPS Intelligent Mail barcode if the envelope has one. That barcode is 65 bars printed above the address or near the bottom of the envelope, and it holds a number that is unique to the letter. When a sender has one printed, every machine that sorts the letter records a scan for it.

Businesses that mail in bulk have used these barcodes for years. Services like PigeonTrail print one on a single letter you stamp yourself, so the same scans become available for one letter at a time.

Can you track First Class Mail?

First Class letters and large envelopes get no tracking number from USPS. The tracked product that used to share the name, First Class Package Service, was folded into USPS Ground Advantage in July 2023, so a guide that tells you to buy "First Class Package" for tracking is out of date. Today a tracking number means a package label, Certified Mail, or Priority Mail.

How much tracking a letter costs

The cheapest option is the stamp plus a printed USPS barcode, which costs $0.82 for a 1 ounce letter, and PigeonTrail prints the barcode free for your first 100 letters a month. Certified Mail costs $5.55 on top of the postage, $6.37 in all, and gives you a tracking number and a delivery record. Our guide on how to send a letter with tracking compares every option with USPS's prices in effect since October 4, 2026.

Can you track a letter without a tracking number?

Not after you've mailed it. If the letter went out with only a stamp, nothing was recorded that you can look up. Three things can still help:

• If you're the one waiting for a letter, USPS Informed Delivery is free and emails you pictures of the letters coming to your address each day. Since April 2025 it can also tell you when letters have been delivered.
• If a letter is lost, USPS's Missing Mail page lets you file a search request with a description of the envelope.
• For the next one, print a USPS barcode on it before you mail it, or send it Certified Mail.

Can you tell if a letter was delivered?

With a USPS barcode, you'll usually see a delivered event, but it is USPS's estimate rather than a scan at the door. USPS's guide to this data calls it an implied delivery: it is recorded when the carrier's scanner leaves the area of the address's ZIP+4 on the route that day. Most of the time it matches when the letter landed in the mailbox, and sometimes it doesn't. If you need a record that holds up, Certified Mail with a Return Receipt gives you a signature. Our guide to what each USPS scan means covers the delivered event and the scans before it.

Informed Delivery and Informed Greetings

Informed Delivery shows mail coming to you, not mail you send. Pictures of your outgoing letters only show up in the recipient's Informed Delivery, if they use it.

USPS also runs Informed Greetings, a free service that prints a barcode label for greeting cards you mail with your own stamp. USPS says both you and your recipient get an email when the card is about to arrive, and it describes the service as mainly for consumers. In November 2025, USPS said it has no plans to turn Informed Greetings into an all purpose mail tracking system, so for mailing orders or business letters, a service like PigeonTrail fills that gap.