How to send certified mail

Certified Mail is a USPS add-on that gives you a mailing receipt, a tracking number and a delivery record, with the recipient's signature if you add a return receipt. It's how people send notices they may need to prove later: lease and deposit letters, disputes, cancellations and demands.

What Certified Mail gives you

  • Proof it was sent. A USPS Certified Mail number tied to the date it was mailed.
  • Tracking. Every scan on usps.com, including delivery attempts and the delivery itself.
  • Proof it was received, if you add a return receipt: the delivery date, the address and the signature of the person who accepted it.

Option 1: at the post office

  1. Print and sign your letter, make a copy, and put it in an envelope addressed to the recipient with your return address.
  2. At the counter, ask for Certified Mail with a return receipt. The electronic return receipt is cheaper than the green postcard and arrives by email.
  3. Pay First-Class postage plus the add-ons. Since July 12, 2026, Certified Mail is $5.55 and the electronic return receipt is $2.91, on top of postage.
  4. Keep the receipt with the tracking number. That's your proof of mailing.

You can also fill in a Certified Mail form (PS Form 3800) yourself and drop the letter off at the counter, but you still need the clerk to postmark the receipt.

Option 2: online, without the trip

The USPS doesn't offer a way for individuals to send a certified letter from a website. Services like ours do it for you: you upload a PDF, we print it, and it goes out as First-Class Certified Mail with an electronic return receipt.

  1. Upload your PDF. You see every page exactly as it will print.
  2. Enter the recipient's address and your return address. We check the recipient's address against USPS records before you pay.
  3. Pay $18.95 (up to 10 pages, $0.25 for each page after that). Printing, envelope, postage, Certified Mail and the return receipt are included.
  4. Track it from your order page or on usps.com, then get the signed return receipt by email after delivery.

Send a PDF certified

Tips that save trouble later

  • Use the exact address your contract, lease or notice names for written notices, even if you usually deal with someone else.
  • Date your letter and say clearly what you're asking for and by when.
  • Keep a copy of exactly what you sent. Your order page keeps the PDF we printed for 90 days; download it for your own records.
  • If it's refused or unclaimed, the tracking history still shows the attempts. Keep it.