Send a real letter or postcard by texting it
By Justin Winter · Updated September 16, 2026
The short answer
You can text a recipient's address and a short message to paperplane and get a quote back — reply to confirm and it prints and mails as a real USPS letter (from $0.99) or postcard (from $0.99), with no app to open and no computer required.
Usually the right pick: First-Class letter · $0.99
Some of the moments a letter or postcard actually needs to go out happen away from a desk: a contractor standing at a job site who needs to send a lien notice, a real estate agent who just left a closing and wants a thank-you note in the mail that afternoon, someone remembering a bill needs a paper response while running errands. Opening a laptop, or even a web app, is real friction in that moment. Texting it is not.
The flow matches how you would already text someone a mailing address: start with a `TO:` block naming the recipient (or share a Contact card), add the letter or postcard text, and send. You get a quote back in the same conversation — price, page count, and mail class — and nothing is printed or charged until you reply to confirm. That confirmation step exists specifically so a text sent in a hurry cannot accidentally mail and charge for something.
This is the same order engine as the web composer and the API, not a separate lightweight product: full address verification, the same content screen, and the same USPS classes (First-Class $0.99, Certified $12.99, Certified + electronic Return Receipt $14.99) or piece formats (postcards from $0.99, the folded notecard from $1.99) are all reachable by text.
Because a text thread is a plain-language interface rather than a form, keep the recipient's address as unambiguous as you can — a full street address, city, state, and ZIP in one message reduces back-and-forth. If a text ever comes back asking for clarification, that is the same address-verification check every other order goes through, not something special to texting.
Questions before you send
Why not go to the post office myself?
You can. paperplane does not replace the post office; it replaces the trip. USPS still carries the letter. What you skip is the printer, the envelope, the stamp and the walk to a mailbox. $0.99 covers all of it.
If something goes wrong, do I pay?
If we cannot mail the letter, the hold on your card is released and you are not charged. If a letter fails after your card is charged, you are refunded automatically and in full.
Does texting a letter cost anything extra?
No — texting is just another way to reach the same order engine as the web composer. You pay the normal per-piece price (First-Class $0.99, Certified $12.99, Certified + Return Receipt $14.99, or a piece format like a postcard from $0.99), nothing more for using text.
Can something get mailed by accident from a text?
No — texting in a recipient and letter content only produces a quote. Nothing prints or charges until you reply with an explicit confirmation, the same two-step pattern the web composer and the API use.
Do I need a special app to do this?
No — it works over ordinary text messaging, the same thread you would use to send anyone else a message. No app install and no account are required to get a quote; you only need a way to pay when you confirm a real (non-sandbox) send.