Ground Advantage
USPS lists USPS Tracking as included at no charge on its Ground Advantage sales page. There is no untracked, cheaper tier hiding underneath it.
USPS extra services
Does USPS Delivery Confirmation still cost extra?
Mostly no, and the reason is that the product changed names. Postal Explorer's current extra-services page does not carry a standalone Delivery Confirmation fee anymore — the scan that name once described is now the free USPS Tracking bundled into Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. The paid add-on people usually mean when the bill comes in higher than expected is a different product: Signature Confirmation. Both were read on usps.com and pe.usps.com on 2026-08-31.
Carrier wording, quotedRead 2026-08-31Free tracking vs. paid signature, separated
A name that outlived the fee
The charge is gone. The habit of asking about it is not, because a near-identical paid product still exists under a different name.
What Delivery Confirmation used to cost
Delivery Confirmation was a real line item on USPS rate filings. A 2008 Postal Bulletin update to Notice 123, published on about.usps.com and read on 2026-08-31, priced it by mail class rather than as one flat number.
| Mail class | Retail (counter) | Electronic (online) |
|---|---|---|
| First-Class Mail parcels | 0.75 USD | 0.18 USD |
| Priority Mail | 0.65 USD | 0.00 USD |
| Package Services parcels | 0.75 USD | 0.18 USD |
Notice the Priority Mail electronic column already sat at 0.00 USD back then. That zero is the seed of the modern rule: buy postage online on a service USPS wants to promote, and the tracking scan comes along for nothing. USPS has since dropped the counter fee too and simply stopped listing the service by this name.
What USPS sells today instead
Search Postal Explorer's extra-services page for “Delivery Confirmation” and nothing comes back. What the page lists instead is USPS Tracking, described as: “Provides the date and time of delivery or attempted delivery. Free with select services.” Read at pe.usps.com on 2026-08-31.
Priority Mail
Same wording, same bundle. The tracking number prints on the label whether the postage was bought at a counter or online.
Priority Mail Express
The fastest postal tier carries the same included tracking, alongside the delivery commitment that tier is sold on.
One narrow exception: the DMM's extra-services rules still describe a paid tracking add-on for a handful of low-cost mail classes that were never built to carry it by default, such as certain First-Class Mail letters and flats. If your item ships in a box on a service like Ground Advantage or Priority Mail, that exception does not apply — the number is already in the price. Our Ground Advantage tracking guide covers what the scans themselves report once the box is moving.
The name people actually mean: Signature Confirmation
When someone asks why “delivery confirmation” costs money, they are almost always thinking of a different, still-paid product. USPS's insurance-and-extra-services page prices Signature Confirmation at 5.15 USD at a Post Office counter or 4.15 USD paid online, read 2026-08-31. That is a real, current charge — it is just not the one this page's title asks about.
| What people say | What it is now | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery Confirmation | Retired name; the scan it described is USPS Tracking, bundled with Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express | No charge |
| Signature Confirmation | Live paid product; collects a name at the door and reports it separately from the routine tracking scans | 5.15 USD retail / 4.15 USD online |
The two answer different questions. USPS Tracking, free, tells you the parcel reached an address and roughly when. Signature Confirmation, paid, tells you a specific person accepted it. Confusing the retired name for the live one is how a shopper expects a free feature to cost 4.15 USD, or budgets 4.15 USD for something USPS already gives away. The buying decision — which shipments are worth the charge — is covered in full on our USPS Signature Confirmation guide, along with Adult Signature and the rest of the fee chart; it is not repeated here.
Where these statements come from
- USPS Postal Bulletin, Notice 123 update, Delivery Confirmation pricing — historical retail and electronic fees by mail class. Read 2026-08-31.
- Postal Explorer, Adding Extra Services — current extra-services list; no Delivery Confirmation line; USPS Tracking described as free with select services. Read 2026-08-31.
- USPS, Shipping Insurance and Delivery Services — USPS Tracking included at no charge with Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail and Ground Advantage; Signature Confirmation pricing. Read 2026-08-31.
USPS revises Notice 123 and its service pages without notice. Treat the figures above as what those pages published on the date shown, and check the current page before relying on a price.
Common questions
Does USPS Delivery Confirmation still cost extra?
For most shipments, no. Postal Explorer's current extra-services page does not list a standalone Delivery Confirmation fee at all (pe.usps.com, read 2026-08-31); the tracking that name used to describe now rides free on Ground Advantage, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express.
What happened to the old Delivery Confirmation fee?
USPS folded it into ordinary tracking. A 2008 Postal Bulletin rate filing on about.usps.com priced Delivery Confirmation at 0.75 USD retail on First-Class and Package Services parcels, 0.65 USD on Priority Mail, with an electronic rate as low as 0.00 USD when bought online — that electronic line is the ancestor of today's included USPS Tracking.
Is Delivery Confirmation the same thing as Signature Confirmation?
No, and the names get swapped constantly. Delivery Confirmation was the old name for a tracking scan, now free. Signature Confirmation is a live, paid USPS product that collects a name at the door, priced at 5.15 USD at a Post Office counter or 4.15 USD bought online (usps.com, read 2026-08-31).
Does USPS Tracking cost extra on Ground Advantage or Priority Mail?
No. USPS lists USPS Tracking as included at no charge with Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage (usps.com, read 2026-08-31). It is part of what the postage buys, not an add-on line on the receipt.
If I want proof someone signed for a package, what do I actually buy?
Signature Confirmation, not Delivery Confirmation. The full fee table and a rule of thumb for when the charge is worth paying are on our USPS Signature Confirmation guide, since that decision does not belong on a page about a retired service.