Most USPS products that carry a barcode carry tracking at no extra charge, and the number under that barcode is a search box away from a status. This page is the walkthrough: where to type the number, how to read the list once it loads, how long USPS keeps the record, and the text-message option that skips the website entirely. It does not repeat the digit-by-digit format of the number or the reasons a page can sit still for days — those live on their own pages, linked at the bottom.
Every USPS tool — the website, the text line, the app — is a different door onto the same barcode record.
USPS keeps this simple on its own site, which is more than can be said for most of what surrounds tracking.
“Enter a USPS Tracking® number in the search box to check the status of a package.”
USPS, Receive Mail & Packages, usps.com/manage/, read 2026-08-30. The search box itself lives at tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input.
Two things sit next to that search box worth knowing before you use it. Once a package loads, USPS offers a Delivery Instructions option right on the results screen, for redirecting or holding a piece already in the network. And the same account that runs Track & Confirm also runs Informed Delivery — a dashboard that previews mail and manages incoming packages without you entering a number for each one, useful if the number is the part you keep losing.
If the label came from SMKlog, our own tracking page reads the identical carrier status without a trip to usps.com, and keeps the number attached to the order so support can find it later.
A tracking page is a log, printed newest event first. The shape underneath it is consistent even when the wording on any one line is not: a piece is scanned in somewhere, it moves through one or more USPS facilities, it reaches the office that will deliver it, and it is scanned again on the doorstep or in the box.
USPS is candid that it does not spell out every line in place. Its own Tracking basics article, rather than defining each status where it appears, tells the reader to check a separate Scan Event Status reference “to get a better idea of what a specific status is and what it means for you” — USPS's own admission that the log is built for operations first and read by customers second.
USPS, USPS Tracking® — The Basics, faq.usps.com, read 2026-08-30.
Two situations are common enough to name here, with the full answer living elsewhere on this site rather than repeated: a page that has not changed in days is a scan gap, not necessarily a stopped parcel — see USPS tracking not updating for the published day thresholds. And if the number itself will not resolve to anything, reading a tracking number covers how to tell a USPS number from a UPS, FedEx or DHL one before assuming it is broken.
A tracking page does not stay online forever, and the window is different by service.
| Service | Record kept for |
|---|---|
| USPS Tracking Service | 120 days |
| Signature Confirmation | 1 year |
| Priority Mail Express | 2 years |
| Certified Mail | 2 years |
| Registered Mail | 2 years |
| Adult Signature Required / Restricted Delivery | 2 years |
| Numbered international mail services | 2 years |
120 days sounds long until a marketplace dispute opens five months after delivery. Screenshot the full event list at the point of a claim rather than assuming the number will still resolve later.
For a number already in hand, USPS runs a text line that skips the website altogether.
“Send a text to 28777 (2USPS) with their tracking number as the content of the message.”
USPS, Text Tracking™ FAQs, usps.com/text-tracking/, read 2026-08-30.
The service is built around a US-based phone number, used in the United States or roaming abroad, and USPS states it extended the same feature to Canadian-based numbers in early 2015. A number issued anywhere else does not register, even if the handset itself is sitting in the United States.
USPS revises its help pages without notice. Treat the figures above as what was published on the date shown and check usps.com directly for anything time-sensitive.
In the search box at USPS Tracking, tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input. USPS states plainly on its own site that you enter a USPS Tracking number in the search box to check the status of a package. For a label bought through SMKlog, our own tracking page reads the same carrier status without sending you to usps.com.
A running log of scans, oldest at the bottom and newest at the top, moving loosely from acceptance through the network to a delivery scan. USPS does not publish a plain-English definition for every line on its customer help pages; its own Tracking basics article points readers to a separate Scan Event Status page for what a specific line means rather than defining each one in place.
120 days for USPS Tracking Service. Signature Confirmation records last 1 year, and Priority Mail Express, Certified Mail, Registered Mail, Adult Signature services and numbered international mail services are each kept 2 years, per USPS's own Tracking basics article.
Yes. USPS Text Tracking works by sending a text to 28777 (2USPS) with the tracking number as the content of the message. The first use prompts an opt-in, a request started on usps.com needs a YES reply to the welcome message, and texting STOP to the same number ends it. USPS states the service covers US-based phone numbers, at home or roaming, and Canadian-based numbers since early 2015.
The record starts at the first scan, not at the moment a label is printed. A number generated at checkout or at a self-service kiosk has nothing to show until USPS physically takes the parcel and reads the barcode, which can be same day or the next business day depending on when and where it was dropped.