USPS lists Signature Confirmation at $5.15 retail and $4.15 electronic in Notice 123, effective 2026-07-12 and checked on 2026-07-27. The harder part is deciding which packages earn that surcharge, and the answer is narrower than most sellers assume.
A signed handoff turns a delivery scan into a record with a name attached, which is what disputes get decided on.
All figures below come from one source, on one date, so they can be compared cleanly. Each is charged in addition to postage, and the electronic prices apply when the label is bought online rather than over a counter.
| Add-on | Retail | Electronic |
|---|---|---|
| Signature Confirmation | $5.15 | $4.15 |
| Adult Signature Required | $9.70 | – |
| Adult Signature Restricted Delivery | $10.00 | – |
| Certified Mail | $5.55 | – |
| Return Receipt | $4.65 | $2.91 |
Certified Mail and Return Receipt live in the same chart but serve letters and legal papers more than parcels. For a shipped item, the working choice is almost always between plain Signature Confirmation and the pricier adult variants.
The fee's real product is evidence. When a buyer claims a package never came, a delivery scan says a box reached a ZIP code; a signature says a human took it. Sellers of electronics, jewelry, and collectibles get the most from that distinction because their disputes involve amounts that dwarf $4.15.
On a cheap item the surcharge can approach what the item earns you. It also adds friction on the porch: nobody home means a redelivery attempt or a pickup trip, and an annoyed buyer. Save the signature for shipments where losing the argument costs real money.
At $9.70, Adult Signature Required exists for shipments that legally or practically must land in grown-up hands. The $10.00 Restricted Delivery version goes further and names the only person who may sign. Neither is an upgrade of ordinary confirmation; they answer a compliance question, not an evidence one.
$5.15 when bought at a retail counter and $4.15 in its electronic form, per USPS Notice 123 on pe.usps.com, effective 2026-07-12 and checked 2026-07-27. The fee is added on top of whatever the postage costs.
Signature Confirmation records that a person accepted the package. Adult Signature Required, at $9.70 in the same fee chart, obligates the carrier to collect that signature from an adult, and the Restricted Delivery version at $10.00 narrows it to a named recipient. They solve different problems: proof versus control.
For expensive items, usually. A signed delivery record is the strongest evidence a seller can hold in an item-not-received dispute, and platforms tend to weigh it heavily. For a twenty-dollar sale, spending $4.15 to collect that evidence rarely makes sense; for a four-hundred-dollar one it's cheap.
Signature options appear during checkout whenever the carrier you picked supports them on your route. Quote the package first; the add-ons that apply show up before payment.