> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://paperplane-justin-winter-s-projects.vercel.app/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# ROI calculator
> The real math for print-stuff-stamp vs. paperplane, worked from live pricing and published USPS rates.
Mintlify doesn't give this docs site a client-side widget to plug numbers
into, so this is a **worked static example** instead — every paperplane price
below is real (pulled straight from `lib/pricing.ts`, the same numbers
`POST /v1/quotes` returns), and every USPS fee is the published rate from
[USPS Notice 123](https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm) (effective
2026-07-12). The two inputs that are genuinely yours to guess —
**staff time per letter** and **your fully-loaded hourly rate** — are called
out as illustrative defaults. Swap in your own and redo the arithmetic; it's
addition and multiplication the whole way down.
## The formula
```
Manual cost per letter = (minutes of staff time ÷ 60 × hourly rate)
+ materials (paper, toner, envelope)
+ USPS postage & fees
paperplane cost per letter = the price at /v1/quotes for that mail class
```
USPS charges the same postage and fees whether you walk the letter to the
counter yourself or paperplane's print partner drops it in the mail — that
part of the manual side isn't an assumption, it's Notice 123:
| Line | Rate | Applies to |
| -------------------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------- |
| First-Class postage | \$0.82 | every class below |
| Certified Mail fee | \$5.55 | Certified, Certified + ERR |
| Electronic Return Receipt | \$2.91 | Certified + ERR only |
| Priority Mail flat-rate envelope | \$11.10 | Priority (replaces the line above) |
## paperplane's price, in full
One page, black & white, no add-ons — the base rate for each mail class:
| Mail class | Price | What's bundled |
| ------------------------------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| First-Class | **\$1.99** | postage, printing, envelope, USPS drop-off |
| First-Class + tracking | **\$2.98** | same, plus USPS tracking (`+$0.99` add-on) |
| Certified | **\$12.99** | postage, certified fee, printing, envelope |
| Certified + Electronic Return Receipt | **\$14.99** | same, plus the signed delivery receipt |
| Priority | **\$24.99** | flat-rate postage, printing, packaging |
Add $0.25/page past the first page, and +$0.50/page for color, so a 3-page
color certified letter is `$12.99 + 2×$0.25 (extra pages) + 3×$0.50 (color) =
$14.99`.
These are the exact numbers `POST /v1/quotes` returns for `page_count: 1`,
`color: false` on each `mail_class` — nothing here is rounded for effect.
## Illustrative defaults (change these)
Nothing in this section is a real measurement of your operation — it's a
starting guess so the worked example below has numbers in it. Replace both
before trusting a total.
| Assumption | Illustrative default |
| ---------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Fully-loaded hourly rate | \$30/hr |
| Materials (paper, toner, envelope) | \$0.20/letter |
| Staff minutes — First-Class | 5 min (print, fold, stuff, seal, stamp) |
| Staff minutes — Certified | 15 min (+ fill PS Form 3800, walk to the counter, wait in line) |
| Staff minutes — Certified + ERR | 16 min (+ the green card) |
| Staff minutes — Priority | 12 min (pack, label, drop off or schedule pickup) |
## Worked example, per letter
Plugging the defaults above into the formula:
| Mail class | Manual: labor | + materials | + USPS | = Manual total | paperplane | Difference |
| --------------- | ------------- | ----------- | ------- | -------------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------ |
| First-Class | \$2.50 | \$0.20 | \$0.82 | **\$3.52** | \$1.99 | paperplane **−\$1.53** (43% cheaper) |
| Certified | \$7.50 | \$0.20 | \$6.37 | **\$14.07** | \$12.99 | paperplane **−\$1.08** (8% cheaper) |
| Certified + ERR | \$8.00 | \$0.20 | \$9.28 | **\$17.48** | \$14.99 | paperplane **−\$2.49** (14% cheaper) |
| Priority | \$6.00 | \$0.20 | \$11.10 | **\$17.30** | \$24.99 | paperplane **+\$7.69** (44% pricier) |
Priority is the honest exception: the USPS $11.10 flat-rate envelope is
already most of the manual cost, and packing a pre-addressed flat-rate
envelope doesn't take long — so at these defaults, doing it yourself is
cheaper per piece. Priority's case for switching is convenience and volume
(no daily post-office run), not raw per-letter economics. Certified is the
opposite pattern for the same reason: the $5.55 certified fee is fixed either
way, so the deciding factor is how many minutes the window trip costs you.
## Breakeven: how much staff time makes paperplane cheaper
Rearranging the formula for the minute count where manual cost equals
paperplane's price answers a more useful question than any single volume
example — at your hourly rate, how many minutes does prepping a letter need
to take before it's worth not doing it yourself:
```
breakeven minutes = (paperplane price − USPS fees − materials) × 60 ÷ hourly rate
```
At the $30/hr, $0.20-materials defaults:
| Mail class | Breakeven staff time |
| --------------- | -------------------- |
| First-Class | \~2 min |
| Certified | \~13 min |
| Certified + ERR | \~11 min |
| Priority | \~27 min |
If your certified-mail process — printing, the paper form, the walk to the
counter, the wait — takes longer than about 13 minutes at a \$30/hr loaded
rate, paperplane is already cheaper per letter, before counting the time back
from the post office or the trip you didn't make at all.
## Monthly totals at volume
Certified mail (demand letters, notices, collections) is the case most teams
actually ask about, so here it is at three illustrative volumes, same
defaults as above:
| Letters/month | Manual cost | paperplane cost | \$ saved | Staff hours reclaimed |
| ------------- | ----------- | --------------- | -------- | --------------------- |
| 50 | \$703.50 | \$649.50 | \$54 | 12.5 hrs |
| 200 | \$2,814.00 | \$2,598.00 | \$216 | 50 hrs |
| 1,000 | \$14,070.00 | \$12,990.00 | \$1,080 | 250 hrs |
The dollar gap per letter is modest — the fixed USPS certified fee dominates
both sides. The staff-hours column is where the case usually gets made: at
200 certified letters/month, 15 minutes each is 50 hours of someone's time
back, every month, regardless of what their hourly rate is.
For First-Class at the same volumes and defaults, both columns move more:
$76.50/$306/\$1,530 saved and 4.2/16.7/83.3 hours reclaimed at 50/200/1,000
letters/month respectively.
## What this doesn't count
* **Error and reprint cost.** A paper jam, a wrong envelope window, a
transposed ZIP that bounces — none of that is in the manual-side numbers.
* **Standing overhead** — a printer, toner stock, envelope stock, and the
staff time to reorder them, doesn't show up as a per-letter line, but it's
real and it's zero on paperplane.
* **Address correction.** paperplane runs every recipient through USPS
address standardization before mailing; a bad address caught after a
manual mailing is a second trip.
None of these have a solid paperplane-side number to plug in — they're
directionally in paperplane's favor, not quantified here, so they aren't in
any total above.
## Try it with real numbers
`POST /v1/quotes` for the exact price of your actual mail class, page count,
and add-ons — see the [quickstart](/docs/quickstart). Sending more than a handful
a month is what [bulk import](/docs/guides/bulk-import) and
[prepaid credits](/docs/guides/credits) are for.