USPS API Access

Who You Are:

You are currently calling the Addresses 3.0 API for standardized addresses, city/state, or ZIP Code^™ information.

What Happens:

You will continue to receive standardized addresses, along with additional address attributes that include:

• Delivery type: curbside, centralized, door
• Non-active reason code: internal drop, new address
• Usage code: business, residential, and mixed business/residential
• Special address attributes: drop and count (receives mail for multiple entities), seasonal, throwback (addresses that are delivered to PO Box), LACS (911 address conversions), no door delivery, non-secure delivery, educational, PBSA (PO Boxes that have street-style addressing)
• Non-delivery days (days of week address doesn’t receive USPS delivery)

What You Need to Do:

1. Review and accept the updated Terms & Conditions in the USPS Business Portal, under My Apps > Developer Apps > Manage.
2. Go to the Business Portal and initiate the sign-up process (My Account > API Licenses > Add an Addresses API License).
   • If you do not already have an Enterprise Payment Account (EPA), please follow these account creation steps.
3. After completing the steps in the Business Portal, you will receive an email from Docusign to sign the order form and license agreements.
4. Once USPS countersigns the agreement, customers can link their API credentials to their license agreement in the Business Portal (Quick Actions > API Access Control > Set up Addresses > Select Credentials > Finalize Setup).
5. Refresh your claims in the Business Portal > My Apps > Manage > Refresh Claims button.
6. Refresh your Oauth token by calling the https://apis.usps.com/oauth2/v3/token endpoint
7. To verify your credentials are linked correctly, you can test them by calling the TEM endpoint (https://apis-tem.usps.com/addresses/v3/address). If you get a 403 error, your setup is incorrect.

Shippers

Who You Are: You ship direct to customers, creating your own label and using your own Mailer ID (MID)—the MID embedded in the package barcode is registered to you.

What Happens: You get continued no-cost access to Tracking data (via Tracking API, Tracking Webhook, or Scan Event Extract).

What You Need to Do:

• Review and accept the updated Terms & Conditions in the USPS Business Portal, under My Apps > Developer Apps > Manage.

Platforms and Consolidators

Who You Are: You are a label provider that offers shipping labels that businesses use to send packages or a company that consolidates packages from multiple customers into shipments for USPS.

What Happens:

You get continued no-cost access to Tracking data when:

• For Tracking API or Tracking Webhook: You are authorized by the shipper to use one of their active Merchant Access Tokens to generate labels on their behalf via the Business Portal platform authorization process.
• For Scan Event Extract: You are authorized by the shipper to use the MID embedded in the package barcode via the Business Portal platform authorization process.

What You Need to Do:

• Review and accept the updated Terms & Conditions in the USPS Business Portal, under My Apps > Developer Apps > Manage.
• Ensure merchants complete authorization via the USPS Business Portal. Learn the 2-step process for merchants to authorize label providers to generate shipping labels on their behalf.
• Maintain active merchant access tokens.

Service Providers and Others

Who You Are: You provide a service, such as reporting and analytics, to a shipper or mailing agent.

What Happens: You can get paid access to the Tracking API, Webhook, and Scan Event Extracts for specific Mailer IDs. Paid access will be subject to a monthly fee and other requirements set forth in a signed Intellectual Property (IP) agreement. Also:

• For access to Tracking API or Tracking Webhook, you must be authorized to access the Mailer ID (MID) included in the package barcode or the tracking number itself. You will incur a fee for the tracking data.
• For access to Scan Event Extract, the Mailer ID owner must delegate access to you. You will incur a fee for the tracking data.

What You Need to Do:

• Submit an inquiry via Email Us.
• Establish an Enterprise Payment System (EPS) account.
• Sign your Order Form and IP Agreement.
• Configure USPS Business Portal account permissions.

For full details, read the Tracking API Access Control Changes Release Overview.