Forever stamps getting pricier this weekend — and it’s likely not the last price hike

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(NEXSTAR) – Penning a letter, sending a card, and paying your bills by mail are about to get more expensive – again. This will mark the eighth price hike for Forever stamps since 2021.

Officials previously confirmed that prices will climb 4 cents on Sunday, jumping from 78 cents to 82 cents. Also increasing in price are domestic postcards, from 61 cents to 65 cents, domestic metered mail from 74 to 78 cents and international postcards and letters from $1.70 to $1.75.

For Forever stamps, this marks a roughly 5% price increase. It’s been a year since prices were increased from 73 cents to 78 cents.

When the new price takes effect over the weekend, Forever stamps will be 23 cents more expensive than they were during the summer of 2019 (there was no price change in 2020, interrupting the USPS’s practice of annual increases). Prices have climbed every year since 2021, including two increases each in 2023 and 2024.

Since 2006, the price of Forever stamps has doubled.

How expensive could stamps get?

It’s unclear when Forever stamps could become more expensive and how high prices could jump.

A December filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission shows the USPS anticipates additional price increases in January and July through calendar year 2028.

That means Forever stamps could undergo four more price hikes before 2028 ends. If they follow the trend of the last eight price hikes, during which prices increased by about 5% each time, each increase could be about 4 cents.

At that rate, a single Forever stamp could cost you 96 cents by the end of 2028.

Higher price hikes were considered

As jarring as that may be, Sunday’s price change could have been worse.

In September 2024, the USPS proposed raising the price of stamps five times between 2025 and 2027. Additional changes were scheduled to occur every January and July through the end of 2027, the USPS previously confirmed to Nexstar.

The increase to 82 cents was originally scheduled to occur in January. And in March, a potential price hike of 12 to 17 cents was suggested during a congressional hearing.

Still, officials have confirmed that the price hikes won’t help USPS’s financial struggles.

USPS faces financial struggles

In May, the USPS reported a net loss of $2 billion through the second quarter of fiscal 2026. While USPS saw an increase in revenue thanks to price increases to mail services, the agency also saw mail volumes decline.

When USPS proposed raising the price of Forever stamps earlier this year, it also moved to temporarily suspend employer contributions to Federal Employees Retirement System annuities in order to allow it to keep making payroll, paying suppliers, and delivering the mail, the Associated Press reported.

Officials have warned USPS could run out of cash in just months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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