Australia Post Direct Mail Pricing Guide 2026

A practical breakdown of what direct mail actually costs an Australian Shopify brand: which postage products apply, what drives the price of a piece, and how bundled per-card platform pricing compares to sourcing print and postage yourself.

How Australia Post direct mail pricing works

Australia Post doesn't publish a single "direct mail price" — the rate you pay depends on the mail format, the volume you lodge, whether your mail is pre-sorted by postcode, and what postal product you use. The main products for marketing mail are:

PreSort and other bulk lodgement services: discounted rates for addressed mail lodged in volume, sorted and barcoded to Australia Post standards through a licensed mail house. PreSort Letters needs at least 300 letters per lodgement.
Promo Post: Australia Post's lower bulk rate for addressed mail that is promotional in nature and pre-sorted. The minimum lodgement is 4,000 barcoded letters.
Unaddressed Mail: letterbox drops without a specific recipient address. Useful for geographic targeting, not customer retargeting.
Priority letters: a faster timetable (up to 3 business days within a state, up to 4 interstate) for a fee on top of postage. Rarely used for marketing campaigns, where the Regular timetable of 3–7 business days is acceptable.

Note that Print Post, which is often mentioned in direct mail guides, is not one of these: Australia Post restricts it to approved periodical publications with a fixed title issued at least twice a year, so triggered marketing postcards do not qualify. See our explainer.

What you actually pay for

There is no single published "direct mail price" in Australia. What a piece costs you comes down to three things: the postage product it is lodged under, the print production behind it, and whether anyone is aggregating volume on your behalf. Australia Post publishes its own retail and bulk letter rates, and those change from time to time, so treat any figure you read in a third-party guide as a snapshot rather than a rate card.

Check current rates directly at auspost.com.au rather than relying on ranges quoted elsewhere.

What drives the cost of a piece

Volume

Bulk lodgement rates decrease at higher volumes, and every bulk product has a minimum number of articles per lodgement. A brand triggering a handful of postcards a day will not clear those minimums alone, which is why lodging through a mail house matters: your batch is lodged by a licensed Australian mail house as part of its broader lodgement volume, not on its own.

Format and weight

Heavier and larger pieces cost more to post. A standard DL (210×99 mm) postcard (card stock, single or double-sided) is a small letter under Australia Post's rules (up to 130×240 mm, 5 mm thick and 250g) and sits in the lowest bulk weight step, up to 125g. A bigger format moves into a dearer bulk size band (C5 is Small Plus, C4 is Large), and adding inserts or using heavy stock can push a piece into a higher weight bracket.

Postcode zone

Letter pricing doesn't vary by destination postcode in the way parcel pricing does. A stamped letter costs the same anywhere in Australia, so weight, size and volume matter far more than where the card is going.

Print cost vs postage cost

The total per-piece cost includes both print production (paper, ink, printing) and postage. Print costs vary by artwork complexity, colour coverage, and paper stock, so a heavier stock or a full-bleed design costs more to produce than a simple one.

How TouchDrop's pricing works

TouchDrop charges a single per-postcard rate that covers print production, postage, QR code generation, and discount code generation. That per-card rate is billed separately from your platform subscription. There's no separate line item for Australia Post postage, because the postage cost is bundled into the per-piece rate.

Your per-card rate does not depend on your own volume clearing a postal minimum. Your batch is lodged by a licensed Australian mail house as part of its broader lodgement volume, so a brand sending 50 postcards in a week has no minimum order. Sends under 501 cards bill at A$2.99 a card on any plan; plan rates apply from 501.

See the Pricing & Postage guide for TouchDrop's current per-piece rates.

GST on direct mail, and how to record the cost

For brands that sign up on this website, TouchDrop's prices are in AUD and include GST, on the platform plan and on the per-card rate. The per-card rate bundles print and Australia Post postage, so postage is not a separate line with its own GST: the GST sits inside the card price. The GST in a GST-inclusive price is one-eleventh of it, so on a $2.99 Starter card it is $0.27 and the price before GST is $2.72. Merchants on the Shopify App Store pay through Shopify instead, per card in US dollars.

In the accounts, a postcard campaign is an advertising cost. The ATO lists advertising among the business operating expenses you can claim in the income year you incur them. If you are registered for GST, you claim the GST in the price as a GST credit on your BAS and deduct the amount before GST. If you are not registered, the full price including GST is the deduction (see the ATO's worked examples).

The ATO requires a tax invoice to claim a GST credit on a purchase over A$82.50. TouchDrop issues a monthly statement of account showing our ABN and the total charged, GST included. ATO-format tax invoices are not issued yet, so contact support if you need one for a campaign. GST on direct mail campaigns has more detail. ATO pages checked 22 October 2026.

Send postcards via Australia Post at volume rates.

AUD pricing, GST included, no minimum per campaign.

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