Costs
Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail rates: illustrative cost ranges
Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail rates for a small business: illustrative CAD cost ranges for postage, print and preparation, with one-off and recurring lines.
What to take away
- Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail rates for a small business work out to roughly $0.20 to $0.65 per piece all in, before tax.
- A 2,500-piece drop in Ontario or British Columbia lands between $500 and $1,625, with design adding $150 to $900 the first time.
- Postage, print and the per-drop preparation charge repeat with every mailing. Design and targeting work do not.
- Splitting one mailing across several postal codes adds a preparation charge to each separate drop.
- The ranges below are illustrative planning figures, not a Canada Post quote. They draw on Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail planning costs for 2025. Confirm current rates before you commit.
The range a small business faces
Canada Post prices Neighbourhood Mail per piece, and the per-piece price falls as the count in one mailing rises. Sending 1,000 pieces to three postal codes costs more per piece than sending 20,000.
2,500-piece drop cost lines
Low (CAD)
- Postage per piece
- $0.11
- Print per piece
- $0.08
- Preparation per drop
- $25
- Design and artwork
- $150
- Targeting work
- $0
- Total, recurring only
- $500
High (CAD)
- Postage per piece
- $0.25
- Print per piece
- $0.30
- Preparation per drop
- $250
- Design and artwork
- $900
- Targeting work
- $150
- Total, recurring only
- $1,625
The Every Door Direct Mail rates guide explains the US carrier-route model. USPS prices by route; Canada Post prices by the postal codes or area you select.
The table gives illustrative planning ranges for a 2,500-piece drop in an Ontario or British Columbia city, based on planning figures for 2025. Tax is excluded.
| Cost line | Low (CAD) | High (CAD) | One-off or recurring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postage per piece | $0.11 | $0.25 | Recurring |
| Print per piece | $0.08 | $0.30 | Recurring |
| Mailing preparation, per drop | $25 | $250 | Recurring |
| Design and artwork | $150 | $900 | One-off |
| Targeting work | $0 | $150 | One-off |
| Total for 2,500 pieces | $500 | $1,625 | Recurring lines only |
Line by line: postage, print and the extras
Canada Post sets postage, and the per-piece price depends on the total piece count in one mailing, plus item size and weight. Oversized or heavy pieces move to a higher band, so a booklet costs more to deliver than a single sheet.
Neighbourhood Mail sits under Canada Post service categories as unaddressed mail. Use that term when you request a quote.
Print carries the widest spread. A single-colour flyer on newsprint printed in bulk can reach $0.08 per piece, while a full-colour folded piece with a reply card can pass $0.30. Printers price on volume in much the same way circulation-based rate cards work for newspapers. The per-unit figure drops as the run grows, and short runs pay for the setup.
Fixed against variable
Recurring lines repeat every drop: postage, print, and preparation charge; one-off lines are design, artwork, photography, and paid targeting work.
A bundled per-piece quote hides what you can cut next run; if creative stays the same, the second drop costs less than the first. The complete guide to direct mail explains how repeat drops are planned around that difference.
Example: 2,500 pieces in Ontario and British Columbia
At the low end, 2,500 pieces cost $475 in postage and print plus a $25 preparation charge, so $500, or $0.20 per piece. At the high end the same count costs $1,375 plus $250, so $1,625, or $0.65 per piece.
2,500-piece drop totals
- $500Low-end total, recurring lines
- $1,625High-end total, recurring lines
- $565–$1,836Ontario total with 13% HST
- $525–$1,706British Columbia total with 5% GST
Ontario adds 13 per cent HST and British Columbia adds 5 per cent GST. That gives $565 to $1,836 in Ontario and $525 to $1,706 in British Columbia.
What the tools do not include
Canada Post's price covers delivery. It does not cover printing, design or per-piece tracking. No scan event fires when a flyer lands in a mailbox, and no report tells you how many pieces reached an apartment lobby. That gap is where offline campaign measurement starts, by attaching response data to a printed piece.
Where budgets leak
- A reprint after a spelling error or a wrongly chosen postal code.
- Two small drops instead of one larger drop, each carrying its own preparation charge.
- A piece that crosses a weight band because a reply card was added late.
- Over-ordering print to reach a cheaper per-piece rate, then storing thousands of unused flyers.
In Quebec, commercial advertising must appear in French under the Charter of the French Language. For a small business that means a second artwork version and, often, a second print run. Treat it as a line item rather than a rounding error.
