Economics
Does USPS charge CMRAs a fee?
Straight answer
No. USPS does not charge a registration fee to become a CMRA. You file PS Form 1583-A with the postmaster of your delivery Post Office at no charge, and access to the Customer Registration Database through the Business Customer Gateway is also free. Your real costs are the location, staff time, and postage for remail after termination.
Checked September 3, 2026
Is there a fee to file Form 1583-A?
No. Form 1583-A is filed with the postmaster of the Post Office that delivers to your address, and USPS does not charge for it.
The postmaster or a designee reviews the form, verifies your business information, signs, and keeps it on file. You refile when something on it changes, such as a new owner, a new manager, or a new address. None of those filings carry a USPS fee. The rules are in DMM 508.1.8.
Does the CRD cost anything to use?
No. CRD access comes through the USPS Business Customer Gateway after your CMRA is registered, and USPS does not charge for it. The cost is the data entry.
Every approved Form 1583 must be entered in the CRD with legible images of both IDs, every termination date must be recorded, and every quarter you certify the whole roster. USPS has no API for this, so the work is done by hand in the Gateway. Innbocks prepares the entries in a readiness ledger so you are working from a checklist, and offers a managed CRD Service where the Innbocks team completes the uploads and quarterly certification on your behalf.
USPS CRD explained
Registration, upload duties, deficiency notices, and quarterly certification.
What does being a CMRA actually cost?
The commercial location, the staff time spent on Form 1583 and CRD work, postage for remailing former customers' mail, notary costs, and software.
- A commercial delivery address staffed during business hours. For most operators this is space they already rent.
- Staff time to review each Form 1583, check two IDs, enter the record in the CRD, and certify quarterly.
- Postage for remailing a former customer's mail for at least six months after termination, applied with new postage.
- Notarization, whether remote online notarization, an in-person notary at the counter, or your own commission.
- Software to run the customer portal, notifications, and records. Innbocks charges a flat per-customer platform fee, listed at /pricing.
Does USPS charge per mailbox or per customer?
No. USPS charges nothing per box or per customer. Per-mailbox charges in this industry come from networks and software providers, not from USPS.
The confusion usually comes from network agreements. Anytime Mailbox, for example, publishes operator fees of $4 per active mailbox per month for customers the operator brings and $6.50 for customers Anytime brings, plus a 5% management fee on collected revenue and a software subscription tiered by mailbox count. iPostal1 pays partner stores a per-mailbox amount, reported at $4 to $7 per month, under terms set per agreement. None of that is a USPS charge. The full guide to registering covers the steps in order.
Registration is free. The paperwork is not.
Innbocks gets every Form 1583 ready for the CRD and can complete the filings for you, on a flat per-customer platform fee.