"Commercial Pricing" is one of the USPS discounted pricing tiers available through Pirate Ship. Depending on your shipment, you may qualify for even deeper USPS discounts through other pricing tiers.
Pirate Ship automatically displays the cheapest USPS pricing available based on your package and destination.
A history of USPS pricing tiers
USPS used to offer three pricing tiers:
Retail Pricing: What you’d pay if you walked into your local Post Office or at USPS.com
Commercial Base Pricing (also known as CBP): What you paid with traditional shipping software.
Commercial Plus Pricing (also known as CPP): The most deeply discounted shipping rates available.
In 2019, USPS merged Commercial Base Pricing and Commercial Plus Pricing into one pricing tier: Commercial Pricing.
Understanding USPS Discounted Rate Tiers
Today, USPS discounted pricing works a little differently than the historical pricing tiers described above. Pirate Ship automatically applies the cheapest pricing possible based on your shipment's destination and eligibility:
Commercial Pricing: Commercial Pricing is one of the USPS discounted pricing tiers available through Pirate Ship. Some shipments may qualify for even deeper discounted pricing.
Merchant Rate Card: MRC Pricing is discounted pricing that's available through USPS parters with the Connect eCommerce program. These rates are lower than regular Commercial Pricing from USPS, but aren't available for every shipment. Excluded destinations include Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, military addresses (APO/FPO/DPO), and certain rural ZIP Codes.
MRC Rural: For shipments to certain rural ZIP Codes, USPS offers MRC Rural pricing instead. Historically, USPS has matched MRC Rural rates with Commercial Pricing, but it is technically a separate pricing tier and may differ in the future.
Want to learn more about the USPS pricing changes that took effect in July 2026? Check out our article here.
Pirate Ship is 100% free with no markups, minimums, or hidden fees
Most shipping software continues to refer to "Commercial Plus Pricing" in an attempt to fool you with hidden markups on top of postage costs. Don't fall for it!
Pirate Ship doesn't add any markup, monthly fees, or per-label costs. Pirate Ship is 100% free (we're paid commissions by the carriers) and our software automatically applies the deepest discounts available to every eligible shipment. You don't have to keep up with changing pricing programs or technical details—we handle all of that for you 😉