USPS’s refund page tells PO Box customers they can request a “pro-rated refund for unused time.” It’s easy to read that as money back for every day you won’t use the box.
The rule behind that page, in USPS’s Domestic Mail Manual, works in quarters instead. Close a 6-month box in its first week or in the last week of its third month, and you get the same half back. Close it on the first day of the fourth month, and nothing comes back.
USPS refunds a closed PO Box by the quarter of the term you paid for: nothing on a 3-month box, half of a 6-month fee within the first three months, and three-quarters, half or a quarter of a 12-month fee depending on which three-month stretch you’re in. From the 10th month of a 12-month term, nothing comes back.
Those months don’t start the day you paid. A PO Box service period starts on the 1st of a month, and your renewal due date, the last day of the period, tells you which 1st that was.
Two pieces sit outside the quarters. A renewal you’ve already paid for a period that hasn’t started yet comes back in full. And the key deposit, $6 a key on USPS’s current price list, comes back for keys you return at the Post Office where the box was issued; USPS’s online guide says closing online gives the deposit up.
This covers a regular PO Box you rent and pay for. Free boxes, a Post Office that closes or moves, and a few other cases follow their own refund rules in the manual.
If You Paid for Six or Twelve Months, the Quarter You Close In Sets the Refund
Start with two values from your receipt, renewal notice or PO Box Online account: the term you paid for (3, 6 or 12 months) and the amount. Then find your row.
| Term you paid | When you close | Share of the fee back |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months (automatic renewal) | Any time | Nothing |
| 6 months | Months 1–3 | Half |
| 6 months | Month 4 onward | Nothing |
| 12 months | Months 1–3 | Three-quarters |
| 12 months | Months 4–6 | Half |
| 12 months | Months 7–9 | A quarter |
| 12 months | Month 10 onward | Nothing |
The share applies to what you actually paid, at the price in effect when you paid it. On the USPS price list that took effect Oct. 4, 2026, a 6-month period runs from $31 to $677 depending on box size and the Post Office’s fee group, so there’s no typical refund to quote.
Here’s a hypothetical box, not a typical price: a size-2 box in one fee group on that Oct. 4, 2026 list, $142 for six months or $284 for twelve, with the period starting Nov. 1, 2026 (and no first-year bonus month). Closed Dec. 15, 2026, in month 2, the 6-month box returns $71 and the 12-month box $213. Closed Feb. 15, 2027, in month 4: $0 and $142. Closed June 15, 2027, the 6-month term has already ended, and the 12-month box returns $71. From Aug. 1, 2027, it returns $0. The same box on a 3-month term, $82, returns $0 whenever it’s closed.
Inside a quarter, how much of it you’ve used doesn’t change the number. The calendar does, one quarter at a time.
Your Months Start on the 1st, Not the Day You Paid
USPS starts a PO Box fee period on the 1st of a month. If your application was approved on or before the 15th, the period began on the 1st of that month. Approved after the 15th, it began on the 1st of the next month.
If you don’t have the approval date, work back from the renewal due date. Renewal is due on the last day of the period’s final month, so a 6-month period due April 30 began Nov. 1, and a 12-month period due Oct. 31 began Nov. 1 the year before.
That 15th line can move your cut-off by a month. Picture two hypothetical customers renting the same 6-month box in October 2026. One is approved Oct. 9, so the period starts Oct. 1 and the half-refund stretch runs through Dec. 31. The other is approved Oct. 20, so the period starts Nov. 1 and the half-refund stretch runs through Jan. 31, 2027.
Each step down lands on the 1st that opens a new quarter of your period: month 4, and on a 12-month term also months 7 and 10. In the Nov. 1 example, closing the 6-month box on Jan. 29, 2027 returns $71; closing it on Feb. 1 returns $0. If the 1st that starts your next quarter is only days away, those days decide which share you get.
Two Situations Where the Whole Amount Comes Back
A renewal for a period that hasn’t started. If you’ve paid for the next period and close the box before it begins, USPS refunds that renewal in full. The quarter steps apply only to the period you’re in.
Take the hypothetical $142 box again, with a period ending April 30, 2027. The household pays the $142 renewal on April 9 for May 1 to Oct. 31, then decides to move and closes the box April 23. The renewal comes back whole; the current period, in its sixth month, returns nothing.
This matters if a renewal hit your card before you’d decided: automatic renewal set up at a Post Office can charge as early as the 15th of the month before the due date.
A box reserved online and never activated. If you never went in to activate it or pick up keys, it’s a full refund. You can close it online before the 30-day activation deadline; after that deadline, PO Box Online refunds it in full and closes it automatically.
Online or at the Counter: Where the Key Deposit Is Won or Lost
You can close a box through PO Box Online or at the Post Office where the box is. Online, an eligible box shows a “Close or Request Refund” link in its box details, and the confirmation page shows the refund.
A box you bought at the counter and only linked to your online account, without paying online, isn’t eligible for an online refund. Ask at the Post Office where the box is; the same quarter steps apply there.
The key deposit is separate from the box fee. On the current price list it’s $6.00 a key, and the manual refunds it for each key returned to the Post Office where the box was issued. USPS’s online guide says closing online means forfeiting the key deposit, and that closing at your local Post Office is how you get it. With two keys, that’s $12 back at the counter and none of the deposit through the online close.
Not everyone has a deposit riding on this. New customers at what USPS calls competitive locations paid no deposit on their first two keys.
I hesitate to call $6 a key a reason for an extra trip on its own, but it’s the only part of this money that depends on where you close rather than when.
At the counter, bring every key and the dates you worked out:
“Please close PO Box [number] today. I’m returning [number] keys. I paid for a [6-month / 12-month] period that started [date]. Can you confirm the refund on the box fee, the key deposit refund, and whether a renewal I’ve already paid for the next period is included?”
Letting the box run out is the no-refund way to end it. Renewal is due on the last day of the period; after 10 days unpaid, USPS closes the box and treats mail to it as undeliverable, and renewing more than 10 days late costs a $30 late payment fee.
Before the 1st That Starts Your Next Quarter
Start with your own paperwork: the term and the amount you paid, and the 1st your current period began, counted back from the renewal due date if you need to.
Then hold today’s date against the table. That tells you which quarter you’re in, what share it returns, and which 1st starts the next quarter and its smaller share. If you’ve paid a renewal, check whether its period has begun; if it hasn’t, that payment comes back whole.
Then close where the money is: at the counter with every key if you paid a deposit. If your Post Office is closing or moving, DMM 508.4 has a separate refund rule for that. If your first year came with a bonus 13th month, ask the counter how your refund is counted.
A PO Box rarely closes on its own; usually the household is moving and ending other services too. Here’s whether Spectrum prorates your final bill when you cancel, and the dates to check, and what interstate movers can require at delivery when the bill tops the estimate.
The nearer the 1st that starts your next quarter, the more it pays to close before it rather than after.
Sources: USPS Domestic Mail Manual 508.4 (PO Box fees, refunds and keys), PS Form 1093, PO Box Online terms and conditions, Request a USPS Refund, the PO Boxes Online Key Steps guide and the Notice 123 price list effective Oct. 4, 2026. Checked Oct. 20, 2026. The $142 and $284 box, the October approvals and the April renewal are hypothetical examples, not real customers or typical PO Box prices.