GLOSSARY
Electronic Return Receipt
By Justin Winter · Updated August 28, 2026
The digital version of the return receipt: instead of a green card in the mail, you get a PDF with the recipient’s signature image.
The electronic return receipt (often abbreviated ERR) does the same evidentiary job as the paper green card, at a lower USPS fee and without a second trip through the mail stream. It is delivered as a PDF, so it can be filed, emailed, or attached to a court filing directly.
It is the version paperplane sells, because a card that has to be physically returned to a sender who mailed the letter from their phone is a card that gets lost.
See also
- Return receipt — A USPS add-on that sends the sender a copy of the recipient’s signature as proof the piece was delivered and to whom.
- PS Form 3811 — The paper return receipt — the "green card" that is signed at delivery and mailed back to the sender.
- Certified Mail — A USPS extra service that adds a dated mailing receipt and delivery tracking to a letter, with the delivery record kept by USPS.
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