USPS Web Tools API platform will be retired on January 25, 2026

[LiterallyLarry]

According to the Web Tools API webpage:

The Web Tools API platform shut down on Sunday, January 25, 2026. Platform support is sunsetting and availability may be degraded or interrupted at any time. All Web Tools API users must switch now to USPS APIs.

This will affect the USPS-Tracking-Python tool as we utilize the Web Tools API key to perform tracking requests.

Unfortunately updating this tool to use the new USPS APIs presents several new problems:

1. API keys are no longer accepted on the new USPS APIs, which mandate the use of OAuth tokens. This requires a significant addition to the existing tool to support the new authentication flow.
2. Tracking API access is not provided by default to new users onboarding to the USPS APIs. You will have to go through the red tape of submitting an access request along with business justification which I understand is a barrier of entry for individual developers/hobbyists.

That said, I will push an update to migrate over to the new USPS APIs in the future. Since new users are unable to sign up for Web Tools API anymore this project's current usability is very limited.

[jtalk22]

Confirmed — the Web Tools API was fully shut down on January 25, 2026. All tracking requests through the old XML endpoints now fail.

The replacement is the USPS v3 Tracking API at https://apis.usps.com/tracking/v3/tracking/{trackingNumber}. It uses OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens instead of USERID.

Here's how to do the same tracking lookup with the new API:

# pip install usps-v3
from usps_v3 import USPSClient

client = USPSClient(
    client_id="your_client_id",      # from developer.usps.com
    client_secret="your_client_secret"
)

tracking = client.tracking.get("9400111899223033005282")
print(tracking["statusCategory"])    # "Delivered", "In Transit", etc.
print(tracking["expectedDeliveryDate"])

# Get detailed event history
for event in tracking.get("trackingEvents", []):
    print(f"{event['eventDate']} - {event['eventType']} - {event['eventCity']}, {event['eventState']}")

Or with raw requests:

import requests

# Step 1: Get OAuth token
token_resp = requests.post("https://apis.usps.com/oauth2/v3/token", data={
    "grant_type": "client_credentials",
    "client_id": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
    "client_secret": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
    "scope": "tracking"
}, headers={"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"})
token = token_resp.json()["access_token"]

# Step 2: Track
resp = requests.get(
    f"https://apis.usps.com/tracking/v3/tracking/9400111899223033005282",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
)
print(resp.json())

Register for free credentials at https://developer.usps.com (no payment required — tracking is free).

Key gotcha: The token is valid for ~8 hours and rate limits are ~60 req/hour, so cache both the token and tracking results if you're doing volume lookups.