Order Estimates

Estimate Notecard

Changed on

Price a notecard order without placing it. Send the same request body you would send to Send Notecard: nothing is charged, nothing is printed or mailed, and no order is created.

The request is validated exactly as the send is, so a payload the send would reject is rejected here too. Recipients with only an email address are priced as if the email-to-address lookup finds them, and counted in pending_email_lookups. A radius_search is counted and priced, but no records are purchased.

post/estimate/notecard

Request

  • Base URL: https://api.thanks.io/api/v2
  • URL: https://api.thanks.io/api/v2/estimate/notecard
  • Auth: HTTP bearer

Request body

previewboolean

Set to true to return a preview instead of sending the mail piece. You can use this with any send call to inspect the output before submitting the order. On the Free and Business plans, preview images carry a DRAFT watermark; the mail you send never does. Professional and Enterprise previews have no watermark.

mailing_list_idsinteger[]

Mailing list IDs to send to. Required if recipients and radius_search are not provided.

handwriting_style_idinteger

ID of handwriting style to use.

handwriting_color'blue' | 'black' | 'green' | 'purple' | 'red'

Handwriting color to use. Options are preset named colors or specified as hex format, such as '#4287f5'

handwriting_realismboolean

Set to true to enable the realism effect for AI fonts.

sub_accountinteger

Sub-account ID to use for this order.

notification_emailsstring

Optional comma-separated list of email addresses to notify about order events such as QR scan notifications.

email_lookupboolean

Whether a recipient given an email but no street address has their postal address looked up from the email. Each address found is charged as an Email to Address lookup. Defaults to true. Set to false to skip the lookup: recipients without a street address are then left out of the order, which mails only the recipients that have one. Estimates never run the lookup and price such recipients as if found.

postage_class'first_class' | 'standard'

Postage class for this order. first_class mails First Class. standard mails Standard Mail (also known as Marketing Mail): lower cost for US addresses and slower to deliver, with no tracking status and no return-to-sender. Omit it to use your account's default, set with Standard Mail Mode under Settings > Mail Preferences. Standard Mail only changes the price of US addresses. Nonprofit accounts always mail at their nonprofit rate. standard needs a paid plan: free plan accounts always mail First Class, and standard from one is rejected with a 422.

return_namestring

Custom return name for the order.

return_addressstring

Custom return address for the order.

return_address2string

Custom return address line 2 for the order.

return_citystring

Custom return city for the order.

return_statestring

Custom return state/province for the order.

return_postal_codestring

Custom return postal code for the order.

metadataobject nullable

Your own key/value data to store with the order. It is returned unchanged by the order endpoints and included in every webhook event for the order as order.metadata. Must be a JSON object rather than an array, and no larger than 8,192 bytes once encoded as JSON. thanks.io does not print or otherwise act on these values.

creative_idinteger

Recommended: send a saved creative instead of assembling image and message parameters per request. ID of a creative from your Creatives library (see List Creatives). The creative is sent exactly as saved: its image template, message template, handwriting and background all come from it. It cannot be combined with any parameter that changes those (image_template_id, message_template_id, front_image_url, message, the handwriting and custom background parameters, pdf_only_url, skip_creative_generation, or for gift cards giftcard_brand and giftcard_amount_in_cents); a request that does is rejected with a 422 naming them. Only qrcode_url and additional_pages_url can be added. The creative must belong to your account, be of the mailer type being sent (for postcards, the size being sent), and be complete (is_complete: true).

image_template_idinteger

ID of image template to use for the exterior of the notecard. Required if not front_image_url is specified.

front_image_urlstring

URL to image to use for the exterior of the notecard. Required if image_template_id is not specified.

messagestring

Handwritten message content to use for interior of notecard.

message_template_idinteger

ID of message template to use for interior of notecard.

use_custom_backgroundboolean

Use custom interior background image. This can be used to turn off the default background image.

custom_background_imagestring

URL to custom background image to use for interior of notecard. This image will be placed behind the handwritten message. Must be 1650px by 2475px.

qrcode_urlstring

URL to Autogenerate QR Code in interior of notecard.

Example request

{
  "preview": true,
  "mailing_list_ids": [
    5166,
    514
  ],
  "recipients": [
    {
      "name": "Tobias Example",
      "company": "thanks.io",
      "address": "123 Main Street",
      "address2": "Apartment 1",
      "city": "Any Town",
      "province": "KS",
      "postal_code": "12345",
      "country": "US",
      "dob": "1981-04-23",
      "anniversary": "2025-07-21",
      "email": "tobias@example.com",
      "phone": "+1 (555) 123-4567",
      "custom1": "Unique Info",
      "custom2": "For example a product code or customer ID",
      "custom3": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom4": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom5": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom6": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom7": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom8": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom9": "Any Extra Info",
      "custom10": "Any Extra Info",
      "absentee_address": "742 Evergreen Terrace",
      "absentee_city": "Springfield",
      "absentee_province": "IL",
      "absentee_postal_code": "62704",
      "mailing-list": {
        "id": 1,
        "user_id": 2,
        "type": "manual",
        "description": "Test",
        "total_recipients": 1,
        "processed": true,
        "api_key": "abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456",
        "created_at": "2018-07-15T06:06:57.000000Z",
        "created_at_diff": "6 years ago",
        "updated_at": "2025-06-27T14:57:11.000000Z"
      },
      "created_at": "2025-06-27T14:57:11.000000Z",
      "updated_at": "2025-06-27T14:57:11.000000Z"
    }
  ],
  "radius_search": {
    "address": "123 Main Street, Fake City, NY, 55555",
    "record_count": 1
  },
  "handwriting_style_id": 4,
  "handwriting_color": "blue",
  "handwriting_realism": true,
  "sub_account": 7,
  "notification_emails": "ops@example.com,sales@example.com",
  "postage_class": "standard",
  "return_name": "Custom Return",
  "return_address": "1 Main Street",
  "return_address2": "Unit 1",
  "return_city": "Woodbridge",
  "return_state": "NJ",
  "return_postal_code": "07095",
  "metadata": {
    "crm_deal_id": "D-1042",
    "campaign": "spring-winback",
    "source": "hubspot"
  },
  "creative_id": 501,
  "image_template_id": 6,
  "front_image_url": "https://cdn.thanks.io/notecard-inspirations/note1.png",
  "message": "Hey %FIRST_NAME%!,\n\nTHANK YOU for allowing us the opportunity to HELP you with your plan!",
  "message_template_id": 12,
  "custom_background_image": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.thanks.io/templates/branding-builder-images/c09d39aadfc-3701d4467b8/44e9a510-78cb-11f0-a77d-dd13e72edce5.png",
  "qrcode_url": "https://www.google.com"
}

Response

The order was priced. Nothing was charged and no order was created.

messagestring

Example response

{
  "message": "OK",
  "data": {
    "type": "postcard",
    "size": "4x6",
    "total_recipients": 2,
    "recipients": {
      "united_states": 2
    },
    "costs_in_cents": {
      "united_states": 236,
      "grand_total": 236
    },
    "total_cost_in_cents": 236,
    "total_cost": "$2.36",
    "current_balance_in_cents": 5000,
    "covered_by_balance": true,
    "notes": []
  }
}

Changes

  • c403fbf3dc0fRevision changes
    • info

      added the new optional request property ////

  • 4e41e9041848Revision changes
    • warning

      removed the request property ////

    • info

      added the new optional request property ////