---
title: "What is NCOA?"
description: "NCOA is the USPS database of change-of-address filings, used to update a mailing list before mail goes out so pieces follow the people who moved."
canonical: https://trysincerely.com/glossary/ncoa
last_updated: 2026-09-18
---
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# What is NCOA?

> NCOA is the USPS database of change-of-address filings, used to update a mailing list before mail goes out so pieces follow the people who moved.

Source: https://trysincerely.com/glossary/ncoa

NCOA stands for National Change of Address. It is the USPS database of change-of-address forms filed by people and businesses that moved. Before you mail a list, an NCOA check compares your addresses against that database and swaps in the new address for anyone who moved.

## Why it matters

People move, companies relocate, and offices shuffle. A list that was clean twelve months ago quietly rots. Mail sent to a stale address gets forwarded at best, and at worst comes back as [return to sender](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/return-to-sender) or lands in a stranger's recycling bin. Either way you paid full print and postage for zero chance of a response.

NCOA kills that waste before it happens. It also affects postage: the USPS Move Update standard requires every address to be updated within 95 days of the mailing date to qualify for presorted First-Class and Marketing Mail prices ([DMM 602.5](https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/602.htm)), and NCOA processing is the most common way to meet it.

Two limits worth knowing:

- NCOA only catches people who filed a change-of-address form. Many business moves never get filed, so B2B lists still need verification beyond NCOA.
- NCOA updates where someone gets mail. It does not confirm the address exists or is deliverable. Check the delivery-point result from address processing with [CASS-certified software](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/cass) for that separate question.

Sincerely runs address verification on every plan as part of [mailability](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/mailability) checks, so a bad or stale address gets flagged before anything prints.

## Example

You export 1,000 contacts from your CRM, collected over three years. An NCOA pass finds 60 who moved and updates their addresses. At roughly $2 per piece, that one check just saved $120 of mail from going to the wrong door.

NCOA can catch a filed move. It cannot establish where a person currently works or whether they will receive your piece.

## Related questions

- [What is CASS?](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/cass): CASS is the USPS certification for address-matching software. DPV checks delivery-point records, and neither one confirms who works at the address.
- [CASS, NCOA, and address verification, explained](https://trysincerely.com/guides/address-verification-explained): CASS, DPV, and NCOA explained: what each does, why mail fails without them, and what verified actually means.
- [What is address resolution?](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/address-resolution): Address resolution finds the most likely current mailing location for a person or business before postal verification checks the address itself.

---

Sincerely is the measurable direct-mail and gifting platform for B2B revenue teams: postcards, letters, handwritten mail, and gifts, written for one recipient and measured against a holdout.

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