How to Get a Free Zebra Thermal Printer and Labels

You know it can be a hassle if you’ve printed more than a handful of shipping labels every month. A thermal printer can be expensive, especially if your business is just starting. Here’s how you can get a free shipping label printer through UPS.

How to Get a Free Thermal Printer

To get your hands on a free UPS-approved Zebra thermal printer (don’t worry, it’ll work with Pirate Ship, ShipStation, EasyShip, etc.), you’ll need to give UPS a call at 1-800-742-5877 (or 1-800-833-0056 for TTY/TTD support). This process goes faster if you already have a UPS ID (sign up).

Once you reach the phone menu, press 0 (zero) to be transferred to a human. Ask to speak to an account manager. If you don’t already have a UPS shipping account, use this time to set up with them.

Getting that out of the way, ask about renting a Zebra thermal printer. Technically, acquiring this printer means you’re just renting it from UPS. The typical fee is $2/week, but if you have substantial existing shipping volume–or can sweet talk them–you can get the rental fee down to $0.

Even if you still have to pay, remember that the start-up cost here is very low. At $2/week, one year will only set you back $104. That’s still less than the price of a Zebra ZT450, less than the Rollo X1038 ($169), and way less than the Dymo 4XL (~$210). Once your business is off the grown and turning a profit in six months to a year, return the printer and get your own.

As far as startup costs go, the cost of a thermal printer and labels doesn’t need to be one of them. Think of it this way: if you’re shipping 100 units of product a month to Amazon warehouses, 3PL providers, customers, or wherever, the rental fee will set you back a mere $0.08-0.09/unit. Take the $100-$200 you would have spent and buy inventory. The return from inventory is way higher than buying a thermal printer right away, which won’t generate direct profit.

Do some back-of-the-napkin math. Taking that saved money and re-investing it into your business can multiply quickly.

If that math doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will.

(ed: ok, I’ve digressed enough, back to the topic.)

Dealing with Printer Maintenance or Breakage

Since you didn’t purchase the printer outright, you’re not on the hook for it if it toasts itself. Remember, it’s a rental! Give UPS a call and let them know it’s not functioning, and they’ll swap it out for you.

How to Get Free Thermal Shipping Labels

If you have a UPS account (which you should if you worked on acquiring the printer over the phone already), you can get a shipment of thermal shipping labels at no cost by placing an order online in just a few moments. UPS ships the labels to you, and you’re ready to go. UPS says their supplies should only use them for UPS shipments, but since this is an Amazon FBA blog and UPS is the only parcel-partnered carrier left, worrying about that seems like a non-issue.

To get these free blank labels, head to this UPS.com page and log in. This requires a UPS shipping account (you should already have one from talking to a UPS account manager). From your profile page, choose Order Supplies.

Choose the Labels and Stickers option from the Supplies page, then pick one of the Direct Thermal Label options. You’ll see a couple: fan-fold format in 4″ x 6″ and 4″ x 8″ and roll format in 4″ x 6″, 4″ x 6.25″, and 4″ x 8″ variants.

If you’re a super heavy printer, grab a case of the 4″ x 6″ fan-fold labels. A case will come with 6,000, whereas the largest roll you can acquire once comes with 900.

Note: UPS informed me that it depends on your shipping volume and whether fan-fold labels are available. The account I used to generate these screenshots doesn’t do much volume, so that option wasn’t available.

I would also recommend the address pouches as backups or if you include packing lists. They fit labels well, so if you need to print using a regular printer, they’ll hold the sheets without issue.

Add the supplies to your cart and check out. They’ll arrive at your business or home in a few business days, free of charge.

Print Thermal Shipping Labels Easily

Now that you have your free (or close-to-free) hardware check out my favorite shipping tools to put this hardware to good use.

That’s all there is to it! Once you have the printer and supplies, you’ll have no reason to do things old-fashioned with inkjet or laser printers and their expendable resources. No more paying for paper or ink. Take those printing costs and buy more inventory and make those profits.