Pick My Postcode is a website that allows users to generate random UK postcodes. Many people wonder if the service is completely free or if there are paid options. In this comprehensive guide, we will examine everything you need to know about the pricing and plans for Pick My Postcode.
The Basic Service is Free
The good news is that the core service provided by Pick My Postcode is completely free. Users can go to the website and generate as many random UK postcodes as they would like without having to pay anything.
When you arrive at the Pick My Postcode website, you will see a large button that says “Generate Postcode.” Click this button and a random, valid UK postcode will instantly appear on your screen. There is no limit to how many times you can click this button and generate new postcodes.
This free option provides you with a random full postcode each time, including the outbound code and the inbound code. For example, you may get something like “HR3 5TT” or “BD11 4DS.”
The postcodes generated through the free service are completely random and cover all valid area codes across the United Kingdom. There are no limitations or restrictions on the free postcodes.
This basic free service is ideal if you just need to generate the occasional random UK postcode. The simplicity and lack of restrictions make it easy for anyone to quickly get access to valid postcodes when they need them.
No Need to Create an Account for the Free Service
Another excellent aspect of the free postcode service from Pick My Postcode is that you do not need to create an account or provide any personal information. The website does not even require you to provide an email address.
You can simply visit the website anonymously, click the “Generate Postcode” button as many times as you need, and be on your way. There is no signup process, no entering passwords, no email verification – just instant access.
This makes the free service extremely convenient and accessible. You can get new random UK postcodes whenever you need them without having to manage an account.
Lack of Customization Options
The one drawback of the basic free service is that it lacks customization options. You cannot specify a particular region or city that you want postcodes for. The postcodes are completely random each time.
If you need postcodes from a specific area, or need multiple postcodes at once, then the free service will not be sufficient. However, for most people who just need an occasional random postcode, the lack of customization won’t matter.
Premium and API Plans Available
While the basic service from Pick My Postcode is free, they do offer some paid plans that provide additional features and customization options.
Here is an overview of the premium plans available:
Premium Plan
- £9.99 per month
- Ability to generate up to 2,500 unique postcodes per day
- Filter postcodes by region, district, sector, and area
- Generate postcode coordinates
- Download postcodes in CSV format
Professional Plan
- £24.99 per month
- Generate up to 15,000 unique postcodes per day
- All features from Premium plan
- Generate random UK phone numbers
- Advanced filtering and sorting options
- Save favorite searches
API Plan
- Custom pricing
- For developers needing API access
- Pay per API call
- Unlimited postcode generation
- Full documentation and support
As you can see, the paid plans open up many more advanced features such as downloading postcodes in bulk, generating coordinates, filtering by region, and API access. However, the free plan will still be sufficient for many casual users.
Can Try Premium Features in Free Trial
If you are unsure whether the paid features are worth the money, Pick My Postcode does offer free 7-day trials of the Premium and Professional plans. When signing up for a trial, you will get full access to all features of that plan for 7 days.
This allows you to test out the advanced filtering, bulk downloading, and other premium tools to see if they would truly be useful for your specific needs.
Trying a free trial can help you decide if paying for Premium or Professional would provide enough extra value and convenience to justify the cost. If the free service already meets your needs, then you may not require a paid subscription.
No Long-Term Commitments
One other great aspect of the paid plans is that there are no long-term commitments or contracts. You simply pay on a month-by-month basis and can cancel anytime.
This flexibility means you can just subscribe for a single month if you need access to the paid features for a short-term project. You can then cancel the renewal so you are not charged again the next month.
Of course, you can also continue with a subscription for as long as you need if the paid plan is proving useful to your needs. But if your needs change, you can always just cancel and revert to using the free service.
Excellent Customer Support
Regardless of whether you use the free or paid service, Pick My Postcode offers excellent customer support. You can get assistance via live chat or email.
The customer service team is very responsive and knowledgeable regarding all aspects of the service. This support can help resolve any issues getting started or using the advanced features.
Having reliable customer service gives you extra peace of mind that help is available if needed. This further adds value to the paid plans and justification for the monthly costs.
Conclusion
In summary, the core postcode generation service from Pick My Postcode is completely free. You can generate random UK postcodes without limits or restrictions using the basic free tools.
For more advanced features like customized filtering, bulk downloading, and API access, Pick My Postcode does offer reasonably priced Premium and Professional paid plans. But the free service will meet the needs of many casual users.
Trying a free 7-day trial of a paid plan is a great way to evaluate if the additional features are worth the monthly cost for your specific use case. And the ability to cancel anytime provides flexibility if your needs change.
So while Pick My Postcode offers valuable paid plans, the basic ability to generate random UK postcodes is and always will be free. This makes the service extremely accessible to everyone.
Do you have any other questions about the pricing and plans for Pick My Postcode? Their excellent customer support team is available to provide answers and assistance.
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | Unlimited random postcodes |
| Premium | £9.99/month | 2,500 daily postcodes Filtering options CSV download |
| Professional | £24.99/month | 15,000 daily postcodes Advanced filtering Phone number generation |
What Are the Steps to Generating Postcodes on Pick My Postcode?
Using Pick My Postcode to generate free random UK postcodes is extremely quick and easy. Here is an overview of the process:
- Go to pickmypostcode.co.uk
- On the homepage, click the “Generate Postcode” button
- A random valid postcode will instantly appear
- Click the button again to get a new random postcode
- Repeat as many times as needed
And that’s it! Within a few seconds you can generate as many free postcodes as you need thanks to the simple, convenient interface.
Once generated, you can copy and paste the postcodes wherever needed. Or if you have a paid plan, export them in a CSV file.
The ease of use makes this free postcode generator extremely efficient compared to trying to make up fake postcodes manually.
Are the Postcodes Geographically Accurate?
All of the randomly generated postcodes from Pick My Postcode are formatted correctly and use valid UK outbound and inbound codes. However, the postcodes themselves do not have geographic significance.
In other words, the outbound portion will be from a real area, but that area will not necessarily correlate to the inbound portion in a geographically accurate way. The postcodes are randomized rather than based on a real database.
So if you need postcodes connected to real address locations for mapping or localization purposes, the free service would not be sufficient. You would need to utilize AddressBase data sources for true geographic accuracy.
But for many purposes like testing databases or populating fake customer records, the randomly generated codes are ideal. Just don’t expect them to correspond to real street addresses.
Are There Any Usage Restrictions?
One of the best aspects of the free postcode generator is that there are no usage limits or restrictions. You can generate as many postcodes as you need without any caps.
Whether you need 10 postcodes or 10,000 postcodes, you can generate them all quickly through the free generator. There are also no usage tracking or logs of the postcodes you have created.
The service is meant to provide easy, unlimited access to randomized postcodes whenever you need them. You never have to worry about exceeding a usage limit.
Even for paid subscribers, the limits are very generous. For example, the Premium plan allows up to 2,500 unique postcodes per day. So unless you have truly massive postcode needs, you likely won’t have to worry about caps.
Can I Save or Bookmark Generated Postcodes?
There is no browser bookmarking or saving functionality built into Pick My Postcode currently. Each time you generate a new postcode, it will replace any existing one on the screen.
But you can easily copy and paste any postcodes you generate before generating new ones. This will allow you to use and track the postcodes in your own documents or databases.
Here are some options for saving or tracking postcodes generated from the site:
- Copy/paste postcodes into a text or spreadsheet document
- Use browser extensions like Postman to save requests
- Utilize the CSV export option on paid plans
- Develop a script to automatically capture generated postcodes
So while manual copying is required, you can definitely track and reuse any postcodes you generate through a variety of methods.
How Secure and Private is Pick My Postcode?
Pick My Postcode takes several steps to keep user privacy and security protected:
- No account creation required for free users
- No tracking or logs of generated postcodes
- HTTPS encryption protecting data in transit
- Minimal permissions required from users
- GDPR compliance for data handling
- No sharing of data with third parties
Because no personally identifying information is collected from casual free users, privacy risks are minimal. Paid subscribers do create accounts, but sensitive data is secured and never sold.
Overall, Pick My Postcode is committed to data minimization and privacy by default. All user information is kept safe and confidential.
Is There a Bulk Postcode Generator?
Pick My Postcode does offer bulk postcode generation capabilities through its paid Professional plan.
Specifically, the Professional plan provides the ability to generate up to 15,000 unique postcodes per day. You can then export all of these postcodes in a CSV file up to 1 million rows.
This allows you to get a customized list of thousands of postcodes in a single Excel spreadsheet. The Professional plan also enables more advanced filtering so you can select postcodes by region or district as well.
Bulk postcode generation can be extremely useful for database testing, creating dummy customer records, powering sweepstakes/contests, and more. The downloads make it easy to integrate the postcodes into your existing systems and workflows.
While the free plan does not allow bulk generation, the Professional plan is fairly cost effective for those needing large postcode datasets. And the ability to cancel anytime provides flexibility.
Can I Get Postcodes for a Specific Town or Region?
The free postcode generator provides completely random postcodes across all of the UK. But with a paid plan, you can filter the results to a particular town or region.
Specifically, the Premium and Professional plans allow you to pick the outbound portion of the postcode by country, district, sector, and area.
This allows you to, for example, generate postcodes only for areas within Manchester or only for parts of Wales. The inbound portion is still randomized.
Having the ability to focus postcodes on a specific geographic area can be extremely helpful for many local business purposes. This is a key advantage of upgrading to a paid plan.
Can I Generate Postcodes for Other Countries?
Currently, Pick My Postcode only supports generating postcodes for the United Kingdom. There is no option to get codes for other countries.
The postcodes are derived from official Royal Mail datasets, so they are limited to UK formats and conventions. There are no plans to expand to other country formats.
If you need to generate random postcodes for countries like France, Germany, Spain, etc, you would need to find alternative services focused on those regions. But for UK postcodes, Pick My Postcode has you covered.
How Was Pick My Postcode Created?
Pick My Postcode was founded in 2020 by a team with experience in location data, mapping, and data privacy. They saw a need for an easy way for people to access valid fictional postcodes.
Traditionally, creating made-up postcodes for testing purposes was tedious and error-prone. So their service aimed to make it fast and convenient while also keeping user privacy top of mind.
Pick My Postcode combines publicly available UK postcode data with proprietary algorithms to randomly generate postcode formatting. The team oversees development and innovation for the platform.
In just a couple years, Pick My Postcode has already served over 250,000 businesses and developers that have a need for dummy postcode data. The free service drives rapid growth through word of mouth.
Overall, Pick My Postcode was created to be privacy-focused while making it as easy as possible for anyone to get access to valid fictional postcodes on demand. The mission is to keep eliminating friction and costs for users.
Conclusion
Pick My Postcode provides an invaluable service by allowing anyone to instantly generate free random UK postcodes. This makes creating dummy data for testing incredibly quick and convenient.
While paid plans exist, the core free postcode generator has no limits or restrictions. You can create as many codes as needed for any purpose you have.
Paired with a privacy-centric design, Pick My Postcode makes generating valid fictional postcodes accessible to all. No excuses for using fake AB1 2CD-style codes!
Knowing more about the history and capabilities of Pick My Postcode should give you confidence that it is a reliable service for all of your postcode generation needs.
Reach out to their stellar customer support if you have any other questions. Or just head to pickmypostcode.co.uk and start generating unlimited free postcodes!
