Discontinued Operations (Narrative) (Details) - DMT - Disposed of by Sale - USD ($) $ in Millions		12 Months Ended
Jul. 02, 2018	Dec. 31, 2018
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Pension settlement		$ 13
Transaction costs		$ 11
Proceeds from sale of businesses, net of cash transferred	$ 340
Proceeds from sale, net	$ 270

Discontinued Operation, Transaction Cost

No definition available.

Name:	pbi_DiscontinuedOperationTransactionCost
Namespace Prefix:	pbi_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Non-Cash Pension Settlement

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	pbi_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationNonCashPensionSettlement
Namespace Prefix:	pbi_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The cash inflow associated with the amount received from the sale of a portion of the company's business, for example a segment, division, branch or other business, during the period.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 230
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 12
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=109223946&loc=d3e3179-108585

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ProceedsFromDivestitureOfBusinesses
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This element represents the cash inflow during the period from the sale of a component of the entity.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ProceedsFromDivestitureOfBusinessesNetOfCashDivested
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupClassificationAxis=us-gaap_DiscontinuedOperationsDisposedOfBySaleMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: