SMS cost calculator: what a bulk text campaign really costs
Bulk SMS cost is recipients × messages per recipient × segments per message × (price per segment + carrier fee). Segments matter most: a GSM-7 text over 160 characters, or any text with an emoji, is billed as several. Paste your message and enter your provider's rate to see the total, the cost per recipient and what unreachable numbers waste.
131 characters, GSM-7, 1 segment. Use your longest merge-field value when you write it.
E.g. per month, or per campaign.
$0.0083 per outbound segment (long code, toll-free or short code), plus carrier fees; $0.001 per message that ends in Failed status. Published US rate, read 17 Oct 2026: pricing page. Check it for today’s price and volume discounts.
US carriers add their own per-message fees, which differ by carrier and sender type. Use the figure from your provider's carrier-fee table.
Landlines, invalid and disconnected numbers. Unsure? The landline or mobile checker shows what the numbers alone can tell.
$166
20,000 messages × 1 segment × $0.0083 per segment (carrier fees not included)
- Segments billed
- 20,000
- Cost per message
- $0.0083
- Cost per recipient
- $0.0332
- If it fit in 1 segment
- $166
Next step
Landlines and malformed numbers still cost you an attempt.
A list check flags invalid numbers and, where the numbering plan or a live lookup can tell, landlines that can't take a text, so they come off the list before you pay to message them. It can't promise a number is in service; it removes the ones that clearly can't receive SMS.
- Drop your numbers as a CSV
- See its rows, duplicates and bad formats, free
- Check every number when you are ready
Ready to verify now? See the Email + Phone plan
Sample result
This 105-character text costs $320 because one curly apostrophe makes it 2 segments.
- Total cost
- $320
- Segments billed
- 40,000
- Cost per message
- $0.0160
What this means for you
Swap the ’ for a plain ' and it fits in 1 segment, halving the cost to $160.
- Segments counted per GSM-7 or UCS-2
- Names the characters that force Unicode
- Carrier fee and failed-message fee fields
- Shows what one segment would cost
- SMS
- Segments
- Unicode
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I calculate the cost of an SMS campaign?
- Paste the message you'll send, with your longest merge-field values, so the segment count is real.
- Enter how many recipients and how many messages each gets (per month or per campaign).
- Pick a published rate as a starting point or enter your own per-segment price, then add the carrier fee from your provider's fee table.
- Optionally enter the share of numbers that can't receive SMS to see what those attempts cost.
Example
- You enter
- A 105-character text containing one curly apostrophe (’), to 5,000 recipients 4 times, at $0.008 per segment.
- You get
- The apostrophe forces Unicode, so the text is 2 segments of up to 67 characters: 40,000 segments and $320 in total. With a plain ' it fits in 1 segment and costs $160.
- Limits
- No limit; runs in your browser.
How much does it cost to send an SMS?
In the US, a provider's rate plus a carrier fee per segment. On 17 October 2026 the published US outbound rates were $0.0083 per segment at Twilio, $0.0077 per SMS on long codes at Plivo and $0.004 per message part at Telnyx, each before carrier fees and volume discounts. Prices change, so check the page before you budget.
Carrier fees are set by the mobile carriers and passed through by the provider; they differ by carrier and by sender type (10DLC, toll-free, short code). Each provider publishes its own carrier-fee table, so take the figure from yours. Registration fees for 10DLC brands and campaigns are separate one-off and monthly charges, not included here.
Why does my message cost more than one SMS?
Because it's longer than one segment. A single GSM-7 message holds 160 characters; once it's longer, each segment holds 153, because part of every segment carries the header that joins them back together. Use one character outside GSM-7 (an emoji, a curly quote, an accented letter some phones send) and the whole message switches to UCS-2: 70 characters single, 67 per segment. Twilio's explainer gives the same limits.
Providers bill per segment, so a 161-character text costs twice as much as a 160-character one. This calculator counts segments from the text you paste; the SMS character counter shows where each break falls and the GSM-7 character checker finds the characters forcing Unicode.
How do I calculate bulk SMS cost?
Multiply four numbers: recipients, messages per recipient, segments per message and the per-segment price including carrier fees. 5,000 recipients × 4 messages × 2 segments × $0.0083 is $332 before carrier fees; the same campaign trimmed to one segment is $166. In a spreadsheet: =B1*B2*B3*(B4+B5).
Then add what the formula leaves out: messages to landlines and dead numbers. Some fail with a small fee (Twilio charges $0.001 for a message that ends in Failed status), others may be billed at the full rate, depending on where along the route they fail. Enter your share of unreachable numbers to see both cases.
What changes the cost the most?
| Change | Effect on a 20,000-message campaign at $0.0083 |
|---|---|
| 2 segments → 1 segment | $332 → $166 |
| One emoji in a 100-character text | 1 segment → 2 segments (UCS-2 limit is 70) |
| 10% of numbers are landlines, billed in full | $33.20 of the $332 wasted at 2 segments |
Figures before carrier fees, from Twilio's published US rate on 17 October 2026.
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- SMS marketers
- Budget a campaign before it's sent, and see what trimming a message to one segment saves.
- Clinics and service businesses
- Price reminder texts per patient or customer per month, carrier fees included.
- SaaS teams
- Estimate verification-code and notification spend as signups grow, by provider.
- Agencies
- Quote a client's text campaign with every assumption visible, from segments to unreachable numbers.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- Rates are only starting points from published pages on one date; your contract, volume tier and destination change them.
- Carrier fees aren't filled in: they vary by carrier and sender type, so enter your provider's figure.
- It prices US-style per-segment billing; some countries and providers price per message or by destination.
- It can't tell which of your numbers can receive SMS; the unreachable share is your estimate.
- Phone number rental, 10DLC registration and MMS are not included.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to send an SMS?
- In the US, roughly $0.004 to $0.0083 per segment at the major API providers' published rates (checked 17 October 2026), plus carrier fees per segment, which vary by carrier and sender type.
- How much are SMS charges per message?
- Providers charge per segment, not per message. A message up to 160 GSM-7 characters is one segment; longer ones are billed as several, and any emoji drops the limit to 70 characters.
- What are standard SMS fees?
- For businesses sending through an API: the provider's per-segment rate, the carrier's per-segment fee, a monthly charge for each phone number, and for US 10DLC, brand and campaign registration fees. Consumers pay whatever their phone plan sets, which is often nothing extra.
- How much does Twilio charge per SMS?
- Twilio's published US price on 17 October 2026 was $0.0083 per outbound SMS segment for long codes, toll-free and short codes, plus carrier fees, with a $0.001 fee for messages that end in Failed status.
- Does a long text cost more?
- Yes. Every 153 GSM-7 characters (67 if the message uses Unicode) is another billed segment once a message is over the single-segment limit.
Sources
Well formatted is not the same as reachable.
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