SMS cost calculator
What it costs to send and receive text messages: the number rental, each message, the carrier fee, and — if you write to the United States — the registration the law requires.
Charged per part, not per message
An SMS fits in 160 characters. Go over and the message splits into several, and you pay for each part. Watch out for accents and emoji: they change the encoding and drop the limit to 70 characters, so a short message with one emoji can cost twice as much as a longer one without.
The carrier fee nobody mentions
On top of the provider price, carriers charge their own fee to deliver each message. In the United States it runs around USD 0.0035 per message depending on the recipient's carrier, and it adds to everything else. That is why it sits as its own line here: leave it out and your estimate falls short.
The three number types
- Local (10DLC). An ordinary number, the cheapest per message. Messaging the United States requires registering it.
- Toll-free. Costs a little more per message but delivers better, and does not need 10DLC registration (it has its own verification).
- Short code. The five or six digit numbers. The most expensive and the slowest to approve; they are for large volumes.
The registration the United States requires
To send commercial messages to US numbers from a local number you must register the brand and the campaign with the carrier registry. Two charges:
- Brand: USD 4.50, one time.
- Campaign: USD 30 upfront covering the first three months, then USD 10 per month for a standard use case. There are lower rates for low volume (USD 6 then 2) and for non-profits (USD 15 then 5).
That registration also requires a public form where people agree to receive your messages, stating the frequency, how to opt out and your own privacy policy — ours does not count. Without it, the campaign is rejected.
What is not charged but still costs
You must answer STOP with an opt-out and HELP with assistance, and respect permitted messaging hours. Not a cost in money, but breaking it costs you the campaign.
What meruma charges
Nothing on top of this. Messages are drawn from credits at the published rate and registry charges are passed through exactly as the carrier registry bills them. meruma charges for its plan and nothing else.