How much does bulk SMS cost?

Per-segment rates for US business texting typically run from under a cent to several cents, before platform fees, seat fees and carrier fees. Signilio charges $0.03 per segment all-in, with no platform or seat fees. Always compare total cost per segment with every fee included.

What is an SMS segment?

The unit SMS is billed in. A plain-text message up to 160 characters is one segment; longer messages are split into 153-character segments. Messages containing emoji or certain special characters use a different encoding with 70-character segments.

Do emojis make text messages cost more?

Often, yes. A single emoji switches the whole message to an encoding where a segment holds 70 characters instead of 160, so a message that was one segment can become two or three.

Topic guide

SMS Pricing and Cost Guide

How business text messaging is priced: per-segment rates, what a segment is, carrier fees, platform and seat fees, and how to calculate what a campaign will really cost.

Business texting is billed by the segment, not the message. A segment is 160 characters of plain text; a message that runs longer is split into segments of 153 characters each and billed for every one. Include an emoji or certain special characters and the message switches to a different encoding where a segment is only 70 characters. A campaign that looks like one message can easily bill as two or three.

On top of the per-segment rate, there are two other places cost hides. Carrier fees are small charges the carriers apply to business traffic; some platforms include them in their rate and others add them on the invoice. Platform fees are the monthly subscriptions, per-seat charges and setup fees that many providers layer on top of message pricing, and they're often what makes a "cheap" per-message rate expensive at team scale.

Signilio's approach is one all-in rate: $0.03 per segment, covering carrier and platform, with no monthly platform fee, no seat fees and no minimums. Whatever platform you use, the way to compare is the same: total cost per segment, all fees included, at the volume you'll actually send.

Use the SMS cost calculator to see how many segments your message is and what a campaign will cost, and read the guides below for the details.

SMS Pricing guides

The first guide on this topic publishes soon. In the meantime, try the SMS cost calculator.

Common questions

How much does bulk SMS cost?: Per-segment rates for US business texting typically run from under a cent to several cents, before platform fees, seat fees and carrier fees. Signilio charges $0.03 per segment all-in, with no platform or seat fees. Always compare total cost per segment with every fee included.
What is an SMS segment?: The unit SMS is billed in. A plain-text message up to 160 characters is one segment; longer messages are split into 153-character segments. Messages containing emoji or certain special characters use a different encoding with 70-character segments.
Do emojis make text messages cost more?: Often, yes. A single emoji switches the whole message to an encoding where a segment holds 70 characters instead of 160, so a message that was one segment can become two or three.