Free tool
SMS Segment & Cost Calculator
Paste a message to see how many segments it is, whether an emoji or curly quote is quietly doubling the cost, and what the campaign will cost to send.
Rate: $0.03 per segment, all-in. No platform, seat or setup fees.
Encoding
GSM-7
160 chars per segment
Segments
1
per message
Per message
$0.03
1 × $0.03
Campaign total
$30.00
1,000 recipients
How SMS length and cost work
Text messages are billed by the segment, not the message. Two rules decide how many segments a message becomes:
- Encoding. If every character is in the basic SMS alphabet (letters, numbers, common punctuation), the message uses GSM-7 and a segment holds 160 characters. If even one character falls outside it — an emoji, a curly quote, most accented letters — the whole message switches to UCS-2, where a segment holds only 70 characters and each emoji counts as two.
- Length. A message that fits in one segment is billed once. A longer message is split into segments of 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (UCS-2) characters, because a few characters in each go to stitching the pieces back together on the phone. Every segment is billed.
So a 160-character message with plain punctuation is one segment. Add a single emoji and it becomes three.
Three habits that keep segments down
- Write in plain characters. Straight quotes, hyphens and three dots instead of curly quotes, long dashes and the ellipsis symbol. Text pasted from a word processor often has smart punctuation in it.
- Keep it under 160 — with room for personalization. A first name or a company name added by a merge field can push a message over the line. Leave a margin.
- Skip emoji in bulk sends. They read well in a conversation but can triple the cost of a campaign.
Everything you type here stays in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- How many characters are in a text message?
- A standard SMS holds 160 characters when it uses the basic GSM-7 alphabet. If the message contains an emoji or a character outside that alphabet, it switches to UCS-2 encoding and holds only 70 characters per segment.
- What is an SMS segment?
- The unit carriers bill in. A message that fits in one segment is billed once; a longer message is split into segments of 153 characters (GSM-7) or 67 characters (UCS-2) and each segment is billed separately, even though the phone shows one message.
- Do emojis cost more in SMS?
- Usually, yes. One emoji forces the whole message into UCS-2 encoding, so a 150-character message that was one segment becomes three. Emoji also count as two characters each.
- Why do curly quotes make my message longer?
- Smart punctuation such as curly quotes (“ ”), long dashes (—) and the ellipsis character (…) isn't in the GSM-7 alphabet, so pasting text from a word processor can silently switch a message to the 70-character encoding. Replacing them with plain quotes and hyphens fixes it.
- How is bulk SMS priced?
- Per segment. Many platforms also add monthly platform fees, per-seat fees and carrier surcharges on top. Signilio charges one all-in rate of $0.03 per segment with no platform, seat or setup fees, which is the rate this calculator uses.
Send at $0.03 per segment, all-in.
Bulk campaigns, a two-way team inbox and 10DLC registration included. No platform fee, no seat fees, no minimums.