Written by Maurice Nataf
How many characters can my SMS have?
This article will break down the amount of character you can have per SMS and SMS campaigns.
The amount of characters and SMS in your message is shown below the text box when you create a new campaign.
Amount of characters per SMS
An SMS has 160 characters. However, you will be able to run campaigns of up to 1224 characters (long SMS) and will be billed in increments like these:
- 0 - 160 characters: 1 SMS
- 161 - 306 characters: 2 SMS
- 307 - 459 characters: 3 SMS
- 460 - 612 characters: 4 SMS
- 613 - 765 characters: 5 SMS
- 766 - 918 characters: 6 SMS
- 919 - 1072 characters: 7 SMS
- 1073 - 1224 characters: 8 SMS
In Standard SMS, if the size of your message exceeds 160 characters, your SMS may not be sent and the request can return an error. In most cases, the message will be sent, in a single SMS if possible, or in two/multiple SMS in some cases.
Characters that count double
In both Standard and Premium SMS, the following characters count double in the character count to calculate the cost of an SMS.
{ } € [ ] ~ ^ ¨ | & $ @ \n \r \t
Foreign Alphabets
If you send your SMS messages in a foreign alphabet, as a Premium SMS, your SMS messages will then be counted as follows:
Up to 70 characters: 1 SMS
- From 71 characters, each batch of 63 characters is valid for 1 SMS
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Check this article to know which characters are allowed and which will be automatically replaced.