How to Calculate the Length of an SMS

When sending an SMS reminder or making a marketing campaign, the cost associated to send it out is calculated by not only by the length of the message but when is included in the message.

The different types of Message

When Messages are sent they can be broken down to two different types;

  • Message with only letters

Or

  • Messages with letters and / or emojis

What about long messages?

Before the addition of emojis to a message the character limit is 160. Longer messages are possible, however when sending the message every additional of 160 character will incur an additional cost of another credit.

An example would be:

  • Up to 160 characters = 1 messages = 1 credit
  • Up to 320 characters = 2 messages = 2 credits

And so on.

When an emoji is added to the message this changes how the message is treated by our SMS provider. This then reduces the amount of characters, including emojis, to 70.

This will be sent as:

  • Up to 70 characters = 1 message = 1 credit
  • Up to 140 characters = 2 messages = 2 credits

So what does this mean?

When sending and scheduling messages to you clients, be aware of how many characters your message has. Then if you add emojis, it will decrease the amount of allowed characters per message.