Understanding SMS Credit Costs
The short version
Every SMS you send uses credits from your SMS balance. Credits are charged per message part — not a flat price per message, and not simply one credit per recipient. A short, plain-text message is 1 part. A longer message, or one that uses emoji or accented/special characters, can split into several parts — and each part costs a credit.
What decides how many parts a message uses
- Plain text (English/Latin letters, no emoji): fits 160 characters per part. Up to 160 characters is 1 part, 161–320 is 2 parts, and so on.
- Emoji or accented/special characters — things like 😀, ł, ñ, ç, or Cyrillic text — switch the *whole message* to Unicode the moment even one appears. In Unicode, each part only fits 70 characters. A message that would have been 1 part in plain text can jump to 2 or 3 parts just from one emoji or accented letter.
- Personalization and links add characters too. A name token (like a customer's first name) is filled in before the message is measured, and a long link counts every character. Both can be enough to push a message into an extra part.
Longer messages, and anything that switches the message to Unicode, use more parts — and more parts means more credits.
How to spend fewer credits
- Keep it short. Every character counts toward the part limit.
- Skip emoji and accented/special characters where you can. They're often the single biggest cost driver — they shrink your budget from 160 to 70 characters per part for the *entire* message, not just the character itself.
- Use a short link. A long URL eats into your character budget fast.
Check the cost before you send
Wherever you send SMS — writing a message with SMS turned on as a channel, or inviting customers by text (from an import, a single invite, or customers you've selected from your list) — you'll see a live cost estimate, something like "≈ 2 parts · ≈ 20 credits", along with your current SMS balance. It updates as you type or as your recipient count changes, so you can see the cost and trim the message before you send. If your balance won't cover it, you'll see a notice and a Top up button before you can send.
Note: this preview is a close estimate, not a guarantee down to the last character. The exact charge is measured the moment you actually send, so the final number can differ very slightly from the preview shown while composing.