How much does text messaging cost? SMS marketing pricing guide

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SMS marketing is one of the more affordable channels you can run, but the final cost depends on more than the price of a single text.

This guide covers what you pay for with SMS marketing, what makes the number go up or down, and how to work out whether your texts are paying for themselves.

How much does SMS marketing cost?

The monthly cost comes down to two things: the texts you send and the number you send from. Here’s what it looks like with Textmagic in the US:

If you send 1,000 texts a month on a pay-as-you-go plan, you’d end up paying $59 from a toll-free number, or $69 from a local 10DLC number. A monthly plan lowers the price per text and includes your number.

Factors that affect the cost of SMS marketing

The main things that change this number are:

• the country you’re texting
• how long your texts are
• whether you’re sending SMS or MMS
• whether you’re using emojis or other unicode characters
• how often you run campaigns

Message length

A standard SMS holds 160 characters. If your message is longer, it’s split into parts. Each part is billed as a separate text. A 200-character message costs the same as two texts.

Special characters also matter. An emoji, or curly quotes, switch the message to Unicode, which reduces the single part character count to 70 characters. If your costs look higher than expected, this is usually why. Textmagic shows the character and part count as you type, so you can trim messages before sending.

The number you send from

To text customers in the US, you need a registered business number. A toll-free number is the cheaper option and also recommended for sending high-volume campaigns.

A local (10DLC) number incurs an additional brand and campaign fee that every US provider charges, but is the recommended version if you want a recognizable local number for two-way communication.

Campaign size and how often you send

To estimate a campaign, multiply the number of texts by the number of parts per text and the price per text. For a 1,000-text US campaign where each text fits in one part:

Run that campaign three times a month and the text costs reach $147.

Where you’re texting

Prices per text vary by country and some countries need a sender ID or a local number:

• Sender ID cost: £/€10 per month
• Dedicated numbers: £2.4/month (United Kingdom), A$19 (Australia), etc.
• SMS: between €0.04 and €0.09 per text, depending on the country
• MMS: $0.08 per message. With Textmagic, MMS is available for one-to-one conversations in the US and Canada.

What’s included at no extra cost

Your account comes with these features, regardless of your SMS spend:

• Automation flows: create automatic SMS and email sequences by describing them to our AI flow builder.
• Scheduled text messages: schedule one-time or recurring SMS campaigns.
• MCP integration: manage your account or send campaigns directly from your AI assistant.
• Email-to-SMS: send and receive text messages directly from your email client.
• Multi-channel inbox: respond to WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram messages alongside your SMS.
• Compliant SMS subscribe forms: Grow your SMS lists with opt-in forms that use consent wording.

Is SMS marketing worth it?

The price per text matters less than what you send. In our 2025 consumer survey, we found that 9 out of 10 people still read business texts, and 89% found at least one type of business text valuable. The most valued were appointment reminders (31%), shipping updates (28%), and discount offers (22%).

Other businesses seem to agree that the channel is worth the investment. In SimpleTexting’s 2026 report, 65.4% of businesses said they plan to increase their texting budget this year.

The best way to know if it’s worth it for you is to run the numbers. Here’s an example from start to finish.

The example: a local business with 1,000 opted-in US contacts sends three campaigns from a toll-free number on our pay-as-you-go plan. Each text fits one part.

Monthly cost:

Texts plus your number:

Cost per click

If your texts include a link, cost per click shows what you paid for each visit to your site. Divide the monthly cost by the number of clicks.

Conversion rate

The share of people who booked or took action after getting your text. Divide bookings by texts delivered and multiply by 100.

Cost per conversion

This tells you what each booking or order cost you in texts.

ROI (return on investment)

ROI shows what you got back for what you spent. Use profit, not revenue, so the result reflects what you actually earned:

Your own numbers will be different, and that’s the point of running the calculation. Once you know your cost per conversion, you can compare it with what a customer is worth to you and decide how to plan your budget.

How to keep your SMS marketing costs down:

• Send texts people want. 70% of people in our survey have blocked a business number at some point. Every blocked number is a contact you paid to reach. Fewer, more meaningful texts usually bring better results for less.
• Keep your messages to one part. If every text in the example ran two parts, the texts would cost $294 instead of $147, and every cost-per figure would nearly double.
• Check your numbers. Texts to landlines and disconnected numbers still cost money. A carrier lookup checks each number for $0.04, so you can remove the ones that don’t receive texts.
• Move to a monthly plan once your volume is steady. We offer volume discounts on the monthly plans and cover the costs of your texting number.

Set up your first SMS campaign with Textmagic

You can start on pay-as-you-go, see what your texts cost as you write them, and move to a monthly plan when your sending volume settles. Start a free trial to send your first campaign.

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