Twilio's US SMS price is $0.0083 per message segment. That number is true, published, and not what you will pay. Between carrier pass-through fees, A2P 10DLC registration, number rental, and the segment system itself, the effective cost of a US text message on Twilio lands around $0.012 to $0.013. This guide walks through every line item with Twilio's own published numbers, so you can estimate a real bill instead of a headline rate, and compare it against alternatives like Zavu.
All Twilio figures below come from Twilio's US SMS pricing page, checked August 2026. If you are reading this later, verify against the source before budgeting.
The base rate: $0.0083 per segment, both directions
Twilio charges $0.0083 per SMS segment, outbound and inbound alike. Receiving texts is not free: a two-way conversation of one message each way costs $0.0166 before any fees.
The unit is the segment, not the message. A segment is 160 characters of plain GSM-7 text. Go over 160 and the message splits into segments of 153 characters each, billed separately. Use a single emoji or a non-GSM character and the whole message switches to UCS-2 encoding, where a segment is 70 characters. A 200-character message with one emoji is three segments, $0.0249, three times the headline rate for one tap of Send.
Carrier fees: the pass-through Twilio does not control
US carriers charge their own per-message fees on A2P traffic, and Twilio passes them through on top of the base rate:
| Carrier | Outbound fee per SMS (long code) |
|---|---|
| AT&T | $0.0035 |
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 |
| Verizon | $0.0045 |
A single-segment message to a T-Mobile subscriber costs $0.0083 + $0.0045 = $0.0128. Since you do not choose your recipients' carriers, plan on roughly $0.004 of carrier fees per outbound message on average.
A2P 10DLC registration: fees you pay before the first message
Sending application-to-person SMS on US local numbers requires registering with The Campaign Registry. These fees belong to the registry and carriers, not to any provider, so you pay them on Twilio, on Zavu, on anyone:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4 one-time |
| Standard campaign | $15 one-time, then $10 per month |
| Low-volume campaign | $2 one-time, then $2 per month |
Our A2P 10DLC fees guide covers the registration process in detail, and what A2P 10DLC is explains why it exists.
The rest of the bill
Phone numbers. A local long code is $1.15 per month, a toll-free number is $2.15, and a dedicated short code is $1,000 per quarter.
MMS. $0.022 outbound and $0.0165 inbound per message. Images are not segments, they are a different rate class.
Failed messages. Twilio applies a $0.001 processing fee to messages that end in Failed status.
Add-on products. Verify (OTP), Messaging Insights, and link shortening are separate line items if you use them.
The math on a real workload
Take 10,000 single-segment outbound messages per month to US numbers, one local number, one standard 10DLC campaign:
| Line item | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Base rate: 10,000 × $0.0083 | $83.00 |
| Carrier fees: 10,000 × ~$0.004 | ~$40.00 |
| 10DLC campaign fee | $10.00 |
| Phone number | $1.15 |
| Total | ~$134 |
That is roughly $0.0134 per message, 61% above the headline rate. The gap is not a trick, every fee is documented. It is just arithmetic nobody does until the first invoice.
Twilio vs Zavu on the same workload
Zavu publishes US SMS at $0.004 per message with carrier fees included, on a two-way number. 10DLC registry fees are identical pass-through on both platforms.
| Line item | Twilio | Zavu |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 messages | $83.00 | $40.00 |
| Carrier fees | ~$40.00 | included |
| 10DLC campaign fee | $10.00 | $10.00 |
| Phone number | $1.15 | $1.25 |
| Total | ~$134 | ~$51 |
Same registry fees, same carriers, about 2.6x difference on the parts the provider actually controls. Zavu's Pro plan is $20 per month and returns the full $20 as usage credit, which covers the first 5,000 US messages of that bill. Full comparison at Zavu vs Twilio, and the pricing page has per-destination rates for over 200 countries.
Two honest caveats. At enterprise volume, Twilio negotiates committed-use discounts that close part of the gap. And if you need short codes or Twilio's broader suite (voice, video, email via SendGrid), the SMS rate is not the whole decision, which is why we wrote a full guide to Twilio alternatives.
How to estimate your own Twilio bill
Count your monthly outbound and inbound messages, then multiply outbound by your average segments per message, something between 1.0 and 1.5 for most transactional traffic. Multiply total segments by $0.0083, add $0.004 per outbound message for carrier fees, add your campaign's monthly fee, and add $1.15 per number. For international traffic, look up each destination on Twilio's per-country pages, because rates vary by an order of magnitude between countries.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Twilio charge per SMS in the US in 2026? $0.0083 per message segment, outbound and inbound, plus carrier pass-through fees of $0.0035 to $0.0045 per outbound message. Effective cost for typical A2P traffic is $0.012 to $0.013 per message.
Why is my Twilio bill higher than $0.0083 per message? Carrier fees, multi-segment messages, 10DLC campaign fees, and number rental. Messages over 160 characters, or containing emoji, bill as multiple segments.
Does Twilio charge for incoming SMS? Yes, $0.0083 per inbound segment on long codes and toll-free numbers.
Are 10DLC fees a Twilio markup? No. Brand and campaign fees belong to The Campaign Registry and carriers. Every US provider passes them through, including Zavu. Details in our 10DLC registration guide.
What is the cheapest way to send SMS in the US? Among published list prices, Zavu's SMS API at $0.004 all-in is among the lowest. One-way notification traffic can go even lower with shared-route sending. At tens of millions of messages, negotiated enterprise contracts beat any list price.
Related resources
- The 7 best Twilio alternatives in 2026
- Twilio WhatsApp API pricing vs alternatives
- What is Twilio?
- A2P 10DLC fees explained
- Zavu vs Twilio
- Zavu SMS API
Conclusion
Twilio's SMS pricing is honest but layered: $0.0083 per segment is the entry point, and carrier fees, segments, 10DLC, and numbers take the real cost to $0.012 to $0.013 per US message. Budget on the effective number, not the headline. And if the effective number is the problem, the fix is structural, not a discount: a provider that includes carrier fees in one flat rate. That is how Zavu prices SMS, $0.004 per US message, with the same pass-through registry fees and none of the arithmetic.