Message Segments & Throughput
What Is a Message Segment and How Many Can I Send Per Minute
When you send a text message, whether it is a SMS or MMS it is made up of “segments”, and charges are applied by the segments making up the entire message. A message segment consists of up to 160 GSM-7 encoded characters.
If you send a message with 140 characters, you are charged for one segment. But if your message consists of 300 characters, you are charged for two segments.
Moreover, throughput, or how many messages you can send per second, is based not by the number of messages you send but rather the number of segments you send per campaign. This is referred to as message segments per second (MPS).
It is important to note that MPS is set per campaign and that the MPS rate is determined by your Trust Score (for Enterprise clients) and the type of campaign used.
Important Takeaways:
If your business needs to send daily or weekly bulk text messages, you need to consider the volume of segments being sent, the type of campaign and the plan you choose. If you send 1000 bulk messages with a Small Business plan, and your message is one segment, at 12 MPS it will take almost two minutes. However if your message is two segments it will take four minutes. If you send 10,000 two-segment messages it will take 40 minutes. Whereas with an Enterprise Plan 10,000 messages will send in 44 seconds.
Here is a summary table of message segment throughput per plan and campaign type.
| Trust Score | Campaign Types | Total SMS MPS toward major* US networks | AT&T SMS MPS | T-Mobile SMS MPS | Verizon SMS MPS | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 – 100 | Standard | 225 | 75 | 75 | 75 | Enterprise |
| 50 – 74 | Standard | 120 | 40 | 40 | 40 | Enterprise |
| 1 – 49 | Standard | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Enterprise |
| N/A | Standard | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Small Business |
| N/A | Mixed Low-Volume | 3.75 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | Small Business |
| N/A | Proxy | 3 per number | 1 per number | 1 per number | 1 per number | Enterprise |
| N/A | Charity/501(c)(3) Nonprofit | 120 | 40 | 40 | 40 | Enterprise |
| N/A | K-12 Education | 36 per number | 12 per number | 12 per number | 12 per number | Enterprise |
| N/A | Social Engagement | 3000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | Enterprise |
| N/A | Political | 225 | 75 | 75 | 75 | Enterprise |
| N/A | Emergency Services | 225 | 75 | 75 | 75 | Enterprise |
| N/A | Agents, Franchise, Local Branches | 3 per number | 1 per number | 1 per number | 1 per number | Enterprise |
Here is a breakdown of campaign registration fees and monthly fees by campaign type and campaign use case type.
| Campaign | Description | Campaign Use Case Type | Camaign Monthly Cost | Campaign Registration (one time fee) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2FA | Any authentication or account verification such as OTP | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Account Notifications | Notifications about the status of an account or related to being a part of an account | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Customer Care | Support, account management, and other avenues of customer interaction | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Delivery Notifications | Information about the status of a delivery | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Fraud Alert Messaging | Messaging about potential fraudulent activity such as spending alerts | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Higher Education | Message campaigns from colleges, universities, and other education institutions | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Marketing | Promotional content such as sales and limited time offers | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Mixed (Enterprise) | A campaign that covers multiple use cases such as Customer Care and Delivery Notifications. Note – mixed campaigns are likely to have lower throughput and a higher cost per message. | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Mixed (Small Business) Low Volume | A campaign that covers multiple use cases such as Customer Care and Delivery Notifications but is restricted to 2000 message segments/day and have lower throughput than Mixed. | Standard | $1.50/mo | $15 |
| Polling and voting | For conducting polling and voting, such as customer surveys. Not for political use. | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Public Service Announcement | PSAs to raise audience awareness about a given topic | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Security Alert | Notification of a compromised system (software or hardware related) | Standard | $10/mo | $15 |
| Agents; franchise; local branches | Brands that have multiple agents, franchises or offices in the same brand vertical, but require individual localized numbers per agent/location/office. Note: Franchises/businesses with a separate EIN should register as a separate brand. Maximum 5000 numbers per Campaign. | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $15 |
| Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit | Communications from a registered Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit aimed at providing help and raising money for those in need. Limited to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. | Special Use Case | $3/mo | $15 |
| K-12 Education | For messaging platforms that support schools from grades K-12 and distance learning centers. | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $15 |
| Proxy | Peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with proxy/pooled numbers. Supporting personalized services and non-exposure of personal numbers for enterprise or A2P communications. A phone number is assigned to a conversation (e.g. end-user/agent pair),rather than to a single business or individual. Both parties to the conversation send text messages to that number, which acts as a relay and protects the privacy of both users’ personal numbers. | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $15 |
| Emergency | Notification services designed to support public safety/health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, and other national or regional emergencies. | Special Use Case | $5/mo | $15 |
| Political | Part of an organized effort to influence decision making of a specific group. | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $0 |
| Social | Communication between public figures/influencers and their communities. | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $15 |
| Sweepstakes | All sweepstakes-related messaging | Special Use Case | $10/mo | $15 |