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What is SMS/Text credit and how many credits required to deliver one text message?

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📲 What Is a Text (SMS) Credit?

We use Text Credits as the unit to measure and manage your SMS and MMS usage across our platform. Every time you send a message, credits are deducted based on the type, length, and number of recipients.

🔹 How Many Credits Does a Message Use?

  • 1 text credit covers a standard SMS message of up to 160 characters (using GSM characters such as A–Z, numbers, and basic punctuation) sent to one recipient.

  • If your message exceeds 160 characters, it’s broken into segments. For example:

    • A 300-character message = 2 credits per recipient

    • A 500-character message = 3–4 credits per recipient

  • If you include emojis or use non-English scripts (e.g., Chinese, Arabic), your message uses Unicode encoding, and the limit becomes 70 characters per credit.

  • MMS messages (such as picture messages) typically require 2 credits per recipient.

📥 Do Incoming Messages Use Credits?

  • Inbound (incoming) SMS messages are usually free unless part of specific campaigns or keyword services where charges may apply.

  • MMS replies may count as 2 credits depending on your setup.

💡 Example

Let’s say you send a 145-character SMS to 200 contacts.
That would use: 1 credit x 200 recipients = 200 credits

Now let’s say you send a 350-character message with an emoji to the same group:
That’s around 3 credits x 200 recipients = 600 credits

💳 What Happens When I Run Low on Credits?

Every Wire2Air account includes a set number of credits based on your selected plan. As you send messages, credits are deducted automatically. When you’re low:

Unused credits roll over depending on your plan terms.


With all plans, you have set numbers of text credits assigned to your account. You are billed for the length of each credit sent and received

How do text credits work? 

USA
  • An Outbound text message up to 160 GSM characters and 70 characters for non-GSM characters (Unicode) to one recipient is one text credit for the USA.
  • No charge to receive messages but we do expect to have incoming and outbound in reasonable proportion, you can't have 1000 inbound messages but zero outbound. In such cases, your inbound will be also counted against used text credits.
  • One MMS message send or receive is two text credits
  • Carrier fees of 0.0025 apply to SMS sent from Toll-free Numbers to Verizon handsets, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
  • 1/2 credit for blocked Shortcode message re-routing: 1/2 credit additional for failed message re-routing for USA recipients. On customer request carriers sometimes block text messages from the Shortcodes, in that case, we can redirect messages through a different route

Canada

  • $0.0075 additional fee for outbound & Inbound SMS messages for all plans with credit cost
  • $0.0150 additional fee for outbound & Inbound MMS Messages
International

Feature Specific

  • One credit for SMS Polling & Survey reply/response

Here is the breakdown of how length influences your messaging cost:

  • 0 – 160 characters – 1 text credit and charged as a one message
  • 161 – 306 characters – 2 text credits and charged as two messages
  • 307 – 459 characters – 3 text credits and charged as three messages
  • 460 – 612 characters – 4 text credits and charged as four messages
  • 613 – 765 characters – 5 text credits and charged as five messages
  • 766 – 918 characters – 6 text credits and charged as six messages
  • 919 – 1,071 characters – 7 text credits and charged as seven messages
  • 1,072 – 1,224 characters – 8 text credits and charged as eight messages
  • 1,225 – 1,377 characters – 9 text credits and charged as nine messages
  • 1,378 – 1,530 characters – 10 text credits and charged as ten messages
Each text credit with a length of 160 characters for GSM characters and 70 characters for non-GSM characters (Unicode) to one recipient is one text credit. For example: If you're sending a text message of 160 characters to 100 recipients in the USA, it will cost you 100 text credits.

Carrier Surcharges

USA

Toll-Free SMS
  • Verizon $0.0025
  • AT&T $0.0025
  • T-Mobile $0.0030 Sent / $0.0030 Receive
  • Text Now $0.0015
  • US Cellular $0.0025 Send/ $0.0025 Receive

Toll-Free MMS

  • VERIZON $0.0050
  • AT&T $0.0030
  • T-MOBILE $0.01 Sent/ $0.01 Receive
  • US Cellular $0.0050 Send/$0.005 Receive
  • Text Now $0.0020
10 Digit Long code SMS
  • US CELLULAR $0.0050
  • AT&T $0.0025
  • VERIZON $0.0255
  • AT&T $0.025
  • T-MOBILE $0.003 Sent/ $0.003 Receive
  • ClearSky $0.0025 Sent/ $0.0025 Receive

10 Digit Long code MMS

  • US CELLULAR $0.01
  • VERIZON $0.005
  • AT&T $0.005
  • T-MOBILE $0.01 Sent/ $0.01 Receive

Short code MMS

  • AT&T $0.0030
  • ClearSky $0.0050 Sent/ $0.0050 Receive
  • Interop $0.0035 Sent
  • T-MOBILE $0.01 Sent/ $0.01 Receive
  • US CELLULAR $0.01
  • VERIZON $0.005

Short code SMS

  • AT&T $0.0025
  • ClearSky $0.0025 Sent/ $0.0025 Receive
  • Interop $0.0025 Sent
  • T-MOBILE $0.0025 Sent/ $0.0025 Receive
  • US CELLULAR $0.00350
  • VERIZON $0.0025

Canada

Canada: Toll-Free MMS & 10 digit local

  • $0.015 Outbound MMS Messages for all carriers except Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile

  • $0.0325 Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile- Sent MMS messages

Canada: Toll-Free SMS & 10 digit local

  • $0.0075 Outbound SMS messages

**All surcharges apply to one message segment




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