How SMS segments affect campaign pricing

One text on a phone can use two segments

A segment is the part of an SMS that the destination rate pays for. A phone usually joins the parts and displays one message. If your campaign sends two segments to each recipient, you pay the segment rate twice for each send.

The first draft uses 87 ordinary letters, spaces and punctuation marks. It fits within the 160-character limit for a single GSM-7 segment. The parcel emoji switches the draft to Unicode. With the extra space and emoji, the editor counts 90 Unicode units, beyond the 70 that fit in one segment. Many emoji use two units apiece.

Long texts also need room for the information that joins their parts. The campaign editor allows 153 GSM-7 units or 67 Unicode units per part once a message spans multiple segments. That’s why a draft of 161 plain letters already uses two.

Price both drafts for the same audience

Multiply the number of recipients by the segments per message, then by the destination’s rate per segment. Suppose your rate is $0.04 USD. At that example rate:

• 1,000 recipients. The first reminder costs $40. The version with the parcel emoji costs $80.
• 10,000 recipients. The same change takes the estimate from $400 to $800.

Use the rate in your destination calculator for your own estimate. If your audience spans countries, estimate each country’s share separately and add the totals.

Check the draft you actually plan to send

Add tracking links, personalisation and opt-out text before checking the editor’s segment count. A short placeholder such as {link} can stand for a longer address. If you rotate phrases, the campaign counter budgets for the longest alternative in each set.

Enter the count from the editor under Segments per message in the country calculator. If a draft has just crossed a boundary, try a shorter opening and check the count again before deciding which version to send.