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SMS Message Costs (Virtual Mobile Numbers)

General

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SMS Message Costs (Virtual Mobile Numbers)

General31 Dec 202521 views

# SMS Costs


CrazyTel offers competitive SMS messaging services for business and residential customers. This article outlines our SMS pricing structure and character limitations to help you better understand our SMS service offerings.


## SMS Pricing Structure


**Standard SMS Rate**


* **Cost per SMS:** 5 cents (AUD) per SMS message


* **Consistent Pricing:** This flat rate applies regardless of which VoIP or SIP Trunk plan you are subscribed to


* **Billing:** SMS charges appear as separate line items on your monthly invoice or are deducted from your prepaid balance



> **Important Note for Mobile Plan Customers:**

>

> The 5 cent SMS rate does NOT apply to CrazyTel SIM Card Mobile plans. Mobile plan customers should refer to their specific mobile plan documentation for applicable SMS rates and inclusions.



## SMS Character Limits


* Standard SMS Character Allocation


* Standard GSM Alphabet: 160 characters per SMS


* Unicode/Special Characters: 70 characters per SMS (includes emojis, non-English characters, and special symbols)


## Multi-part SMS Messages


If your message exceeds the character limit, it will be automatically split into multiple SMS messages:


* Messages using the standard GSM alphabet will be split at 153 characters per segment


* Messages using Unicode will be split at 67 characters per segment


* This reduction in characters per segment allows for the technical information needed to reassemble the message on the recipient's device.


## Traps and gotchas


**GSM 7 Bit Character table:**


ETSI GSM Alphabet Standard v18, page 20, covers the "Standard" characters supported in SMS messages. For an easier-to-read version, Crazytel recommends the Wikipedia article on GSM 03.38, (specifically the Basic Character Set table, pictured below).



## Tools to help calculate pricing


Crazytel strongly recommends the following tool by TeletopiaSMS: [SMS Char Counter](https://www.teletopiasms.no/p/utilities/sms-char-counter).


 Simply type your SMS message as you intend to send it, and this tool will calculate the part count (and encoding) used to send the SMS message. To calculate the cost to send your SMS, multiply the number of parts by 5c.