Text message pricing

• Last updated: 1 April 2026

A single, 160-character text message costs 2.4 pence (plus VAT).

You only have to pay for text messages if you exceed your free text message allowance.

A text message may cost more, or use more of your free allowance, if it is:

We’ll tell you how many text messages your template may count as before you send it.

It does not cost you anything to receive text messages.

Long text messages

If a text message is longer than 160 characters (including spaces), it counts as more than one message.

Message length	Charge
Up to 160 characters	1 text message
Up to 306 characters	2 text messages
Up to 459 characters	3 text messages
Up to 612 characters	4 text messages
Up to 765 characters	5 text messages
Up to 918 characters	6 text messages

Text messages in a language other than English

Most English language text messages use a set of standard letters and symbols.

Languages such as Welsh, Arabic and Mandarin use non-standard characters.

Including a non-standard character in a text message changes the way we have to charge for it.

Anything longer than 70 characters (including spaces) counts as more than one message.

Message length	Charge
Up to 70 characters	1 text message
Up to 134 characters	2 text messages
Up to 201 characters	3 text messages
Up to 268 characters	4 text messages
Up to 335 characters	5 text messages
Up to 402 characters	6 text messages
Up to 469 characters	7 text messages
Up to 536 characters	8 text messages
Up to 603 characters	9 text messages
Up to 670 characters	10 text messages
Up to 737 characters	11 text messages
Up to 804 characters	12 text messages
Up to 871 characters	13 text messages
Up to 938 characters	14 text messages

Standard letters and symbols

Characters that do not affect the cost of a text message include:

• uppercase letters A to Z
• lowercase letters a to z
• Ä, É, Ö, Ü, à, ä, é, è, ì, ò, ö, ù, ü
• numbers 0 to 9
• common punctuation, for example . , ! ?
• single and double quotation marks
• dashes

The following are standard letters and symbols but count as 2 characters each:
[]{}^\|~€

Sending text messages to international numbers

It might cost more to send text messages to international numbers than UK ones, depending on the country.

International text message rates

Country code	Country	Cost multiplier
+1	Canada United States	1 ×
+1242	Bahamas	3 ×
+1246	Barbados	7 ×
+1264	Anguilla	6 ×
+1268	Antigua and Barbuda	5 ×
+1284	Virgin Islands, British	5 ×
+1345	Cayman Islands	6 ×
+1441	Bermuda	7 ×
+1473	Grenada	6 ×
+1649	Turks and Caicos Islands	6 ×
+1664	Montserrat	6 ×
+1684	American Samoa	2 ×
+1721	Sint Maarten	2 ×
+1758	Saint Lucia	7 ×
+1767	Dominica, Commonwealth of	7 ×
+1784	Saint Vincent and The Grenadines	7 ×
+1809	Dominican Republic	3 ×
+1829	Dominican Republic	3 ×
+1849	Dominican Republic	3 ×
+1868	Trinidad and Tobago	7 ×
+1869	Saint Kitts and Nevis	6 ×
+1876	Jamaica	7 ×
+20	Egypt	7 ×
+211	South Sudan	8 ×
+212	Morocco	6 ×
+213	Algeria	6 ×
+216	Tunisia	9 ×
+218	Libya	9 ×
+220	Gambia	4 ×
+221	Senegal	7 ×
+222	Mauritania	6 ×
+223	Mali	7 ×
+224	Guinea	6 ×
+225	Cote d'Ivoire	10 ×
+226	Burkina Faso	4 ×
+227	Niger	8 ×
+228	Togo	7 ×
+229	Benin	7 ×
+230	Mauritius	4 ×
+231	Liberia	6 ×
+232	Sierra Leone	5 ×
+233	Ghana	8 ×
+234	Nigeria	8 ×
+235	Chad	6 ×
+236	Central African Republic	7 ×
+237	Cameroon	5 ×
+238	Cape Verde	5 ×
+239	Sao Tome and Principe	1 ×
+240	Equatorial Guinea	6 ×
+241	Gabon	8 ×
+242	Congo	7 ×
+243	Congo, Democratic Republic of	5 ×
+244	Angola	3 ×
+245	Guinea-Bissau	8 ×
+246	British Indian Ocean Territory	2 ×
+248	Seychelles	4 ×
+249	Sudan	8 ×
+250	Rwanda, Republic of	8 ×
+251	Ethiopia	9 ×
+252	Somalia	5 ×
+253	Djibouti, Republic of	4 ×
+254	Kenya	3 ×
+255	Tanzania	7 ×
+256	Uganda	7 ×
+257	Burundi	8 ×
+258	Mozambique	4 ×
+260	Zambia	8 ×
+261	Madagascar	12 ×
+262	Mayotte Reunion	3 ×
+263	Zimbabwe	5 ×
+264	Namibia	1 ×
+265	Malawi	8 ×
+266	Lesotho	3 ×
+267	Botswana	3 ×
+268	Eswatini	7 ×
+269	Comoros	7 ×
+27	South Africa	3 ×
+291	Eritrea	3 ×
+297	Aruba	3 ×
+298	Faroe Islands	2 ×
+299	Greenland	1 ×
+30	Greece	2 ×
+31	Netherlands	3 ×
+32	Belgium	3 ×
+33	France	2 ×
+34	Spain	2 ×
+350	Gibraltar	2 ×
+351	Portugal	2 ×
+352	Luxembourg	2 ×
+353	Ireland	2 ×
+354	Iceland	2 ×
+355	Albania	3 ×
+356	Malta	2 ×
+357	Cyprus	2 ×
+358	Finland	2 ×
+359	Bulgaria	4 ×
+36	Hungary	2 ×
+370	Lithuania	2 ×
+371	Latvia	2 ×
+372	Estonia	2 ×
+373	Moldova	2 ×
+374	Armenia	5 ×
+375	Belarus	6 ×
+376	Andorra	3 ×
+377	Monaco	4 ×
+378	San Marino, Republic of	8 ×
+380	Ukraine	5 ×
+381	Serbia	7 ×
+382	Montenegro	4 ×
+383	Kosovo	5 ×
+385	Croatia	2 ×
+386	Slovenia	4 ×
+387	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3 ×
+389	Macedonia	1 ×
+39	Italy	2 ×
+40	Romania	2 ×
+41	Switzerland	2 ×
+420	Czech Republic	2 ×
+421	Slovakia	2 ×
+423	Liechtenstein	1 ×
+43	Austria	2 ×
+44	Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey	2 ×
+45	Denmark	2 ×
+46	Sweden	2 ×
+47	Norway	2 ×
+48	Poland	1 ×
+49	Germany	5 ×
+500	Falkland Islands	3 ×
+501	Belize	5 ×
+502	Guatemala	5 ×
+503	El Salvador	2 ×
+504	Honduras	5 ×
+505	Nicaragua	4 ×
+506	Costa Rica	1 ×
+507	Panama	4 ×
+508	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	4 ×
+509	Haiti	8 ×
+51	Peru	5 ×
+52	Mexico	3 ×
+53	Cuba	2 ×
+54	Argentina	3 ×
+55	Brazil	2 ×
+56	Chile	2 ×
+57	Colombia	2 ×
+58	Venezuela	2 ×
+590	Guadeloupe	4 ×
+591	Bolivia	4 ×
+592	Guyana	6 ×
+593	Ecuador	4 ×
+594	French Guiana	4 ×
+595	Paraguay	3 ×
+596	Martinique	4 ×
+597	Suriname	6 ×
+598	Uruguay	2 ×
+599	Curacao (former Netherlands Antilles)	7 ×
+60	Malaysia	7 ×
+61	Australia	2 ×
+62	Indonesia	12 ×
+63	Philippines	5 ×
+64	New Zealand	2 ×
+65	Singapore	2 ×
+66	Thailand	1 ×
+670	Timor L'este	5 ×
+672	Norfolk Island	2 ×
+673	Brunei Darussalam	2 ×
+674	Nauru	6 ×
+675	Papua New Guinea	6 ×
+676	Tonga	4 ×
+677	Solomon Islands	2 ×
+678	Vanuatu	4 ×
+679	Fiji	5 ×
+680	Palau	2 ×
+681	Wallis and Futuna	2 ×
+682	Cook Islands	4 ×
+683	Niue	8 ×
+685	Samoa	5 ×
+686	Kiribati	1 ×
+687	New Caledonia	3 ×
+689	French Polynesia	3 ×
+690	Tokelau	8 ×
+691	Micronesia, Federated States of	2 ×
+692	Marshall Islands	2 ×
+7	South Ossetia Kazakhstan Abkhazia Russian Federation	10 ×
+81	Japan	2 ×
+82	Korea, Republic of	1 ×
+84	Vietnam	4 ×
+852	Hong Kong	2 ×
+853	Macau	1 ×
+855	Cambodia	8 ×
+856	Laos	8 ×
+86	China	1 ×
+880	Bangladesh	9 ×
+886	Taiwan	2 ×
+90	Turkey Northern Cyprus	1 ×
+91	India	2 ×
+92	Pakistan	12 ×
+93	Afghanistan	10 ×
+94	Sri Lanka	12 ×
+95	Myanmar	9 ×
+960	Maldives	6 ×
+961	Lebanon	9 ×
+962	Jordan	8 ×
+963	Syria	9 ×
+964	Iraq	9 ×
+965	Kuwait	7 ×
+966	Saudi Arabia	5 ×
+967	Yemen	6 ×
+968	Oman	4 ×
+970	Palestinian Territory	9 ×
+971	United Arab Emirates	3 ×
+972	Israel	6 ×
+973	Bahrain	3 ×
+974	Qatar	6 ×
+975	Bhutan	10 ×
+976	Mongolia	7 ×
+977	Nepal	8 ×
+98	Iran	6 ×
+992	Tajikistan	10 ×
+993	Turkmenistan	7 ×
+994	Azerbaijan	9 ×
+995	Georgia	4 ×
+996	Kyrgyzstan	8 ×
+998	Uzbekistan	12 ×
+882	Worldwide	Not supported