Twilio SMS Best Practices for Cost Control and Optimization

How to stay within your SMS limits and reduce overage costs.

As part of our service, we cover the first $10 of SMS sends per month. This means that you can send a certain number of messages without incurring any charges beyond your monthly subscription fee. However, any costs that exceed this threshold will be billed at the end of the month, so it's important to monitor your usage.

To help you manage and reduce your Twilio SMS costs effectively, we recommend keeping your messages concise and avoiding the use of emojis or special characters. This is crucial because Twilio charges based on the number of message segments used. A standard SMS message can contain up to 160 characters; however, if your message exceeds this limit or includes emojis, it may be split into multiple segments, leading to additional charges. Each segment is billed separately, which can quickly increase your expenses.

By adhering to a few best practices, you can significantly cut down on your SMS costs:

  • Focus on using plain text without any embellishments.
  • Trim unnecessary words and phrases to convey your message as succinctly as possible.
  • Remove any emojis.
This approach not only helps in keeping your costs down but also enhances the clarity of your communication. Consider summarizing the key points or using abbreviations where appropriate. By fitting your message into a single segment, you can maximize the value of your SMS budget and save considerably over time.