How much does SMS marketing cost? The complete breakdown, plus how to cut expenses

SMS messages cost just pennies to send, but those charges multiply fast at scale. According to Textline, commercial text messages run between four and five cents each in 2025. For a business sending 100,000 messages monthly, that means $4,000-$5,000 in message fees alone—before platform costs, setup fees, and other expenses.

The good news? There’s a proven way to reduce these expenses significantly. Learn how SMS pricing really works and discover practical ways to slash your costs without sacrificing results.

Understanding SMS pricing models

Most SMS providers use a per-message pricing model with volume-based pricing tiers:

• Small (1,000–10,000 messages/month): ~$0.04–$0.05/message
• Mid-size (10,000–100,000 messages/month): ~$0.025–$0.035/message
• Enterprise (100,000+ messages/month): ~$0.015/message

Here’s a breakdown of average SMS pricing across major platforms:

These rates vary based on message destination, volume, and feature usage. Some platforms also offer bundles or subscriptions that include unlimited keyword responses, API access, customer support tiers, and custom sender IDs.

Understanding these baseline costs is essential, but the real expense often comes from the hidden factors that multiply your spending.

What drives up SMS marketing costs

Beyond basic per-message fees, several factors can significantly increase your SMS expenses:

Character overages and message splitting

Standard SMS messages have a 160-character limit. Exceed this limit and your message splits into multiple segments, each billed separately. A 240-character message becomes two SMS messages, doubling your cost per subscriber.

Long URLs with UTM parameters are common culprits. They consume valuable character space and push messages over the limit.

International messaging rates

Sending texts to multiple countries means dealing with varying carrier fees and international rates that can be 2-3x higher than domestic messaging.

Platform-specific premium features

Advanced features often come with additional costs:

• Advanced analytics and performance tracking
• Custom sender IDs
• Dedicated short codes or phone numbers
• API access with higher usage limits
• RCS and MMS message capabilities

Best practices to reduce SMS marketing costs

Instead of generic SMS advice, here are specific strategies to control and reduce your messaging expenses:

1. Optimize for character efficiency

Every character counts when you’re paying per message.

• Use branded short links to save 40-50 characters per URL
• Write concise, action-focused copy
• Avoid unnecessary words and filler phrases
• Test message length before campaigns launch

Character optimization alone can reduce your per-message costs by preventing segmentation fees.

2. Strategic timing and segmentation

Smart sending practices reduce waste and improve ROI:

• Send during peak engagement hours to maximize response rates
• Segment lists to avoid sending irrelevant messages
• Remove inactive subscribers who drive up costs without converting
• Use automation to avoid manual sending errors

Better targeting means fewer wasted messages and higher conversion rates per dollar spent.

3. Monitor and measure costs continuously

Track your actual SMS expenses, not just performance metrics:

• Calculate true cost-per-conversion, including all fees
• Monitor character usage and segmentation rates
• Track international messaging costs separately
• Set up alerts for unusual spending spikes

Regular cost monitoring helps you catch expensive mistakes before they impact your budget significantly.

How Rebrandly helps cut SMS marketing costs

Rebrandly helps you save money on every SMS campaign with shorter links, branded domains, performance tracking, and better deliverability.

Shorter links = lower costs

Here’s how a long, messy link takes up valuable space in your SMS message:

That’s over 60 characters—space you can’t afford to waste. With Rebrandly, you can shorten it to simply:

brand.co/login

This link uses just 14 characters, saving you 46 characters. The UTM is still hidden inside the link, so you can continue to track your campaign.  Those saved characters give you more space to communicate the steps a subscriber needs to take, creating a better user experience while reducing costs.

Better deliverability means higher ROI

Generic link shorteners are often flagged as spam by mobile carriers due to potential abuse. Branded links from Rebrandly make your messages easily recognizable and trusted by providers and subscribers.

Brand recognition can boost click-through rates by up to 39%, delivering more engagement per dollar spent.

Performance tracking for more effective campaigns

With Rebrandly’s click analytics, you can evaluate what type of message content and branded links perform best with your audience. This means you can:

• Stop sending underperforming messages
• Track real-time analytics and make changes quickly
• Optimize every campaign based on real data

Is SMS marketing worth the cost?

Despite the potential expense factors, SMS marketing delivers strong ROI. The key is controlling costs through practices like link management.

When you optimize for character count with branded short links and implement cost-focused sending strategies, SMS marketing becomes one of your most efficient channels for customer engagement at scale.

With Rebrandly, you can calculate exact per-message savings and predict campaign costs accurately. Our branded short links help you avoid segmentation fees while improving deliverability and click-through rates.

Ready to reduce your SMS marketing costs? Start your free trial today and see how much you can save on your next campaign.