Phone Billing Must Knows

What Is A Segment?

An SMS Text is comprised of “segments” and each segment is 160 characters long. So if you are sending a lengthy SMS, it will consume multiple segments and thereby drive up your cost. Each segment cost $0.0119, using 161 characters counts as 2 segments and you will be charged by segment even if its one character over.

1 Text = 1 Segment = $0.0119

How much does a text with 5 segments cost?

5 x 0.0119= $0.0595 per text

https://twiliodeved.github.io/message-segment-calculator/

How Do I Find My Billing Usage Summary?

First make sure you’re log into your systems account. Step one is to click “settings”located at the bottom left of the screen . Step two is to click “Company Billing” on left menu. If you scroll down on that page you will see your credits with your current balance. There will be a button that says “See Details” click it and then you will get an exact price breakdown of your usage with in your sub-account.

Complimentary Credits?

Anyone subscribed to a systems account receives complimentary credits every month that can be used for texts, emails, calls, premium triggers & actions, phone numbers, call recording, caller Id, validations, call conference, answering machine detection, caller name, carrier lookups, sms carrier fees, mms, mms carrier fees, application to person registration fees. These credits will carry over each month if unused. We proudly offer complimentary credits monthly to your account of $12 which equates to about 1,008 texts or 937 mins in calls or 8,888 emails.

Reasons you would be charged more…

Reasons 1: Having Hidden Characters in Your SMS Text

Many individuals & businesses copy/paste the SMS text body while designing automation. When you copy/paste text from a text editor software like MS Word or Google Docs, sometimes hidden characters get appended in the string. These hidden characters cannot be seen by the user but they are present in the text.

Example:

In this example a simple phrase “Hey there” was copied from a webpage. Usually, it should be just 1 segment. But actually, it contains many hidden characters (empty characters) making this as large as 4 segments.

https://twiliodeved.github.io/message-segment-calculator/

Use link above to check the actual number of segments & character length of your SMS text. Type your text into the area on the top of page and see how many segments you have.

Reason 2: Using Emojis

This is the most common reason for unexpected high costs while sending SMS automation.

Example:

In the example below some emojis were used that increased the number of segments from 1 to 4.

Using emojis is a great way to make your automation exciting but being aware of the costs involved will help you make an informed decision about their frequency of usage.

Reason 3: Using A Picture Attachment

Both SMS and MMS carrier fees will apply which could drive up the cost of each SMS. When you send a picture message with text, you get charged $0.02 for the picture + the usual SMS cost depending upon the length of the text.

Example:

If the following text portion of the Picture SMS is 2 segments – “Hey Shivam, this is Kate from BusinessName, just wanted to let you know that this upcoming Monday, we have a new update for your agency, REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/BIZ-xxxxxxxx or text MOREINFO for more info!”

We will charge $0.0119 x 2 = $0.0238 for the text portion.

If there’s an image attached to this message, it will charge at $0.02 / message

So the total cost per message is $0.02 + $0.0316 = $0.0516

Reason 4: International SMS

Industry Standard Rate Apply When Texting out of the US or Canada

How To Validate Clients Numbers To Stop Error Rates: