# Twilio vs Telnyx

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/twilio-vs-telnyx/

Every value below is read from Twilio's and Telnyx's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Twilio | Telnyx |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Pay as you go per SEGMENT, not per message — a text longer than one segment is billed as several. Carrier fees are added on top of the quoted rate, US A2P 10DLC carries registration onboarding fees, and a message that ends in a failed status still costs $0.001. | Two lines rather than one: Telnyx's own rate per message part, and the carrier's charge passed through at cost. Both are published and the company states the passthrough is not marked up. Volume tiers apply automatically at 100 million parts. |
| Outbound SMS, US | $0.0083 per outbound segment sent to a US long code. Inbound is the same rate. The carrier fee is separate and roughly doubles it. | $0.004 per message PART for outbound SMS, before the carrier passthrough. The unit is a part and not a message, so a text over one segment costs a multiple of this. |
| Carrier fees on top | Added per message on top of the quoted rate, and published: on a US long code, $0.0035 to AT&T, $0.0045 to T-Mobile, $0.005 to US Cellular and $0.004 to all other carriers. Five separate tables cover long code, toll-free, short code, free-to-end-user short code and RCS. | Passed through at cost on a separate published line, which Telnyx states is not marked up. Its own worked example puts the blended US carrier charge at $0.0038 a part — close to its own rate, so the carrier is roughly half the bill. |
| Phone number, per month | $1.15 a month for a leased US long code, or $0.50 a month to bring your own. A toll-free number is $2.15 leased. | $1.00 a month for a local or toll-free number, plus $0.10 a month to add SMS and MMS capability to it — the messaging capability is billed separately from the number. Short codes are $1,000 a month, vanity short codes $1,500. |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- Twilio: Pay as you go per SEGMENT, not per message — a text longer than one segment is billed as several. Carrier fees are added on top of the quoted rate, US A2P 10DLC carries registration onboarding fees, and a message that ends in a failed status still costs $0.001. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us))
- Telnyx: Two lines rather than one: Telnyx's own rate per message part, and the carrier's charge passed through at cost. Both are published and the company states the passthrough is not marked up. Volume tiers apply automatically at 100 million parts. ([source](https://telnyx.com/pricing/messaging))

### Outbound SMS, US

- Twilio: $0.0083 per outbound segment sent to a US long code. Inbound is the same rate. The carrier fee is separate and roughly doubles it. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us))
- Telnyx: $0.004 per message PART for outbound SMS, before the carrier passthrough. The unit is a part and not a message, so a text over one segment costs a multiple of this. ([source](https://telnyx.com/pricing/messaging))

### Carrier fees on top

- Twilio: Added per message on top of the quoted rate, and published: on a US long code, $0.0035 to AT&T, $0.0045 to T-Mobile, $0.005 to US Cellular and $0.004 to all other carriers. Five separate tables cover long code, toll-free, short code, free-to-end-user short code and RCS. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us))
- Telnyx: Passed through at cost on a separate published line, which Telnyx states is not marked up. Its own worked example puts the blended US carrier charge at $0.0038 a part — close to its own rate, so the carrier is roughly half the bill. ([source](https://telnyx.com/pricing/messaging))

### Phone number, per month

- Twilio: $1.15 a month for a leased US long code, or $0.50 a month to bring your own. A toll-free number is $2.15 leased. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us))
- Telnyx: $1.00 a month for a local or toll-free number, plus $0.10 a month to add SMS and MMS capability to it — the messaging capability is billed separately from the number. Short codes are $1,000 a month, vanity short codes $1,500. ([source](https://telnyx.com/pricing/numbers))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Twilio if The most published detail in a market that publishes little. Its US carrier fees are broken out in five tables by number type, so the real cost of a segment is knowable before you send one — and the failed-message fee and 10DLC onboarding charge are stated rather than discovered on an invoice.

Pick Telnyx if Wanting to see where the money goes. Telnyx publishes its own rate and the carrier passthrough as two separate lines and states the second is not marked up, with no platform fee and no support fee — the only one of the three that itemises the carrier's share rather than folding it in.

Consider something else: Twilio — You are price-sensitive at volume. At $0.0083 a segment it is the dearest of the three, and because Plivo publishes an identical carrier table the entire gap is Twilio's own margin rather than a difference in what is counted. Its long code costs $1.15 a month against Plivo's $0.50.

Consider something else: Telnyx — Your messages run long. The $0.004 is per message PART, so a 300-character text bills twice before the carrier takes its share, and the headline rate flatters short-message workloads. Adding SMS capability to a number is $0.10 a month on top of the $1.00 the number itself costs.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Twilio: No
- Kind of free offer: Twilio: Free trial
- Credit card to start: Twilio: No
- Entry paid plan: Telnyx: No platform fee and no support fee — $0 for both, with usage billed as you go.
- Support on entry paid plan: Telnyx: $0 support — Telnyx lists support at no charge beside the platform fee rather than as a paid plan tier.
- HIPAA: Telnyx: HIPAA is named on the pricing card beside the $0 platform and support fees. No further detail is given there.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose Twilio or Telnyx?**

Pick Twilio if The most published detail in a market that publishes little. Its US carrier fees are broken out in five tables by number type, so the real cost of a segment is knowable before you send one — and the failed-message fee and 10DLC onboarding charge are stated rather than discovered on an invoice.
Pick Telnyx if Wanting to see where the money goes. Telnyx publishes its own rate and the carrier passthrough as two separate lines and states the second is not marked up, with no platform fee and no support fee — the only one of the three that itemises the carrier's share rather than folding it in.