# Twilio

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/sms/twilio/

A messaging API billed per outbound segment, with US carrier fees added on top and published in five separate tables by number type.

## Who it suits

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.

Consider something else if 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.

## iScore

64 / 100 (80% interval 61–68), rank 2 of 3 in sms — interval overlaps the next rank, so this is an ordering, not a finding.

inetGeek's own reading, computed from sourced facts against category peers by disclosed rules. Not a provider claim. Intervals are 80%; a provider with few documented facts is pulled toward the category middle rather than scored on what little is known.
Method: https://inetgeek.com/iscore/. Full output with every criterion's basis: https://inetgeek.com/scores.json. Every sms peer ranked: https://inetgeek.com/sms/twilio/alternatives/

- Price: 59 (52–65), weight 50%, 4 of 4 criteria scored
- Trust and compliance: 50 (44–56), weight 30%, 0 of 1 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: hipaa_eligible
- Evidence: 100 (100–100), weight 20%, 4 of 4 criteria scored

## What the documentation says

### Pricing

- Free tier: No ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)
- Kind of free offer: Free trial ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)
- Credit card to start: No ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)

### Messaging

- 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. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing/us), read 2026-09-15)

## Compared with

- [Twilio vs Telnyx](https://inetgeek.com/compare/twilio-vs-telnyx/)
- [Twilio vs Plivo](https://inetgeek.com/compare/twilio-vs-plivo/)