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Twilio pricing and limits

iScore71–78 · ≈#3/3
www.twilio.com · SMS and messaging APIs
SEPT 2026 audit

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

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Free tierNo
CategorySMS and messaging APIs

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 8 criteria comparedSources last checked

Twilio pricing at a glance

Pricing model
Pay as you go per SEGMENT, not per message — a text longer than one segment is billed as several source ↗
When the free offer ends
Start with a 30-day free trial, then $15 per seat per month source ↗

First line of each sourced value. The full text is in Twilio pricing below. How this free offer stacks up: cloud free tiers compared.

01.Evaluation guide

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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Each value below links to the page it was read from, with the sentence it came from. Criteria Twilio does not publish are not listed.

Twilio pricing

5 criteria
Free tierNo
Sources (1) →
Kind of free offerFree trial
Sources (1) →
Credit card to startNo
Sources (1) →
When the free offer endsStart with a 30-day free trial, then $15 per seat per month.
Sources (1) →
Pricing modelPay 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.
Sources (1) →
  • Twilio SMS Pricing, United States ↗

    “text messages are charged per segment. learn more about character limits and message segments. prices may change from time to time without notice and additional carrier fees may apply. see the carrier fees section below for more detail. US A2P 10DLC are subject to registration onboarding fees. a failed message processing fee of $0.001 per message will be applied only to messages that terminate in a "failed" status.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

Messaging

3 criteria
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.
Sources (1) →
Carrier fees on topAdded 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.
Sources (1) →
  • Twilio SMS Pricing, United States ↗

    “there are additional carrier fees per message that are automatically applied based on the end-user's destination and carrier. [...] long code carrier sms outbound* sms inbound* mms outbound* mms inbound* at&t $0.0035 $0.0035 $0.009 $0.009 t-mobile $0.0045 $0.0025 $0.01 $0.01”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

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.
Sources (1) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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Twilio in the news

Headlines from other publications, not checked by us · collected

Selected by a search on this company, refreshed weekly. Nobody here has verified these claims — where something material is confirmed, it is written into the page above with its source, the way every other fact on this site is.

Twilio pricing questions

How does Twilio charge?

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.

Twilio SMS Pricing, United States · read

Does Twilio have a free tier?

No free tier; the free offer is a free trial.

Twilio SMS Pricing, United States · read

Does the Twilio free offer expire?

Start with a 30-day free trial, then $15 per seat per month.

Twilio Pricing | Twilio · read

Do you need a credit card to start on Twilio?

No.

Twilio SMS Pricing, United States · read

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.