Message and sequence builders
SMS Segment and Cost Checker
Paste a message and see how many segments it really sends as, because one character can double what a campaign costs.
Free, no signup. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent to us or stored.
Your details
Your messages
How the wording works
An SMS is not billed per message but per segment, and the segment size depends on the character encoding. A message using only the basic GSM character set fits 160 characters in one segment; introducing a single character outside that set switches the whole message to a wider encoding and the limit drops to 70. Longer messages are split and each part carries header overhead, so the per-segment capacity falls again once a message runs to more than one.
What to get right
- Whether every character is in the basic GSM set.
- Message length relative to the segment boundary.
- Emoji and smart punctuation, which force the wider encoding.
- Recipient count, which multiplies whatever the segment count is.
Where this goes wrong
A single curly quote, en dash or emoji pasted in from a word processor can double or quadruple the cost of a campaign, because it switches the encoding for the entire message rather than for that character. That is the practical reason to compose in a plain text field rather than paste from elsewhere. Links are the other factor: a long URL eats a large share of a segment, and shortening it is frequently the difference between one segment and two across every recipient.
Before you send it
- Compose in plain text rather than pasting from a word processor.
- Replace curly quotes and dashes with plain ones.
- Shorten links before counting segments.
- Check the figure against what your provider actually charges.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this tool
Why is my 161-character message charged as two?
Because a single GSM-encoded SMS holds 160 characters. Go one over and the message is split, and each part carries header data, so the limit drops to 153 characters per part rather than 160.
What is a Unicode message and why does it cost more?
Characters outside the basic GSM set, including emoji, curly quotes and most accented letters, force the whole message into Unicode encoding. That cuts the limit from 160 characters to 70, so a short message with one emoji can cost three times as much to send.
Which characters catch people out?
Curly apostrophes pasted from a word processor are the usual culprit, because they look identical to a straight apostrophe and silently switch the whole message to Unicode. The euro sign, em dashes and ellipsis characters do the same.
When doing it once is not enough
Lead Follow-Up
Writing the message is the easy part. Sending it within a minute, every time, at two in the morning, without anyone remembering to, is the part that needs a system.
See how Lead Follow-Up worksWhat this tool does not do
This counts segments and multiplies by the rate you enter. It does not know what your provider actually charges, and it cannot tell you whether a carrier will filter the message, which is a separate problem from what it costs to send.
Keep going
Related free tools
Missed Call Text-Back Message Generator
Write the text that goes out when you cannot pick up, so the caller stops dialling your competitors..
Open toolEstimate Follow-Up Sequence Builder
Build the five messages that go out after you send a quote, with the timing that stops it going quiet..
Open toolReview Request Message Generator
Ask for the review at the moment it is most likely to happen, in words that do not feel like begging..
Open toolWant this to happen without you doing it
This tool does the job once. BDEVY builds the system that does it every time, for every customer, without anyone remembering to.