Why do we charge a Failed Message Processing fee?

Twilio performs a broad set of pre-checks before sending messages to carriers and messaging partners to help you avoid the standard termination costs that would be incurred on most CPaaS providers in the event of message failure. We are continuing to invest in and improve our error communications to ensure our customers are well armed to understand and resolve problems when they occur. This fee reflects the value of the troubleshooting tools we provide and allows us to continue to invest in our products and pre-checks that help our customers understand when messaging doesn’t work, what are the causes and how they can fix it.

What messages are charged for message processing?

Starting September 30th, 2024, most messages sent over the Programmable Messaging API that receive a “Failed” status will be charged a "Message Processing Fee" of $0.001.

Messages that end up in a status other than “Failed” will not be charged this fee, for example, messages that are "Undelivered" will not see any change in cost related to this fee.

“Failed” messages that are not charged a processing fee include:

• Failures due to Twilio internal errors (Error codes 12400, 20500, 20504, 30103, 30500, 63010, 63012) 

• Validity Period Expiration (30036) 

• Failures due to Twilio account suspension or Twilio imposed trial and fraud detection limits (Error codes 30002, 30454, 63038, 90010)
• Messages that are failed by SMS Pumping Protection (Error code 30450)
• Failures due to Geo-Permissions (Error code 21408)
• Meta imposed WhatsApp restrictions beyond a customer’s ability to remedy (Error codes: 63013, 63018, 63021, 63024, 63032)
• Failed messages with error 30008 (Note that this error sometimes receives an “Undelivered” status, those messages already incur termination costs and will not be subject to additional fees)

This fee is applied per message and not per segment. In other words, if your failed message was 2 segments, you will be charged the fee one time.

What kinds of prechecks do we do?

Twilio performs prechecks on message creation requests to optimize message delivery and help you avoid delivery charges on messages that can’t be delivered. These checks include but are not limited to:

• Validation and normalization of “To” numbers
• Preventing messages from being sent that go against country SMS Guidelines
• Validation of API parameters related to the correct functioning of Twilio products such as Scheduled Messages, Link Shortening, Content Templates and more

How can I see the “Failed” message rate and reasons on my account?

You can review your account’s failed message volume in Messaging Insights to better understand your Twilio integration’s health and the impact of message failures.

Choose the filter "Delivery Status = Failed" to view affected messages and discount the error codes mentioned at the top of this article.

If you see a high rate of message failures, you can use the Messaging Insights tool to explore their common error codes and causes. See the guide here for how to use Messaging Insights to examine your messaging errors.

The most common causes for elevated error rates include:

• Retrying requests to create messages when Twilio’s API responds with a 4xx HTTP status code.
• Invalid numbers in your contact lists. If you see numbers continuing to fail with 21211 or 21614 (invalid destination address) or 21610 (unsubscribed recipient), you should update or remove those numbers from your contact lists.
• A cause associated with another particular error code. In insights, you can review your common error codes. Each error code has an entry in our error dictionary with possible causes and solutions.
• Automatic replies to incoming SMS. Twilio SMS numbers are set up by default to automatically reply to incoming SMS. If you need to remove automatic replies, please see this article.