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Getting Started with Twilio Accounts and Subaccounts

Overview

Twilio Console allows users to create two different types of accounts: Accounts and Subaccounts. This guide outlines the differences between a Twilio Account and a Subaccount.

Notice: Users are separate from Accounts. Users are defined by their login information (email and password). Users can own or have access to many Accounts.

 

What You Need to Know

Accounts

Twilio Accounts (sometimes referred to as "projects") are separate accounts with their own resources and account balance. Many customers use multiple accounts for building out different use cases, segregating data for different development lifecycle phases, or when they need to control user access. New accounts are recommend for creating PCI compliant payment processing apps with the <Pay> TwiML verb, and required for setting up a Twilio Flex instance.

Twilio Accounts can be be created and accessed via Console. For more details, please see our article View and Create New Accounts in Twilio Console.

Twilio accounts can be managed by a top-level Organization. Organizations help you manage all of your company's Twilio accounts. For more information, please see our Organizations documentation.

 

Subaccounts

Subaccounts have their own resources (i.e. phone numbers), but are owned by a parent Twilio account and share that balance. Subaccounts are recommended mainly for independent software vendors (ISVs) to separate usage from their different customers. They may also be a better fit for customers who already have a large number of existing Twilio phone numbers and short codes, or for those using reporting APIs to organize their usage outside of Console.

Subaccounts can be created and accessed via Console, but can also be managed via the REST API. For more details, please see our article View and Create New Twilio Subaccounts.

 

Comparison

  Accounts Subaccounts
Who is it for? All Twilio customers  ISVs
Why should you use it? Segregate production and dev environments, new use cases, or new products like Flex and <Pay>. Separate usage from your customers, while keeping only 1 billing account.
How is it billed? Each Account has its own balance. Subaccounts are owned by a single Account with a single shared balance.
Where is it managed? Twilio Console Twilio Console, or the REST API
How many can I have? 10 maximum * 1,000 maximum *

*If you're worried about approaching this limit, please contact our Support team to inquire about raising it.

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