In March 2019, some Twilio customers may see new fees for outbound long code SMS and MMS messages sent to both the United States and Canada. These are new fees introduced by Telus Canada and US Cellular, which apply to all companies sending long code messages to their networks. Once effective, these fees will be passed through to you at the same rates charged to Twilio. Please see below for details and timeline.
New Long Code SMS Carrier Fees
Effective March 1, 2019, Twilio will begin charging new carrier fees for each SMS message segment or MMS message sent via long code to wireless subscribers of Telus in Canada and US Cellular in the United States:
Carrier | Fee | Cost |
Telus | Outbound SMS over long codes | $0.0038 per message segment |
Telus | Outbound MMS over long codes | $0.0078 per message |
US Cellular | Outbound SMS over long codes | $0.005 per message segment |
US Cellular | Outbound MMS over long codes | $0.01 per message |
Notice: These fees apply to long code SMS and MMS only. Short code SMS and MMS are not affected by these fees.
Using MaxPrice on your SMS to avoid unwanted costs
If you want to only send SMS that cost less than a certain amount, you can use our MaxPrice parameter in your API requests to Twilio. This allows you to specify the maximum price you are willing to pay for that SMS.
MaxPrice is an optional parameter, so if you do not specify it in your API requests, your SMS will be sent as usual and you will be billed the standard price for each SMS, including any applicable fees. For more information, please see Using Max Price with Twilio SMS.
Questions or concerns?
If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding these new fees, or implementing MaxPrice
, please contact our Support team.