Claire FountainSMS marketing was such a great idea, but now you’re looking at the bill, and… yikes. It’s a little high.
But just how expensive is SMS marketing? And will you see a return on that investment?
Let’s look at whether SMS marketing is actually worth it.
SlickText
- Every feature on every plan, no gated upsells
- Best-in-class list growth: popups, keywords, tap-to-join links, and QR codes
- 4.8/5 with 268 Capterra reviews and Capterra Shortlist 2026
SimpleTexting
- Polished campaign builder with AI writing assistant included on all plans
- Rollover credits, 3 user seats, and 14-day free trial with no credit card
- Strong Zapier and API integrations for marketing automation
Mobile Text Alerts
- Plans from $20/month with unlimited contacts and unlimited users
- 1,000+ integrations and broad team management features
- Popular with churches, schools, and nonprofits
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
SMS Marketing Cost Comparison Calculator
What will SMS marketing actually cost you?
These five platforms charge for completely different things. One bills per message, one bills by the size of your list, and one is pure pay as you go. Set your numbers below and see all five ranked on what you would actually pay.
Our other top picks
What Is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is using SMS (text messaging) to send promotional marketing material to customers and clients.
This can include sending special discounts, alerting customers about important updates or new items, and even taking care of customer service tasks using features like two-way messaging.
How Much Does SMS Marketing Typically Cost?
SMS marketing costs… well, it depends.
There are a few SMS marketing services that are entirely free up to a certain amount of messages.
SMS marketing services vary in whether they charge per message or offer tiered packages with a set number of messages already included, so comparing prices gets tricky.
On average, SMS marketing costs between two and eight cents per message on a subscription plan, dropping to about a cent at high volume on pay as you go. Entry plans covering 500 messages a month run from $25 to $39. Heavy senders on 20,000 a month pay between $499 and $990.
Here is what the four volume-based platforms actually charge at each level of sending, verified in August 2026.
| Texts a month | Mobile Text Alerts | SlickText | SimpleTexting | Textmagic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $25 | $29 | $39 | $35 |
| 1,000 | $44 | $49 | $59 | $59 |
| 2,000 | $74 | $79 | $89 | $108 |
| 5,000 | $149 | $169 | $239 | $255 |
| 10,000 | $274 | $319 | $409 | $500 |
| 20,000 | $499 | $579 | $559 | $990 |
Two things stand out.
Pay as you go wins small and loses big. Textmagic is the cheapest option at very low volume because there is no monthly floor at all. At 100 texts a month you would pay about $15. By 20,000 texts the same model costs $990, roughly double everything else.
The rankings flip at the top. SlickText is cheaper than SimpleTexting at every level up to 10,000, then loses to it at 20,000. Tier ladders do not scale evenly, so the platform that is cheapest at your current volume may not be the cheapest a year from now.
What Factors Influence SMS Marketing Costs?
A few different factors can also affect how much companies have to pay for SMS marketing.
Here are three big ones.
Location
If you’re sending messages domestically within the U.S., you’ll pay a much lower price than you would if you’re sending SMS and MMS messages overseas to places like Hong Kong.
SMS/MMS
SMS (short message service) refers to standard text messages with only text, while MMS (multimedia messaging service) refers to text messages sent with other forms of media like photos, GIFs, and video.
Some services charge more for packages that include MMS or charge more per MMS, so that factors into what businesses pay per month.
Features
Features like shortcodes, shortlinks, two-way messaging, and auto-responses can also cost more for companies using SMS marketing. Unique features like scheduling and collecting payment via SMS also often cost more.
How To Be Compliant (Legal)
One area you want to keep abreast of when considering costs and how to mitigate them is the legal side of things. I’ve compiled a quick list of ways to use SMS legally.
- Get Consent, Stay Cool: Just like you wouldn’t borrow your neighbor's car without asking, don’t send SMS marketing messages without getting a clear ‘yes' from your customers. Remember, the TCPA and GDPR are like the neighborhood watch – they’re there to make sure everyone plays by the rules. Always get explicit consent via a signup confirmation for peace of mind.
- Be Clear, Be Honest: When sending texts, it’s like putting a note in someone’s mailbox. Make sure they know it’s from you (clearly identify yourself) and keep it real (no misleading content). It’s not just polite; it’s the law.
- Carrier Rules, Not School Rules: Think of carriers as the hall monitors of SMS marketing. They’ve got their own rulebook about what you can send and how often. Stick to their guidelines to keep your messages flowing smoothly.
- Privacy Is King: Treat your customers' data like a secret family recipe – guard it closely and don’t share it without a good reason. Respecting privacy builds trust, and trust is what keeps customers coming back.
What Do Credits Mean for SMS Marketing?
SMS credits are essentially the currency of SMS marketing.
With some SMS plans, users are given a certain number of credits that they can use each month. Users can use these credits to send SMS and MMS messages.
For example, let’s say you purchase a plan that includes “500 SMS credits” per month. It costs one credit to send an SMS message and three to send an MMS message. So you could send 167(ish) MMS messages or 500 SMS messages, or any combination of the two.
SMS Marketing Pricing Rates
There can be multiple different rates that you need to factor in to figure out the true total cost of your SMS marketing plan.
Costs per Message
Some plans charge a certain amount for each SMS message, many of which allow you to pay as you go.
Rates for these SMS messages range from one to five cents each (remember that the 160-character limit typically applies) and MMS messages can cost up to three times that rate.
Some of these services offer packages where customers can buy 100 at a time for a certain price per message or get a discounted rate by buying more messages at a time.
Costs per Keyword
Keywords are what companies use to get subscribers to sign up to receive SMS marketing materials.
Keywords are also a great way to easily segment your subscribers into different groups for more targeted marketing.
Many monthly plans include a certain amount of keywords, offering one or two for lower-tiered plans and more for more comprehensive ones.
Businesses often have the option to buy more at around $15 to $25 each, though this is becoming a non-issue. SimpleTexting and SlickText both include unlimited keywords on every plan, and Mobile Text Alerts includes unlimited opt-in keywords on its Core plans.
Monthly Fees
Monthly fees are the base price that SMS services charge each month for the inclusive packages.
These costs vary widely based on the provider and how many services they offer, but monthly fees typically cost anywhere from around $10 to upwards of $1,000 per month.
Short Code Costs
Shortcode is an additional cost that you will need to include in the total cost of your SMS marketing.
The only place that companies can purchase shortcodes from is the U.S. Short Code Registry, where a randomly generated number costs $500 per month and $1,000 per month for a vanity code (more on that later.)
You will have to pay an additional cost ($800 to $1,500 per month) to get carrier connections included.
The Costs That Are Not in the Sticker Price
Every price quoted so far is the subscription. These are the extras that turn up on the bill.
Long messages and MMS burn multiple credits. This is the one that catches people out. A standard SMS is 160 characters and costs one credit. An extended message up to 306 characters costs two, and an MMS with an image costs three. Run an image-led campaign and your effective cost per send triples while your plan price does not move at all.
Carrier registration. US 10DLC compliance is an industry-wide requirement rather than a platform invention. SimpleTexting charges a one-time $4 for it. Textmagic includes brand and use case verification free.
Phone numbers. A local number is usually $10 a month and toll-free is often free. SimpleTexting includes one local number in its price and charges $10 a month for extras. Textmagic charges $10 a month for a toll-free number with the first month free. ClickSend charges $3.53. Mobile Text Alerts includes a dedicated toll-free number even on its free trial.
Seats. Worth checking before you commit, because the differences are large. SimpleTexting includes three users and charges $20 a month for each one after that. Mobile Text Alerts and Textmagic do not limit users at all. EZ Texting gives you one seat on everything below Enterprise, so a two-person team is already paying to upgrade.
Carrier pass-through fees. US carriers charge a small per-message fee of roughly a quarter of a cent, and Canadian carriers charge more. Reputable platforms pass this straight through rather than marking it up, but it is still real money once you are sending in volume.
Telecom fees. EZ Texting's cheapest plan is subject to a telecom fee that is waived on its higher plans. The amount is not published, which makes the true cost of its entry plan impossible to work out in advance.
What Are Short Codes?
You’ve probably noticed that when you get SMS messages from businesses, they’re sent from a 5 or 6-digit number. That’s called a shortcode. Shortcode is the unique short phone number that businesses often use to send messages.
Similarly to how you have to buy the domain name for your site and pay a monthly or yearly fee for it, businesses also have to buy their shortcode number and purchase the rights to that shortcode in 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month increments from the U.S. Short Code Registry.
Vanity vs. Non-Vanity Short Codes
Non-vanity shortcodes are generated randomly by the U.S. Registry. These are a great option for businesses with smaller budgets since they cost half the price of vanity shortcodes.
Vanity short codes are custom numbers selected by a business for specific reasons, typically to have a more memorable or relevant number.
How to Measure ROI of SMS Marketing Campaign
Are you really getting your money’s worth? How do you even know?
Here are a few KPIs that you can use to quantify the success of your SMS campaign and decide if it’s worth it to continue.
Clickthrough Rate
The clickthrough rate or CTR shows the percentage of customers that receive and open your SMS messages actually click on hyperlinks that you send them.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is how many subscribers that do click the links sent to them end up taking the action you wanted them to.
This usually means making a purchase.
Cost Per Subscriber
How much are you paying per month for each subscriber? If you’re spending a huge amount of money monthly just to keep people on your subscriber list and aren’t seeing the conversion rate you’d like to, it may be time to try something else.
Simple Formula to Figure Out
If you’re looking to calculate and find out for yourself what your ROI percentage is, just follow this simple formula.
First, find your ROI by subtracting your investment (how much you’ve spent on the SMS marketing service) from your return (how much money you have made from SMS marketing.)
One you have that number, divide it by that initial investment cost, then multiply that number by 100. This will give you your ROI percentage.
This will look like:
- (Return – Investment) ROI
- (ROI / Investment) x 100 = ROI percentage
A real-world example for one month would look like this:
- Return: $2,000
- Investment: $40
- $2,000-$40= $1,960
- ($1,960/$40)= $49
- $49 x 100= 4,900%
Text Message Marketing ROI Case Studies
All three of these were published by the SMS vendor involved, and none of them state the year the campaign ran. They are worth reading to see what a good campaign looks like, not for setting your own expectations. Treat them as the top of the range rather than the middle.
High-end restaurant using MyArea Network
Using MyArea Network, a high-end restaurant was able to see a 600% ROI percentage over the course of three months.
MyArea Network created a landing page and contest for the restaurant.
According to the case study, “The goal was to build the database while also driving customers into the restaurant for a dinner-for-two special. The landing page received 72,291 impressions through Facebook ads. There were 2,235 clicks and 1,405 entries.
If we estimate that only 5% of people who received coupons visited the restaurant and had an average check of $60, the ROI of this text marketing campaign is 6X the investment.”
- Investment: $600
- Return: $4,200
- ROI: $3,600
Curie
Personal care products brand Curie was looking for the best way to convert free sample users to paying customers, so they turned to Postscript to help with their SMS marketing campaign.
They added text-to-buy callouts to the signage already displayed in partner locations which built a significant list of subscribers. Instead of blasting out mass texts constantly, the brand was intentional with their messaging, and this approach paid off.
The brand achieved an 8% click-through rate with a 46% conversion rate when they used SMS to notify subscribers about their annual sale.
Princess Polly
Australian clothing brand Princess Polly used Yotpo to see a significant increase in their conversion rate and return on investment.
According to the case study:
One of their flash sale campaigns saw a 41% conversion rate and 73x ROI from their non-engaged segment alone. At the same time, the SMS Welcome Flow has realized an 84% CVR.
How Does Text Message Marketing Compare To:
Is SMS really that much more successful than email marketing? What about social media ads?
Marketing Channel | Open Rate | Click-Through Rate (CTR) | Conversion Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMS Marketing | |||
| Email Marketing | |||
| Facebook Ads |
Email Marketing
According to Textedly's study, SMS click-through sits around 19% against 2.5% for email. That study is published by an SMS vendor, so read it as a directional claim from an interested party rather than a neutral benchmark. The direction is probably right. The size of the gap is not independently confirmed anywhere.
Emails are also more likely to get flagged as spam, while SMS is far more likely to be delivered successfully.
Facebook Ads
With Facebook marketing, according to Textedly’s study, the median engagement rate across all industries is 0.08%, with 35% of marketers reporting successful influencer campaigns.
You will also see SMS conversion rates of up to 47% quoted against an average Facebook ad conversion rate of 9.21%, a WordStream benchmark. That is not a fair comparison. The first number is a best case from one campaign sent to an opted-in list; the second is an average across every advertiser and industry. Someone who asked for your texts was always going to convert better than a stranger who saw an ad.
Pricing Comparison of Top Providers
These are the cheapest entry plans from each provider, verified in August 2026. Note that the first three charge very differently from the last two, so read the monthly cost and the per-message cost together rather than either on its own.
| Monthly cost | 500 credits, local number included | or $20 billed annually | $10/month for a number | $3.53/month for a number | self-hosted software |
| Cost per message | 1.8 cents at 50,000 | 2.5 cents at 20,000 | pay as you go | 0.95 cents at volume | SMS gateway charges |
How to Maximize ROI on Text Message Marketing
Though the average ROI is pretty impressive, there are some steps you can take to make your ROI even more impressive.
Here are a few tips.
Personalized Messages
With a good SMS marketing service, businesses can create SMS templates that autofill customers’ names as well as segment them into different groups for more targeted messaging.
Using these tools is a great way to make your customers feel like you care about them and like the message was specifically created for them. And who doesn’t like feeling special?
A/B Testing
Try different iterations of messages with separate, random groups of subscribers. See which one receives more interaction, then consider that movig forward.
Optimize
If your SMS campaign is successful, you’ll get a longer subscriber list.
Keep up with the increase in subscribers by constantly evaluating, tweaking, and perfecting your SMS marketing campaigns.
This includes figuring out the best time to send SMS marketing messages.
Other Uses for SMS Marketing
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to send an SMS marketing text?
Between two and eight cents on a subscription plan, depending on your tier, or roughly one to five cents on pay as you go. Volume pulls both down.
How much do SMS marketing services cost?
Entry plans covering 500 messages a month run from $25 to $39. At 20,000 messages a month expect $499 to $990. Pay-as-you-go platforms have no monthly floor at all, which makes them the cheapest option at very low volume and the most expensive at high volume.
What is the ROI for SMS marketing?
It depends entirely on the campaign and the list. Vendor case studies quote returns of several hundred percent and higher, but those are published by the SMS platforms themselves and represent best cases rather than typical results. Calculate your own from your actual subscription cost and attributable revenue using the formula above.
Is sending MMS more expensive than SMS?
Yes. On most platforms an MMS costs three credits against one for a standard SMS, and an extended message over 160 characters costs two. An image-led campaign costs roughly three times as much to send as a plain text one, even though your plan price does not change.
