Twilio 10DLC Registration & Pricing Explained
If you are using text messaging for your business in the US, you must have heard about the 10DLC campaign registration requirements for 10-digit local phone numbers by now. Given how much confusion is there regarding the 10DLC registration and cost, we thought of writing this post to simplify the Twilio specific information for you.
Pricing at a glance (most common path)
- Low Volume Standard Brand + Low-Volume Mixed campaign: $19.50 one-time + $1.50/mo
What is 10DLC?
If you are new to the 10DLC campaign requirements, you can read our blog post to know more.
New to 10DLC? Start here →
Twilio 10DLC registration
There are two registrations required, brand and campaign.
Brand registration
First you need to register your business as a brand.
| Sole Proprietor Brand | Low Volume Standard Brand | Standard Brand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eligibility | Businesses without EIN. US or Canada address. | US businesses with EIN or businesses registered in foreign countries. | US businesses with EIN or businesses registered in foreign countries. |
| Phone number limit | 1 | 400 | 400 |
| Daily SMS segments and MMS messages volume | Up to 3,000. Max 1,000 to T-Mobile | Up to 6,000. Max 2,000 to T-Mobile | Up to 200,000 |
| Message per second throughput | 1 | Up to 3.75 | Up to 225 |
Campaign registration
You need to get at least one campaign approved depending upon the type of the messages you send to your target audience. If you are sending different types of messages, you can add multiple campaigns.
| Type | Use cases |
|---|---|
| Standard | 2FA, Account Notifications, Customer Care, Delivery Notifications, Fraud Alert Messaging, Higher Education, Marketing, Mixed, Polling and voting, Public Service Announcement, Security Alert. |
| Special | Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit, Emergency Services, and Political use cases, among others. |
| Low-Volume Mixed | Multiple types of messages but with a lower throughput. |
Twilio 10DLC pricing
One-time cost
| For | Sole Proprietor Brand | Low Volume Standard Brand | Standard Brand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4.50 | $4.50 | $46 |
| Campaign registration | $15 | $15 | $15 |
| Total | $19.50 | $19.50 | $61 |
Monthly cost
| Campaign use case type | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Sole Prop (Starter) | $2 |
| Standard | $10 |
| Low-volume mixed use case | $1.50 |
| Special: Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit | $3 |
| Special: Emergency Services | $5 |
Carrier fees (per message segment)
| Carrier | SMS | MMS |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | $0.0035 (in & out) | $0.009 (in & out) |
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 out / $0.0025 in | $0.01 (in & out) |
| Verizon | $0.0045 out | $0.007 out |
| US Cellular | $0.005 out / $0.0025 in | $0.01 (in & out) |
| All other carriers | $0.004 out | $0.01 out |
If you skip registration, your messages would be blocked outright by the carriers.
Real-world example: what would this actually cost you?
Let’s put real numbers on it. Say you’re a small business with an EIN, registered as a Low Volume Standard Brand running a Low-Volume Mixed campaign, and you send about 5,000 one-segment texts a month, mostly to T-Mobile numbers.
One-time setup:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4.50 |
| Campaign registration | $15 |
| Total | $19.50 |
Every month after that:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Campaign fee (renews monthly) | $1.50 |
| Twilio’s SMS sending fee (5,000 × $0.0083) | $41.50 |
| T-Mobile carrier fee (5,000 × $0.0045) | $22.50 |
| Total | ~$65.50 |
So your first month runs about $85 all-in (plus roughly $1.15/month if you’re leasing a new Twilio number), and about $65–66/month every month after.
The carrier fee is the one line that moves depending on who you’re texting. Same 5,000 messages/month, swapping in each major carrier:
| Mostly texting… | Carrier fee | Total monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | $17.50 | $60.50 |
| T-Mobile | $22.50 | $65.50 |
| Verizon | $22.50 | $65.50 |
| US Cellular | $25.00 | $68.00 |
Twilio’s own sending fee ($0.0083/segment) and the $1.50 campaign fee stay constant — only the carrier surcharge shifts. (One caveat: if customers text you back, AT&T, T-Mobile, and US Cellular add a small inbound fee too; Verizon doesn’t currently charge for inbound.)
Recommendation for low volume businesses
When you are a business sending tens or a hundred messages a day, the 10DLC compliance must be feeling like an overwhelming ask. You might be thinking, whether using the text messaging for your business is worth all the effort and cost anymore. Even though the registration process is a little time consuming at the moment, be aware that 10DLC will help get rid of spams. This is good news for genuine and registered businesses as their messages won’t be identified as spam anymore and will have better delivery rates.
For a low volume business, here are the easiest and most cost effective options:
- Brand: Register as a Sole Proprietor Brand (if you don’t have an EIN) or Low Volume Standard (If you have an EIN or a non-US business registration) as they don’t require the secondary vetting process and related cost.
- Campaign: Go with the Low-Volume Mixed campaign as this covers mixed types of messages with lowest monthly cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Twilio 10DLC cost in total?
It depends on your brand type and volume, but here’s the range: expect $19.50–$61 in one-time registration fees (brand + campaign registration), plus $1.50–$10/month in ongoing campaign fees, plus carrier fees of roughly $0.0035–$0.005 per message segment that scale with how much you actually send. For a low-volume business sending a few thousand texts a month, all-in cost typically lands around $85 the first month and $65–70/month after that — see our worked example above for the full breakdown.
Do I have to pay monthly even with low volume?
Yes. The monthly campaign fee is tied to your campaign use case type, not your message volume — so it applies whether you send 50 texts a month or 50,000. Even the cheapest option, Low-Volume Mixed, still bills $1.50/month for as long as the campaign stays active. The only way to stop it is to deactivate or delete the campaign.
Does this apply to toll-free numbers?
No. A2P 10DLC registration only applies to standard 10-digit long code numbers. Toll-free numbers go through a separate process (Toll-Free Verification) with its own fee structure, and short codes aren’t part of the 10DLC system at all.
Check out our related articles:
- What is 10DLC for Business Text Messaging?
- Using Sociocs as a Twilio Front-end
- The importance of SMS in customer communication
- Twilio Bulk Text / SMS Marketing with Sociocs
- Click to Chat by Text/SMS
References from the Twilio website: