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.
What is 10DLC?
If you are new to the 10DLC campaign requirements, you can read our blog post to know more.
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 | $4 | $44 |
| Campaign registration | $15 | $15 | $15 |
| Total | $19 | $19 | $59 |
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 | Registered SMS | Registered MMS | Unregistered SMS | Unregistered MMS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T (until May 31, 2023) | $0.002 → | $0.0035 → | $0.004 → | $0.005 → |
| AT&T (from Jun 1, 2023) | $0.002 → | $0.0035 → | $0.01 → | $0.015 → |
| T-Mobile (until May 31, 2023) | $0.003 ↔ | $0.01 ↔️ | $0.004 ↔️ | 0.013 ↔️ |
| T-Mobile (from Jun 1, 2023) | $0.003 ↔️ | $0.01 ↔️ | $0.005 ↔️ | 0.014 ↔️ |
| T-Mobile (from Aug 1, 2023) | $0.003 ↔️ | $0.01 ↔️ | $0.006 ↔️ | 0.015 ↔️ |
| Verizon | $0.0025 → | $0.005 → | $0.0025 → | $0.005 → |
→ For outbound messages, ↔️ For both outbound and inbound messages
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.
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: