Smaller US networks raise short code SMS surcharges to $0.005
Short code SMS to and from these networks now costs $0.005 a message in each direction.
10DLC carrier fees
November 2026
The pass-through fee each US carrier charges per A2P 10DLC SMS segment, and the T-Mobile fine schedule. Updated .
Carrier fees today
| Carrier | SMS out | SMS in |
|---|---|---|
| VerizonSince Oct 1 | $0.005 | $0 |
| T-MobileSince Jan 19 | $0.0045 | $0.0025 |
| AT&TSince Apr 1 | $0.0035 | $0.0035 |
Per message segment, 10DLC. Your provider adds its own markup.
What is a carrier fee?
When a business sends a text, the carrier that delivers it charges a fee for each message. Your provider, such as Twilio, adds this fee to your invoice on top of its own price. That is why it is called a pass-through fee.
The fee is per segment, not per message. One segment holds up to 160 characters, or 70 when the message has an emoji or other special characters. A 200-character text is 2 segments and pays the fee twice. “SMS out” is a message you send. “SMS in” is a reply from your customer.
Example: 10,000 two-segment texts to Verizon customers are 20,000 segments × $0.005 = $100 in carrier fees.
T-Mobile fines
| Phishing, smishing or social engineering (Sev-0, tier 1) | $2,000 |
|---|---|
| Illegal content (Sev-0, tier 2) | $1,000 |
| Other content violations, such as SHAFT (Sev-0, tier 3) | $500 |
| Content violation, third and later notice | $10,000 |
| Texting from a number before it is verified | $10,000 |
| Evasion, such as snowshoeing | $1,000 |
Per violation, passed on to the sender.
Fee changes
Six smaller carriers raise A2P 10DLC SMS surcharges
Outbound SMS to these networks now costs up to $0.005 a segment.
Verizon raises its A2P SMS fee to $0.005
Second Verizon increase this year. Up 25% since January.
Verizon raises A2P SMS and MMS fees
First of two Verizon increases in 2026.
AT&T raises A2P SMS and MMS fees in both directions
SMS up about 17%, MMS up 20%, inbound and outbound.
T-Mobile raises outbound SMS fee by 50%, lowers inbound
The largest percentage increase of 2026.
