Help Center/ Message & SMS/ Service Overview/ Sending Rules and Restrictions/ SMS Length Calculation
Updated on 2023-08-30 GMT+08:00
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SMS Length Calculation

Rules

  • Each template can contain a maximum of 500 characters. The maximum length of each SMS message is 500 characters.
  • When an SMS message longer than the allowed length is sent, the customer receives one SMS message. The Message & SMS platform automatically splits this SMS message into multiple shorter SMS messages based on preset rules for service statistics collection and charging.

SMS Type

Character Counting Rule

Remarks

European SMS

SMSs in English:

  • GSM-7 characters are used for counting.
  • If an SMS contains 160 characters or less, it is counted as one SMS.

    If an SMS contains more than 160 characters, every 153 characters are counted as one SMS.
  • If an SMS contains 158 English characters, it is counted as one SMS. If an SMS contains 164 (153 + 11) characters, it is counted as two SMSs. If an SMS contains 320 (153 + 153 + 14) characters, it is counted as three SMSs.
  • For example, if an SMS template contains variable ${NUM_8} set to 123456, that variable is counted as six characters.

SMSs in other languages:

  • Each Unicode character, such as a letter, digit, punctuation (full-width and half-width), and space, is counted as one character.
  • If an SMS contains 70 characters or less, it is counted as one SMS.

    If an SMS contains more than 70 characters, every 67 characters are counted as one SMS.
Table 1 GSM-7 characters

Category

Counting Rule

Specific Characters

Standard characters

Each is counted as one character.

! " # $ % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ _ ¡ £ ¥ § ¿ & ¤

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Ä Å Æ Ç É Ñ Ø ø Ü ß Ö à ä å æ è é ì ñ ò ö ù ü Δ Φ Γ Λ Ω Π Ψ Σ Θ Ξ

Extension characters

Each is counted as two characters.

| ^ € { } [ ] ~ \