What is a message segment?
All phone carriers internationally measure text messages in character batches called segments. Segments are typically 160 characters or 70 characters, depending on the encoding type.
Generally, most messages use the standard of GSM-7 encoding, and have up to 160 characters per segment.
How length influences your messaging cost*:
- 0 – 160 characters – 1 segment and charged as a single message
- 161 – 306 characters – 2 segments and charged as two messages
- 307 – 459 characters – 3 segments and charged as three messages
- 460 – 612 characters – 4 segments and charged as four messages
- 613 – 765 characters – 5 segments and charged as five messages
- 766 – 918 characters – 6 segments and charged as six messages
- 919 – 1,071 characters – 7 segments and charged as seven messages
- 1,072 – 1,224 characters – 8 segments and charged as eight messages
- 1,225 – 1,377 characters – 9 segments and charged as nine messages
- 1,378 – 1,530 characters – 10 segments and charged as ten messages
*Assuming GSM-7 encoding
GSM7 Character Set
@ £ $ ¥ è é ù ì ò Ç Ø ø Å å Δ _ Φ Γ Λ Ω Π Ψ Σ Θ Ξ ESC Æ æ ß É ! " # ¤ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 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 Ä Ö Ñ Ü § ¿ 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 ö ñ ü à
GSM7 Extension Characters (counted as two characters)
What are common UNICODE characters?
These are commonly-used characters that will change your message encoding type from GSM7 to unicode, which will lower your segment character count from 160 to 70 characters per segment.
Emojis (Partial List)
😀 😁 😂 🤣 😃 😄 😅 😆 😉 😊 😋 😎 😍 😘 🥰 😗 😙 😚 🙂 🤗 🤩 🤔 🤨 😐 😑 😶 🙄 😏 😣 😥 😮 🤐 😯 😪 😫 😴 😌 😛 😜 😝 🤤 😒 😓 😔 😕 🙃 🤑 😲 🙁 😖 😞 😟 😤 😢 😭 😦 😧 😨 😩 🤯 😬 😰 😱 🥵 🥶 😳 🤪 😵 😡 😠 🤬 😷 🤒 🤕 🤢 🤮 🤧 😇 🤠 🤡 🥳 🥴 🥺 🤥 🤫 🤭 🧐 🤓 😈 👿 👹 👺 💀 👻 👽 🤖 💩 😺 😸 😹 😻 😼 😽 🙀 😿 😾
Non-Emoji Unicode Characters
Understanding SMS length
In our example image below, both messages in the GSM7 encoding type. The message on the left has 157 characters, less than the 160 character for the first segment, so it is just a single segment.
The message on the right is a total of 173 character, pushing it over the 160 character limit, resulting in 2 message segments.
| One Segment SMS Example | Two Segment SMS Example | ||||||||||||
| Hi Mary, this is a reminder about your upcoming campus visit with Ansley College on May 7th at 8:30am. Please confirm your visit by replying. | Hi Mary, this is a reminder about your upcoming campus visit with Ansley College on May 7th at 8:30am! Please confirm your attendance by visiting www.ansleycollege.edu. | ||||||||||||
| Details | Details | ||||||||||||
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What does message encoding mean?
The SMS length calculator looks at each character in your message to identify it’s encoding type and the overall message length. Based on the encoding type and length, the total number of segments used is determined.
The two types of SMS encoding used by Sakari are:
- GSM-7 Encoding – GSM7 is the encoding type most commonly used, and supports more than 128 commonly letters and symbols. Each segment is limited to 160 characters maximum.
- UCS-2 Encoding – UCS2 uses 16 bits to encode each character. Each segment is limited to 70 characters maximum.
How will text message be encoded?
When you send SMS messages with Sakari, we will automatically use the most compact encoding possible. If you only use GSM-7 characters, your messages will be encoded at GSM-7. If any non GSM-7 characters are included, your entire message will be encoded at UCS-2, which limits each message segment to 70 characters each.
How are SMS messages billed?
Using Sakari, your per message rate is based on three different criteria:
- The length of your message in segments
- The destination country of the recipient
- Your messaging plan