Introduction
The character limit for a single SMS is technically 160 characters (including whitespaces) . However, most modern phones and networks support message concatenation, they split large messages into individual SMS messages (called "segments") and then re-create the large message at the receiving end.
The 160-character limit is for messages encoded using the GSM-7 character set. Messages with characters not present in the GSM-7 character set (multilingual, emojis, or certain special characters and symbols) are limited to 70 characters (including whitespaces) as they use the Unicode encoding method (UCS2).
How length influences your messaging cost?
GSM-7 encoding
- 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
Note: You could send up to 1000 characters as multi-part message which will be split into 7 segments internally.
Unicode encoding
- 0 – 70 characters – 1 segment and charged as a single message
- 71 – 134 characters – 2 segments and charged as two messages
- 135 – 201 characters – 3 segments and charged as three messages
- 202 – 268 characters – 4 segments and charged as four messages
Note: You could send up to 500 characters as multi-part message which will be split into 8 segments internally.
Common GSM-7 Characters (for indication purpose only, actual character set may vary)
GSM-7 Character Set
GSM-7 Extension Characters (counted as two/three characters)
Emojis (Partial List)
Non-Emoji Unicode Characters
SMS having GSM-7 Character Set (7-bit Encoding)
- Each multi-part text message is limited to 153 characters rather than 160, due to the need for user-data headers (UDHs) information.
- Mobile phones use UDH information to enable them to link long messages together so that they appear as single SMS messages in the recipient’s phone inbox.
SMS having characters outside GSM-7 Character Set (Unicode Encoding)
- Each multi-part text message is limited to 67 characters rather than 70 due to the need for user-data headers (UDHs) information.
- Mobile phones use UDH information to enable them to link long messages together so that they appear as single SMS messages in the recipient’s phone inbox.
| Encoding Method | Single SMS Character Limit |
Multipart SMS Limit (per segment) |
| GSM-7 (colloquially known as 7bit encoding) | 160 characters | 153 characters |
| UCS2 (colloquially known as Unicode encoding) | 70 characters | 67 characters |
There are several online SMS character calculators available which you can utilize to get an idea of the number of characters and the method of encoding that will be used for your SMS content. These tools can be accessed using keywords such as ‘online SMS character calculator’ and ‘calculate SMS character online’ on prominent search engines.
Note: There are several characters and emojis that might consume three or more characters. For instance, an extended character like € and 😀 takes three characters to send.
Disclaimer
While this article tries to match, as closely as possible, the way messages are handled, we provide no guarantee that this is the case. The article should be viewed simply as an illustration of how text is converted into SMS messages. We disclaim all implied warranties.