Maybe your team is starting to text more customers — and they might have racked up a higher phone bill, too. It might feel like your costs have doubled overnight with mysterious charges you didn’t think you’d have to plan for.
If you’ve noticed a fee category titled “carrier fees,” you might be wondering where they’re coming from (and how to avoid paying more than you need to).
Good news! This guide breaks down how carrier fees work, when they apply, and what they typically cost. You’ll also learn how to avoid them completely with an SMS service that keeps costs low.
What are carrier fees?
A carrier fee is a per-message fee that’s charged by most US and Canadian mobile carriers whenever you send a text.
The cost will depend on five factors:
- Your phone provider. Major carrier networks (think Verizon and AT&T) charge different prices depending on the product and positioning. For example, US carriers like T-Mobile may charge $0.0030 per outgoing SMS segment, which your phone provider may pass on to you to pay.
- The type of number you’re sending from. Longcode numbers like local and toll-free numbers are typically more affordable, as they’re designed for one-to-one messaging. But shortcode numbers may be more expensive, since shortcodes send five times more message segments per second.
- The country you’re sending messages to. Some locations (like the US) are relatively inexpensive. Others (like Russia) may cost more. Even texting US territories like Puerto Rico may require higher carrier fees than messaging someone in the continental states.
- The SMS service provider. The type of platform you use to send texts will also impact your monthly bill. Most charge a monthly subscription to send business texts, on top of what carriers charge per message. Plus, some SMS service providers don’t charge carrier fees at all.
- The type of message (SMS and MMS). SMS messages typically have smaller fees than MMS since MMS comes with 100 times more characters and transports rich media like videos, GIFs, or music.
Keep reading for a full breakdown of SMS versus MMS carrier fees.
How do carrier fees differ between SMS and MMS?
As mentioned, carrier fees may have different costs depending on the types of text messages you send. Your two main options are SMS (which stands for Short Message Service) and MMS (which stands for Multimedia Messaging Service).
SMS messages typically have lower fees than MMS since they only support basic texts up to 160 characters. MMS supports 1,600-character texts, plus images, videos, and GIFs — which is why most MMS carrier fees are double or even triple the cost of SMS.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the average per-message rates and carrier fees you can expect to pay with an SMS service provider compared to what you’d pay with Quo:
| Message Type | Average Cost Per Message + Carrier Fee | OpenPhone Cost (No Carrier Fees) |
|---|---|---|
| SMS | $0.032 + $0.003 = $0.035 | Included in plan |
| MMS | $0.105 + $0.010 = $0.115 | Included in plan |
How you can avoid carrier fees and get more value from your business phone platform
Texting more customers shouldn’t have to mean spending more money. Thankfully, carrier fees aren’t required by all phone systems.
This includes Quo: a business phone system for growing businesses that offers unlimited calling and texting from a US, Canadian, or North American toll-free number on all pricing plans. When you send two-way texts to US and Canadian numbers, you won’t have to pay carrier fees at all.
There are still some fees you need to pay to comply with A2P 10DLC regulations if you’re texting to any US number from a local phone number. You’ll have to complete US carrier registration, which you can submit in-app.
Here are the fees you can expect to pay.
All of them go to The Campaign Registry (TCR) and other third-party entities that help you maintain good standing with larger US cell carriers. You’ll pay a one-time $19.50 registration fee.Plus a monthly fee that depends on how you register:
- $1.50 per month if you register as a business with a tax ID
- $2 per month as a sole proprietor
- $3 per month as a non-profit
Plus, if your submission is rejected, you’ll need to pay a $15 resubmission fee to reapply (so be sure to check out the US Carrier Registration guide linked above).
Keep in mind, if you have a toll-free number, you’ll need to complete the toll-free number registration, which is free with Quo.
💡 If you want to send automated texts through Zapier, Make, or the Quo API (like appointment reminder texts triggered by a Calendly booking), you’ll be billed at $0.01 per segment for texting to US and Canadian numbers.
Quo: Your communication tool for texting and calling customers
Carrier fees are pretty much a given with text messaging service providers.
But small business phone systems like Quo don’t charge carrier fees at all, which could save you time, money, and unexpected headaches (and spare you from nasty surprises at the end of the month).
Here are the other features you can access along with zero carrier fees:
- Unlimited calls and texts in the US and Canada, plus transparent costs for international calls
- Texting automations like auto-replies, which let you respond when you’re unavailable to pick up the phone
- Snippets to create text message templates so you don’t have to retype the same messages to FAQs
- Scheduled texts in the recipient’s time zone so you’ll never have to wait by your phone to press send (or worry about violating TCPA regulations)
- Integrations with 7,000+ third-party apps via Zapier and Make to connect with other tools in your business tech stack
- Support for group texting so you can send texts to multiple people
- The flexibility to send text messages on devices you already own, including your desktop, tablet, browser, and mobile phone (Android and iOS)
- Shared SMS inboxes so you can split responsibility for incoming customer texts
- Internal threads and mentions to assign texts to your team, ask for clarification, or collaborate on responses
Starting at $15 per user per month, Quo is the best solution for texting customers without carrier fees.
But as you can see, we offer much more than just cost savings.
You can test our platform for yourself by signing up for a seven-day free trial.
FAQs
The easiest way to avoid unexpected additional fees is to sign up for a business phone system like Quo. Quo doesn’t charge carrier fees on 1:1 messages to the US and Canada.
Carrier fees, sometimes called pass-through fees, are surcharges from mobile networks whenever they deliver texts to a customer. The price will depend on the type of number you’re using, whether you’re sending an SMS or MMS message, and the carrier and country of the person receiving your text.
Carrier fees are added by wireless carriers (like T-Mobile or Sprint) to deliver text messages to recipients. In contrast, messaging platform fees refer to the monthly subscription you pay for software like Quo to send and manage messages.
If you’re traveling internationally, you can avoid paying extra fees by using a service like Quo. That’s because texts are sent over an internet connection (as long as you’re on WiFi) rather than a mobile network, so you don’t need to worry about additional routing costs.
Carriers need to maintain a network infrastructure to deliver your text messages — and fees help pay for this expense. Fees also help prevent spam and bulk unsolicited messages since sending those at scale can get expensive fast.
Keep in mind these fees can vary between carriers, especially when sending messages from different types of numbers. You might lower these fees by switching to a VoIP system. Some platforms (including Quo) don’t charge carrier fees at all.
Depending on your SMS service, you’ll likely pay carrier fees — and extra — if you’re abroad. Quo works differently. It uses WiFi, so you can text US and Canadian numbers without paying carrier fees when you travel internationally.
