SMS Pricing in India

For an SMS API in India, pricing typically ranges from $0.002 to $0.01 per message, depending on route quality, operator fees, and DLT compliance handling. With Message Central’s MessageNow, SMS pricing in India starts at $0.0023 USD on direct carrier routes, giving businesses high delivery reliability, transparent pay-as-you-go billing, and no long-term contracts.

The cheapest SMS API pricing in India is usually offered by providers with direct carrier connectivity, not low-quality aggregated routes. MessageNow by Message Central offers some of the lowest SMS prices in India starting at $0.0023 USD, while still maintaining enterprise-grade delivery, compliance, and 24×7 support. This makes it a cost-effective alternative to global providers like Twilio.

SMS pricing in India is charged per SMS segment, not per message. A standard SMS supports 160 characters in English or 70 characters for Unicode. Longer messages are split into multiple segments, each billed separately. MessageNow provides clear segment-level visibility, so businesses always know exactly what they are paying for.

Many Bulk SMS providers add hidden costs such as DLT handling fees, operator surcharges, or throughput charges. Message Central’s MessageNow follows a transparent pay-as-you-go pricing model, where carrier costs and compliance handling are included upfront. There are no surprise fees, helping businesses plan Bulk SMS and its costs accurately.

Yes. SMS pricing in India can vary based on telecom operators (Jio, Airtel, Vi) and, in some cases, by circle due to operator termination fees and routing policies. MessageNow optimizes routing automatically across operators and circles, ensuring stable pricing and consistent delivery performance nationwide.

• 160 characters for standard English (GSM encoding)
• 70 characters for Unicode messages (Hindi, regional languages, emojis)

Messages longer than these limits are split into multiple segments and billed accordingly. MessageNow clearly shows character and segment usage in real time.

Yes. Emojis and Hindi or other regional languages use Unicode encoding, which reduces the character limit to 70 characters per segment. This can increase the number of segments and total cost. MessageNow helps businesses monitor encoding and segment usage so SMS costs stay predictable.

Businesses sending high SMS volumes can access custom volume-based pricing with Message Central.

As usage scales for alerts, notifications, or transactional messaging, per-SMS pricing becomes even more competitive, while still using direct carrier routes and maintaining high delivery rates.

Yes. Each operator applies different termination and filtering rules, which can impact pricing.

MessageNow connects directly with major Indian operators and intelligently manages routing, helping businesses avoid operator-specific pricing spikes or delivery failures.

Enterprise routes are typically priced higher because they offer better delivery, lower filtering risk, and faster throughput.

Message Central balances this by offering direct enterprise-grade routes at highly competitive pricing, eliminating unnecessary intermediaries when it comes to SMS Gateway, while preserving quality.

Global providers often rely on multi-layer aggregators, add international markups, and charge extra for compliance and support. Message Central operates with local carrier integrations, India-specific routing, and regional support, which significantly lowers pricing while improving delivery reliability.

With low-quality routes, retries and failures can quickly increase SMS spend. MessageNow minimizes this by using direct carrier routes with high success rates and includes built-in WhatsApp fallback if SMS fails. This reduces wasted retries and ensures messages still reach users without inflating costs.

• SMS pricing starts at $0.0023 USD
• Direct carrier connectivity across India
• WhatsApp fallback for guaranteed reach
• Pay-as-you-go SMS pricing, no contracts
• 24×7 customer support, not just business hours
• Transparent billing and real-time usage control