SMS marketing costs across the industry vary widely, usually based on your messaging activity, anywhere from $20 per month for small volumes to thousands upon thousands for large volumes.
However, it’s rare to find real data for SMS costs according to list size, which is arguably an easier figure to start from, since it may fluctuate less than messaging activity.
When looking at our data, what we found as the actual standard monthly recurring costs customers across Mobile Text Alerts spend per list size were:
- 500 or fewer subscribers – $25 per month
- 501-2,500 subscribers – $58 per month
- 2,501–10,000 subscribers – $149 per month
- 10,001–50,000 subscribers – $499 per month
- More than 50,000 subscribers – $1,074 per month
I analyzed our customers to find out the actual median monthly recurring revenue, as well as estimated averages, based on list size.
That way, you have a more accurate idea of how much SMS might cost for you, since it can be hard to tell based on advertised plan costs alone.
Note, however, that our samples were drawn across a spectrum of use cases, not just marketing.
I also consulted two SMS experts (support specialist CJ Chidiegwu and… myself 😅) for advice on ways to avoid overpaying.
How much does SMS marketing cost by list size?
Here’s what we found in our analysis of 723 Mobile Text Alerts accounts, analyzed according to list size and monthly recurring revenue (MRR):
| Active subscribers | Median MRR | Average MRR | Accounts in sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 or fewer | $25 | ~$67 | 411 |
| 501–2,500 | $58 | ~$199 | 131 |
| 2,501–10,000 | $149 | ~$670 | 89 |
| 10,001–50,000 | $499 | ~$2,220 | 50 |
| More than 50,000 | $1,074 | ~$10,800 | 42 |
*Based on live subscriber counts and latest active MRR for the newest currently paying Mobile Text Alerts accounts. Averages are approximate and pulled upward by a few high-spend accounts, so the median better reflects a typical account.
As it corresponds to Mobile Text Alerts’ listed plans, when considering the median MRR as described in the table above, this would place the different list sizes into the corresponding plans:
- 500 or fewer: 500 messages/month plan
- 501–2,500: 2,000 messages/month plan
- 2,501–10,000: 5,000 messages/month plan
- 10,001–50,000: 20,000 messages/month plan
How much does SMS cost vs. email?
We can compare SMS costs to a related channel, email, by looking at one of the most prominent email providers (note that these are MailChimp’s advertised costs, not actual costs observed from real data):
| List size | MailChimp | Mobile Text Alerts (median) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 or fewer | $20/mo | $25/mo |
| 501–2,500 | $45–$60/mo | $58/mo |
| 2,501–10,000 | $100–$135/mo | $149/mo |
| 10,001–50,000 | $195–$382/mo | $499/mo |
| More than 50,000 | $535–$1,600+/mo | $1,074/mo |
*MailChimp figures are published list prices by contact count; Mobile Text Alerts figures are median MRR amounts actually paid by accounts at each subscriber list size. MailChimp prices also vary by plan and send volume.
Although this is not a total one-to-one comparison because these are different channels and message volumes are different… it is interesting to see that by and large, the costs seem similar when looking at list size. The greatest difference is in the range of 10,001–50,000 contacts.
It is true that per message, SMS costs far more than email. But per month at the same list size, the two seem to land in roughly the same range (at least when comparing our data to the listed prices for MailChimp in particular).
This similarity in final costs (despite much different per-message fees) is most likely because businesses send SMS far less often than email. The gap in per-message pricing gets absorbed by the difference in send frequency.
How not to overpay for SMS
There are practical steps you can take to help make sure you’re not spending more than you need to within your SMS plan, based on my twelve years of experience working in the SMS space:
- Don’t choose phone number options that you don’t need—for example, most businesses probably don't need a short code, which is a much pricier option at ~$600/month (an amount more in itself than all the list size buckets quoted above except the largest)
- Don’t send long messages (over 160 characters)—longer messages will use up at least double your messaging credits, which means a message to a list size of 10,000 becomes 20,000 messages
- Also, don’t include images in your messages too often—images use up three messaging credits, so if you have a list size of 5,000, one picture message can use up 15,000 credits
- Watch out for the little costs that add up with some providers—carrier fees, incoming message fees, feature add-ons, and similar fees
- Don’t send more messages than you need to—you’ll need to get a feel for your particular audience’s tolerance level, but you don’t typically need to send a lot when it comes to SMS
CJ Chidiegwu, customer service specialist for Mobile Text Alerts, also has these practical tips in regard to message length in particular:
- Always make sure you check your credit and character count when creating your message, so that you know just how many credits your message will require
- If you need to shorten your message, use a feature such as the Mobile Text Alerts AI Shortener to summarize your message content
- If you ever need to send a message requiring three or more credits, always switch to the MMS option (which always costs three credits, allows you to attach an image if you’d like to, and increases your character allotment to 1,550 instead of 160)
Methodology
I used our internal AI tool to analyze customer payments according to list size across 723 total accounts.
To estimate what customers are paying, we reviewed the newest currently paying accounts in Mobile Text Alerts and measured each account’s live subscriber total. We paired that with each account’s latest active monthly recurring revenue, then filtered to accounts with the appropriate amount of active subscribers. This produced a different sample of accounts for each list size, from which we calculated the median monthly recurring revenue and estimated the average monthly revurring revenue:
- List size: 500 or fewer subscribers – a sample of 411 accounts
- List size: 501–2,500 subscribers – a sample of 131 accounts
- List size: 2,501–10,000 subscribers – a sample of 89 accounts
- List size: 10,001–50,000 subscribers – a sample of 50 accounts
- List size: Over 50,000 subscribers – a sample of 42 accounts
Methodology caveats: The average payment figures are estimates based on multiple AI-assisted sample batch roll-ups of currently paying accounts. They should be interpreted as directional rather than exact full-population averages. The samples also included all SMS use cases (not just marketing).
Two SMS experts also gave their advice on how to avoid overpaying for SMS:
- Sam Pelton (myself) – content director for Mobile Text Alerts who has been working in the SMS space for twelve years.
- CJ Chidiegwu – customer support specialist for Mobile text Alerts since June of 2023 who helps real SMS customers weekly.
FAQ
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Author bio
Sam Pelton is the content director for Mobile Text Alerts, an SMS service that gives businesses an easier way to reach customers and audiences. He has 12 years of experience working with the texting platform in the areas of customer support, quality assurance testing, content creation, copywriting, and marketing strategy. He’s also a father of 6 and loves a good (bad) dad joke. Connect with him on LinkedIn.