SMS message
Any phoneYYour brand
Hi Anna, your order’s ready. Pick it up at our Main St. store by Friday. Show this text for 10% off your next visit. Reply STOP to opt out.
Any phone · Text message
SMS segment calculator & character counter
One SMS holds 160 plain characters, or only 70 if any character is outside the GSM alphabet. A curly apostrophe or an emoji is enough. Longer messages are split into parts of 153 (or 67) and each part is billed.
Last reviewed · How we measure
Too long
The SMS message limit at a glance
- Limit
- 160 characters (70 with Unicode) per part
- How it’s counted
- GSM-7 characters count 1 (a few count 2); any other character switches the whole message to Unicode.
- When it’s too long
- It’s split into more parts, and each part is billed as a separate message.
- Where the number comes from
- Official limit
- Last reviewed
How to write for it
- Swap curly quotes and long dashes for plain ones to stay on the cheap alphabet.
- € [ ] { } ^ ~ | and \ each count as two characters.
Where you’ll see the SMS message
SMS shows in full on the phone, so the limit is about cost: each message is split into billed parts once it passes 160 characters, or 70 with an emoji.
Before and after
Hi Sam 👋 Your appointment at Bright Dental is confirmed for Tue 14 Oct at 3:30pm. Reply YES to confirm or call us on 0161 555 0123 to rearrange. See you soon!
Bright Dental: your appointment is Tue 14 Oct, 3:30pm. Reply YES to confirm or call 0161 555 0123 to change it.
Common mistakes
- One emoji or curly quote switching the whole message to Unicode and doubling the cost.
FAQ
SMS message: questions
What is the SMS message limit?
160 characters (70 with Unicode) per part. One SMS holds 160 plain characters, or only 70 if any character is outside the GSM alphabet. A curly apostrophe or an emoji is enough. Longer messages are split into parts of 153 (or 67) and each part is billed.
Why do emojis make an SMS cost more?
An emoji isn’t in the GSM alphabet, so the whole message switches to Unicode: 70 characters instead of 160, and 67 per part when it’s split.
Does Truncly send SMS?
No. Truncly checks and edits text; it doesn’t send messages.
What happens if my text message is too long?
It’s split into parts of 153 characters (67 with Unicode) and each part is billed separately.