"No platform fee" is the right question to ask and the wrong place to stop. The phrase usually means a provider does not charge for access to its software, its API or its seats, and prices only what you send. Every provider on this page passes that test. But an RCS programme has costs that sit outside the per-message rate and outside the platform fee, and a comparison that stops at "usage-based" misses them. The scorecard below uses only what each provider has published, checked in September 2026, and says where a number is missing rather than guessing one.
What "usage-based" leaves out
A US RCS bill has four layers beyond the per-message rate, and a provider with no platform fee still charges most of them:
- Carrier fees. Each US carrier levies a per-message surcharge on business traffic. AWS publishes its RCS carrier fee beside its own rate ($0.00494 per rich text segment, $0.00949 per rich media message). Twilio publishes a range of $0.0025 to $0.02 per message on its US pricing page. SimplyRCS publishes the surcharge per carrier at cost on its own invoice line.
- Agent setup and vetting. A verified RCS sender is created once and reviewed annually. AWS lists $500 agent setup and $200 a year brand vetting. Twilio says US carriers charge a one-time onboarding fee per RCS sender and that Aegis charges an annual fee, without publishing the amounts. SimplyRCS lists $250 agent install, $200 a year Aegis review and $500 one-time T-Mobile activation.
- A recurring per-agent charge. This is the line that gets mistaken for a platform fee. AWS bills $200 a month agent maintenance per RCS agent. SimplyRCS bills $250 a month per verified RCS agent, and that charge includes the app, API, bot builder, inbox, analytics and human support. Telnyx, Plivo and Twilio do not list a monthly agent charge, and on those platforms the campaign tooling, inbox and verification work are yours to build or file.
- Numbers and registry fees. Number rental (from $0.50 a month at SimplyRCS, per-number rental at Twilio) and The Campaign Registry's 10DLC fees ($4.50 brand registration, $15 campaign vetting, $1.50 to $10 a month per campaign), which every provider passes through.
The scorecard
| Provider | Platform or subscription fee | Published US RCS rates | Recurring per-agent charge | Setup and vetting | Who files verification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimplyRCS | None: no software, seat or API fee | $0.0039 text or card, $0.0150 media, same inbound | $250/month per verified agent, includes app, API, bots, inbox, support | $250 install, $200/yr Aegis, $500 T-Mobile activation, all published | SimplyRCS, in-house |
| Telnyx | None; free 24/7 engineering support | $0.0065 per segment text, $0.016 media | None listed | Self-serve; carrier and vetting fees passed through | You |
| Plivo | None on pay-as-you-go; Enterprise plan from $1,000/month | $0.0077 per segment text, $0.0180 media | None listed | Self-serve | You |
| Twilio | None for messaging; production support from $250/month or 4% of spend | ~$0.0083 basic, ~$0.0220 media sent | None listed | One-time carrier onboarding fee per sender and annual Aegis fee, amounts not published | You file in the console; a Twilio specialist reviews |
| AWS End User Messaging | None; pay as you go | $0.007 per segment text + $0.00494 carrier, $0.020 media + $0.00949 carrier | $200/month agent maintenance | $500 agent setup, $200/yr brand vetting, published | You, through the AWS console |
| Bandwidth | Contract | Not published | Contract | Contract | Contracted onboarding |
| Sinch, Infobip, Vonage, Bird | Quote or plan tiers (Sinch Engage $49 to $249/month) | Not published | Inside the quote | Sinch publishes up to $500 activation | Provider-assisted at Sinch and Infobip |
Read down the "recurring per-agent charge" column and the shape of the market is clear. The two providers that operate the verified sender for you as a managed service, AWS and SimplyRCS, both carry a fixed monthly per-agent line. The three that hand you the API and the forms do not. Neither model is a platform fee, and the fair comparison is what the monthly line buys against what you would otherwise build and file yourself.
Why the $250 per agent at SimplyRCS is not a platform fee
A platform fee is charged for access: per seat, per feature tier, per API key, or as a subscription that exists whether or not you send. SimplyRCS has none of those. The $250 a month is billed per verified RCS agent, which is the Google- and carrier-verified sender identity that puts your name, logo and checkmark on every message. One brand with one sender pays $250 a month plus what it sends, and that single line covers the campaign builder, the bot canvas, the shared inbox, analytics, the full API and human support. Two brands, or one brand that needs separate verified senders, pay per sender. AWS bills the same shape of charge at $200 a month per agent without the tooling. The reason it exists is that a verified sender is a live, carrier-registered asset that has to be maintained, and the reason it is published is that the pricing page is meant to be enough to predict the invoice from.
Which one is cheapest at your volume
No platform fee does not settle the price, because the five rate cards are shaped differently. At low volume, the pay-as-you-go providers with no monthly agent line are cheaper in total: on rich text the SimplyRCS agent fee is earned back at roughly 96,000 messages a month against Telnyx and roughly 65,800 against Plivo, and below those volumes their pay-as-you-go totals are lower. Against Twilio the crossover is lower still because Twilio's basic rate is more than double SimplyRCS's text rate before carrier fees. Against AWS, both carry a monthly agent line, so the per-message comparison decides it at every volume: $0.0039 against $0.007 per segment on text, $0.0150 against $0.020 on media, before carrier fees on both sides. SimplyRCS vs Telnyx, SimplyRCS vs Plivo and SimplyRCS vs Twilio work through the crossovers with the carrier fees included.
Two more things move the answer. Interactive cards with buttons, chips and suggested actions and no attached media bill at the text rate on SimplyRCS and at the rich or per-segment rate elsewhere, and that is the format most business RCS programmes send most. And a 10DLC long code, a toll-free number and a short code each carry their own rental and registry lines whichever provider you choose, so the number plan belongs in the model too.
How to check a "usage-based" quote
Ask five questions, in writing, of any provider that says it charges only for usage. Is there any charge that recurs whether or not I send, and what is it per sender? Are US carrier surcharges passed through at cost on their own line, marked up, or blended into the rate? What are the one-time and annual fees for creating and re-vetting a verified sender, and are they published? Who files Google sender verification and 10DLC, and is that included? And what is billed on a failed message, a support ticket or an AI feature? A rate card that answers all five can be compared with any other. One that does not is a single number you cannot decompose. Which RCS provider has the most transparent pricing? scores nine providers on exactly those layers.
- Five providers charge no platform, subscription or seat fee for RCS and bill per message: SimplyRCS, Telnyx, Plivo, Twilio and AWS End User Messaging.
- Every verified RCS sender carries ecosystem charges no provider can waive: one-time agent setup, annual brand vetting, and carrier surcharges per message.
- AWS ($200/month) and SimplyRCS ($250/month) both bill a fixed monthly charge per verified RCS agent; at SimplyRCS that line includes the app, API, bots, inbox, analytics and support.
- Telnyx, Plivo and Twilio list no monthly agent charge; on those platforms the tooling and the verification filing are yours.
- Below roughly 66,000 to 96,000 rich text messages a month, Plivo or Telnyx pay-as-you-go totals are lower than SimplyRCS's rate plus agent fee; above that the per-message gap dominates.
- Twilio's production support plan starts at $250 a month or 4% of spend; its free plan carries no guaranteed response time.