What is 10DLC?

Where to go next

This is the hub for 10DLC on SimplyRCS. The four pages below take one question each, in the order a new sender meets them.

• How 10DLC registration works: the brand and campaign steps, what to gather, and how long each stage takes.
• What 10DLC compliance means: the consent rules that sit on top of registration, opt-in wording, STOP handling and records.
• What The Campaign Registry is: the body that holds your brand and campaign records and issues the trust score.
• 10DLC vs RCS: why a registration framework and a messaging channel are not alternatives, and why an RCS programme still needs 10DLC.
• The full US rate card: every registry fee and carrier surcharge on one page, passed through at cost.

10DLC in 60 seconds

• You register twice: once for the brand (who you are) and once per campaign (what you send).
• Registration is done through your messaging provider, not directly with the carriers.
• The registry fees are small and fixed; the cost of skipping registration is filtered or blocked traffic.
• Approval quality sets your throughput, so a complete, accurate filing is a deliverability decision.
• 10DLC governs SMS and MMS from 10-digit numbers. Toll-free numbers and short codes have their own approval paths.

Before 10DLC existed, a business texting from a normal number was indistinguishable from a spammer texting from a normal number, and the carriers treated both the same way: unpredictable filtering, silent drops, and no route of appeal. 10DLC replaced guesswork with a register. The trade is explicit, you disclose who you are and what you intend to send, and in exchange you get throughput and a deliverability path that can be diagnosed when it goes wrong.

Why "A2P" is where the confusion starts

A2P means an application is sending the message rather than a person typing it, which covers essentially all business texting: appointment reminders, order updates, one-time passcodes, marketing. "A2P 10DLC" and "10DLC" are used interchangeably in practice. Person-to-person texting from your own handset is unaffected and needs no registration.

The line is about the sender, not the content. A message typed by a support agent in a shared inbox is still A2P, because an application is transmitting it. Assuming otherwise is a common and expensive mistake.

Who does what

Three parties are involved and it helps to keep them separate.

You register, and are responsible for the accuracy of what you register. The Campaign Registry, usually shortened to TCR, is the central body that holds brand and campaign records and issues a trust score. The carriers, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and others, read that record and decide your throughput and filtering treatment. Your messaging provider submits the paperwork on your behalf and, if they are being straight with you, passes the registry fees through at cost.

What actually gets registered

Registration happens at two levels, and both matter.

• Brand. Your legal entity: registered name, address, EIN, website, and contact details. These are checked against public records, and a mismatch between the name you trade under and the name on file is the single most common cause of a rejection or a low trust score.
• Campaign. The use case you intend to text about, with sample messages, your opt-in language, and how opt-out is handled. A business running marketing and transactional programmes registers each separately, because the carriers treat them differently.

Throughput follows from the pair. A well-registered brand on a vetted use case gets meaningfully more messages per second than a thinly-registered one, which is why registration quality is a deliverability decision rather than an administrative chore. The step-by-step filing, with what to gather before you start, is in how 10DLC registration works.

What 10DLC costs

The registry fees are set by The Campaign Registry and its vetting partners, not by the provider. SimplyRCS passes them through at cost on their own invoice lines, and these are the figures from our published rate card.

Two things the table does not show. Vetting is optional but usually worth it: a vetted brand gets a higher trust score, and the trust score sets your throughput. And the registry fees are separate from the per-message carrier surcharges that every 10DLC message carries, which are also listed line by line on the pricing page. Providers that fold either into a "platform fee" are not cheaper, only harder to read.

What happens if you skip it

Unregistered A2P traffic on a 10-digit number is heavily filtered or blocked outright. This is almost always the real answer behind "our texts suddenly stopped arriving": nothing broke, the traffic was simply never sanctioned, and the carriers' filtering caught up with it. There is no message-level error that makes this obvious, which is why it tends to be discovered late.

How this relates to RCS

10DLC and RCS are different layers and both are needed. 10DLC governs whether you are allowed to send and how fast; RCS governs what the message looks like and whether the recipient can tell it is really you. An RCS-first send falls back to SMS for anyone who cannot receive RCS, and that fallback rides your registered 10DLC number, so registration still matters even when RCS is doing the work. 10DLC vs RCS takes the comparison further.

10DLC numbers

A 10DLC number is any ordinary 10-digit US local number once it has been registered for A2P traffic: there is no special number type to buy, only a registration to complete. On SimplyRCS a local number is $0.50 a month with a $0.50 setup, and the brand and campaign registration that turns it into a sanctioned business sender is filed for you. One campaign can send from several numbers, and one number can belong to only one campaign at a time, so the number plan follows the use-case plan rather than the other way round. An existing number you already text from can be ported in and registered rather than replaced.

Common 10DLC questions, answered

What does 10DLC stand for? 10-digit long code: a standard US phone number with an area code, as opposed to a five- or six-digit short code. The "A2P" often written in front of it means application-to-person, the kind of traffic the registration covers.

What is a 10DLC number? Any ordinary 10-digit US number that has been registered for business messaging. The number itself is not special; the registration attached to it is. A local number you already use for calls can be registered and used for texting.

What does "A2P 10DLC registration required" mean? It is the message a provider shows when an account tries to send US traffic from a local number that has no approved brand and campaign behind it. Nothing is broken; the traffic will be blocked or filtered until the registration is filed and approved. SimplyRCS files it for you before your first send.

Is 10DLC registration required? For A2P messages from a 10-digit US number, yes. Since the carriers' enforcement dates in 2023 unregistered traffic is blocked or heavily filtered rather than merely slowed. Toll-free numbers use a separate verification process and short codes a separate approval, so those are the only ways to text US customers without 10DLC.

How long does 10DLC registration take? Brand registration is often approved the same day. Campaign vetting typically takes a few business days, longer for regulated or higher-risk use cases, and longest of all when the submission has to be corrected and resubmitted. A complete first filing is the single biggest time-saver.

How much does 10DLC cost? A one-time $4.50 brand registration, a one-time $15 campaign vetting fee, and a monthly campaign fee from $1.50 to $30 depending on the use case, plus optional vetting from $41.50. The table above has every line. Per-message carrier surcharges are separate.

Is 10DLC a law? No. It is an industry framework run by the US carriers through The Campaign Registry, not a statute or an FCC rule. The law that governs the content and consent of your messages is the TCPA, and passing registration does not by itself make you compliant with it. 10DLC compliance covers the difference.

10DLC or toll-free? A 10DLC number is local, familiar and cheap, and needs brand and campaign registration. A toll-free number is verified rather than registered, has one nationwide identity, and suits customer-service programmes that already advertise an 800 number. Most local businesses and most marketing programmes use 10DLC.

10DLC or a short code? Short codes offer the highest throughput and are leased at far higher cost, with their own approval process. They make sense at very high volume or where a memorable code is part of the campaign. What is a short code sets out when one is still worth it.

Does your privacy policy matter for 10DLC? Yes. Campaign reviewers check the privacy policy on the website you register, and expect it to say that mobile opt-in data is not shared with third parties for marketing. A privacy policy that is missing, or silent on that point, is one of the most common reasons a campaign is rejected.

Does 10DLC apply outside the US? No. It is a framework of the US carriers for US numbers. Canada and other countries filter A2P traffic under their own rules, and a programme that texts both markets registers separately for each.