In the US, each RCS message is billed as one of two types, decided automatically by what is in it. Text with reply buttons, a Call button or a link that opens the phone’s browser is Rich, the text rate. Any card, picture, video, carousel, or a map, calendar or in-app browser button makes it Rich Media. Senders that chat can instead pay per conversation: one charge for every message in a 24-hour conversation. Below is every element sorted into its type, what SimplyRCS charges, and the carrier fee added at cost.
Three ways a message is charged
| Type | What is in it | SimplyRCS | Carrier fee, sending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rich | Text, reply buttons, a Call button, links that open the browser | $0.0039 per 160-byte segment | $0.0045 to $0.0062 per segment |
| Rich Media | Any card or carousel, image, video, audio or file; map, calendar or in-app browser buttons | $0.0150 per message | $0.0070 to $0.0125 per message |
| Conversation (optional) | Every message, Rich and Rich Media, in a 24-hour conversation with at least 2 customer replies | $0.05 per conversation | $0.009 to $0.06 per conversation |
A segment is 160 bytes of text. Most messages are one segment; a long message is billed as several but arrives as one. Rich Media is one flat charge at any length or file size. Carrier fees shown are AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon; every carrier is listed on the pricing page.
Every element, sorted
| What the message contains | Billed as | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text up to 160 bytes | Rich | One segment. |
| Longer text | Rich | One segment per 160 bytes of text. The phone still shows one message. Up to 3,072 characters. |
| Emoji and accented letters | Rich | Each takes 2 to 4 bytes, so they fill a segment faster than plain letters. |
| Reply buttons (up to 11) | Rich | The words on the buttons are not counted. |
| A Call button | Rich | |
| A link button that opens the phone’s browser | Rich | |
| Any mix of the rows above | Rich | Still the text rate. |
| A link button that opens inside Messages (in-app browser) | Rich Media | The in-app browser is what changes the type. |
| A map button (show a place) | Rich Media | |
| A request for the customer’s location | Rich Media | |
| An Add to calendar button | Rich Media | |
| A rich card with a photo, GIF or video | Rich Media | |
| A rich card with only a title and description, no picture | Rich Media | Any card counts as Rich Media. |
| Buttons inside a card | Rich Media | The card already makes it Rich Media. |
| A carousel of 2 to 10 cards | Rich Media | With or without pictures. |
| An image file (JPEG, PNG or GIF) | Rich Media | |
| A video file | Rich Media | |
| An audio file | Rich Media |
What your customers send and tap
| The customer | Billed as | SimplyRCS |
|---|---|---|
| Types a reply | Rich | $0.0039 per segment |
| Taps a reply button | Rich | $0.0039 |
| Replies STOP or START | Rich | $0.0039 |
| Shares their location after being asked | Rich | $0.0039 |
| Sends a photo, video, audio clip or file | Rich Media | $0.0150 |
| Taps a Call, link, map or calendar button | Free | $0 |
| Opens a card or reads a message | Free | $0 |
Replies also carry the carrier’s inbound fee, which is lower than the sending fee and $0 on Verizon. Typing indicators, delivery and read receipts are never billed, and nothing a customer does on a web page after tapping a link counts as a message.
Device checks
Before sending RCS, SimplyRCS checks that the phone can receive it; if it cannot, the message goes as SMS or MMS at those rates instead. Each check is $0.0004, charged when a check runs, for example before the first RCS message to a number, or when you run one through the API.
Conversation pricing
A sender set up for conversation pricing pays once per conversation instead of per message. A conversation is charged once 4 messages are exchanged within 24 hours, at least 2 of them from the customer and at least 1 from you. One charge then covers every message in that 24-hour window, Rich Media included, even the messages sent before the count was reached: $0.05 on SimplyRCS plus the carrier’s conversation fee. Carriers call this an interactive session. From the customer, typed replies, reply-button taps, shared locations and photos count toward the 4; taps on call, link, map or calendar buttons do not.
| Carrier | SimplyRCS | Carrier conversation fee | Per conversation |
|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T | $0.05 | $0.03 | $0.08 |
| T-Mobile | $0.05 | $0.06 | $0.11 |
| Verizon | $0.05 | $0.009 | $0.059 |
Conversation pricing suits long or media-heavy chats and costs more on short ones. Each sender is set up one way or the other, so choose it for senders that chat, such as a support bot, and per-message billing for alerts and campaigns. The same conversation both ways, including carrier fees (each cell shows billed per message, then as a conversation):
| Conversation | AT&T | T-Mobile | Verizon | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A quick exchange: 2 texts out, 2 replies | $0.034 / $0.08 | $0.033 / $0.11 | $0.026 / $0.059 | Per message |
| A support chat: 8 texts out, 8 replies | $0.134 / $0.08 | $0.132 / $0.11 | $0.102 / $0.059 | Conversation |
| A shopping chat: 4 cards or carousels, 3 texts out, 4 replies | $0.159 / $0.08 | $0.166 / $0.11 | $0.130 / $0.059 | Conversation |
Designing messages for cost
- Talk in Rich: text with reply buttons does most of the work of a conversation at the text rate.
- Save Rich Media for the moment a picture, card or carousel earns it.
- Keep texts under 160 bytes where you can, and remember each emoji counts as several bytes.
- A link that opens the phone’s browser keeps a message at the Rich rate; one that opens inside Messages makes it Rich Media.
- Put long interactive tasks, such as browsing a menu or picking seats, on a web page opened from a button: taps on that page are not messages.
- Put chat-heavy senders on conversation pricing and keep alert and campaign senders per message.