Understanding Klaviyo's SMS credit system

You will learn

Learn about Klaviyo’s billing system for SMS, such as why countries have different credit values and what’s included in these credits. 

Note that if you are trying to understand how many SMS or MMS messages you receive when purchasing credits, please use the SMS credit calculator on Klaviyo's pricing page. 

Before you begin

Depending on where you send, the credit per text message varies. 

Note that text messages can be either an SMS or MMS. The main difference is that MMS messages contain either an image or GIF and allow for more characters than SMS messages. 

North America

Europe

Oceania

When it comes to this system, you may have questions. We answer all of these in the following sections: 

• What are credits?
• Why does Klaviyo use credits rather than a price?
• Why does the credit differ by country?
• Why is MMS higher than SMS? 
• What messages cost credits with Klaviyo? 

What credits are 

Credits are the cost per SMS or MMS for a single recipient. 

Say that you want to send 1 SMS to 10 people in Australia. In that case, that send will cost 40 credits. 

Message character limits

SMS allows up to 160 characters, or 70 characters when there's an emoji or special character. MMS always allows 1600 characters (the limit does not change if you have an emoji or special character). 

If you exceed this character amount for a send, your SMS will have multiple segments, despite still showing a single message on the recipient's phone. To render these segments in the correct order, an invisible header of about 7 characters is added to all message segments. This means that rather than 160 characters, you'll instead have a 153 character limit. 

Calculate the total credits for a send

The formula for determining the total number of credits is:

Number of credits x Recipients x Message segments

Say you're sending to 100 people: 50 are in Ireland and 50 in the UK. Your message also counts as 2 message segments. In this case, the math would look like: 

• 9 (Ireland credit) x 50 x 2 = 900
  +
• 5 (UK credit) x 50 x 2 = 500
  =
• 1400 total credits

Why Klaviyo uses credits rather than price

Klaviyo uses credits to provide a transparent experience. It includes all carrier fees, so you don't pay anything on top of the credit itself. In addition, you don't need to pay to unlock additional features in Klaviyo.

Other SMS providers offer a price per message rather than using a credit system. However, usually there are separate carrier or platform fees, which are additional fees on top of the price per message. 

These extra fees vary depending on the platform, carrier, region, and even phone number type. Carrier fees, for instance, can jump 20% per year. This makes it difficult to know exactly how much a campaign will cost you or plan your budget for the month. 

Since Klaviyo includes these carrier fees, you know exactly how many credits you’ll use before you send.

What are carrier fees?

Carrier fees are surcharges that mobile carriers (e.g., Verizon, Vodafone, etc.) apply to a business’s outbound and, in some cases, inbound text messages. 

These fees change depending on:

• If the message is an SMS or MMS
• Whether the sending number is a toll-free number or short code
• Which country the message was sent to (UK, US, etc.)

Think of it like paying for a plane ticket, but after arriving at the airport, you realize you need to pay for a carry-on bag as well.

Why the credits are different in each country

In every country, carriers charge differently for SMS. Think of it like mailing a package. The price to mail a box in Canada is different than it is for the same box in New Zealand. 

For SMS, the reasons are based on which carriers are available in that country, the network itself, and other factors. For instance, in 2022, the carrier fees in Australia and New Zealand were: 

• Australia: $ 0.0515
• New Zealand: $0.1050

As you can see, New Zealand was more than double the price of Australia.

This is why the credits Klaviyo charges have to change from country to country. If carrier pricing increases or decreases in the future, credit amounts will change accordingly.

Why MMS is higher than SMS

No matter what SMS platform you’re using, MMS always costs more to send than SMS. MMS includes multimedia content, which consumes a lot more data than a plain-text message. 

Extra infrastructure is needed to send a multimedia message. This is why an MMS message not only costs more, but it also has different sending limits than an SMS message. 

Using Klaviyo, MMS simply requires more credits. With that, you can send images or GIFs under 600 KB and up to 1600 characters. However, not all SMS providers include the text in the cost of an MMS. 

What messages cost credits with Klaviyo 

Whether or not a message uses credits depends on what type of message it is. For instance, certain auto-responses and keyword responses cost credits, while others don’t.

The table below lists each message type and whether or not it costs credits. 

Find the cost of an SMS plan

To check the cost of other SMS plans:   

1. Select your account name in the bottom left. 
2. Navigate to Billing > Change plan. 
3. Scroll down to the SMS section. 
4. Open the dropdown. 
   
5. Select a plan to view its cost. 

Additional resources

• Understand how Klaviyo billing works
• How to change your plan in Klaviyo