Overview
If you've decided to start using Klaviyo to send SMS messages to subscribers, the next step is to set up your account with an available balance. Note that SMS billing does not follow the same billing pattern as a monthly email subscription plan.
This article will walk through how SMS billing works and where to find this billing information in your account so that you can review your spending and billing history.
How SMS Billing Works
When you complete SMS setup for the first time, you automatically launch a trial phase in which your first 50 messages are free. The account will remain in this free trial phase until you've sent all 50 messages. If you completed SMS setup and haven't sent any SMS messages, your available balance will reflect this.
Once your 50 free messages are sent, you will then be charged per message sent.
To find the rate of each message, click on View message rates at the bottom of the SMS Balance section. An expanded table will show the rates per message. Rates vary depending on how many SMS messages are sent within a billing cycle (every 30 days). The more text messages you send, the less each individual message will cost.
Keyword Responses that are mandatory within Klaviyo are free of charge and not included in this image. For more information on these responses, check out our documentation on setting up SMS.
After the first 50 messages, your available balance must cover the cost to send an SMS message.
Click Add to Balance. A popup will appear prompting you to add the dollar amount that you want to spend on messaging. Klaviyo’s default amount is $100; however, you can provide a valid input of anything between $5 and $10,000.
Once you type in an input, select Complete Order to add this amount to your balance.
SMS flow actions will start skipping recipients when your SMS balance is below the cost of sending a single SMS message. We will notify you when your SMS balance approaches $0, but it's important to be aware of your balance when sending out SMS flows. You may want to consider setting up automatic refill to help manage your billing when using these flows.
SMS Credit Card Details
Klaviyo does not support multiple credit cards in a single account. If you select Add to balance or set automatic refills using a different card than the one in your account, this will charge the credit card on file.
For details on how to add a new card, check out our article on how to update your credit card information.
You can also select Update credit card when you add to your balance or set automatic refills. Doing so will open a popup where you can change the credit card details for your account. If you are new to Klaviyo and have not added a credit card for use with emails, you will be prompted to enter your billing information.
Review a Summary of Your Account
Click the account dropdown and select Account to get an overview of your billing plan.
The Overview tab within your Account page displays information about your current email plan and limits, SMS balance, and usage summaries.
Click on Billing and select SMS Billing from the dropdown to update your SMS Billing information. Here, you can change your settings, adjust automatic refills, and add to your SMS available balance.
To see invoices and other details regarding SMS and email charges, navigate to Billing History from the Billing dropdown.
Configuring Automatic Refills for SMS
Automatic Refill
Automatic refills for SMS are useful if you want to make sure that SMS sending is never turned off due to insufficient funds in your account. From the SMS Billing page in Klaviyo, you can adjust how your SMS Balance is refilled. By default, all accounts have automatic refills disabled.
If you want to opt-in for automatic refill payments, toggle on the Automatic Refill option under Refill Settings.
Once enabled, you will see options related to setting up an automatic refill. The default refill amount is set at $100 to be uploaded each time the balance drops below $10.
You can enter in different monetary values in both of these boxes. Both fields must be filled in using an accepted value between $5 and $10,000. If you do not fill in both inputs or you select a value outside of that range, you will receive an error.
Once you include valid inputs for automatic refills, click Update Refill Settings. If the current available balance is below the automatic refill amount, you will see a message informing you that your account will receive an immediate charge.
Note that the credit card on file, if one exists, for your account is used for automatic refill payments. To change this, select Update credit card before updating your refill settings.
If the credit card is declined when trying to charge for an automatic refill, a notification will appear that directs you to return to this page and update the payment information. You will see a confirmation instead when an automatic refill is set up with a valid credit card.
Monthly Refill Limit
If you are concerned that automatic refills will lead to overspending on SMS, you have the option to set a maximum limit to be charged within a given billing cycle, which is defined as every 30 days. By default, accounts that have enabled automatic refill will have the monthly limit disabled.
To add a monthly refill limit, use the toggle to enable this setting and reveal the maximum input.
The default value for this limit will be five times the inputted refill amount. As shown in the example below, if your refill amount is $250, then Klaviyo sets the default maximum refill amount to $1,250. Klaviyo allows you to set a maximum monthly limit of $10-$1,000,000, depending on what your refill is set to.
Once a valid amount is added, click the Update Refill Settings button to save this information. If the monthly refill limit is outside of the acceptable range or is less than the automatic refill amount, you will see an in-line error message and will have to adjust this number before saving.
Once you successfully save your refill limit, a confirmation message will appear. If your maximum monthly refill is the same or lower than the total automatic refill already added in this billing cycle, no new refills will be made and a warning will appear.
Managing Your Balance
If your available balance drops below the cost of sending a single SMS and your account has automatic refills on but no monthly limit set, we will add your designated refill amount automatically. Conversely, if the account has automatic refills on as well as a monthly limit, we will add that refill amount to your balance until you reach your monthly limit per billing cycle.
You will be notified of any automatic refill payment and receive an emailed invoice. Once you reach your monthly limit, you will see a warning alert in your Account Overview.
Additional Costs
Aside from the costs of sending SMS messages, the phone numbers used to send texts may incur a separate charge if you decide to use numbers other than the first assigned long number.
The first long number provided to you when you set up SMS is free. However, each subsequent long number costs $1/month. The original long number in your account is the only one that is free; if you delete it and then add another, you will be charged the $1 per month.
Other additional numbers and codes are charged as follows:
- Toll-free numbers are $2/month
- Short codes are $1,300/month
- Vanity short codes are $1,800/month
Toll-free numbers have the throughput rate and costs as follows:
| Throughput (msg/sec) | Additional Cost |
| 3 | $0 |
| 25 | $300 |
| 50 | $600 |
| 75 | $900 |
| 100 | $1,200 |
| 125 | $1,500 |
| 150 | $1,800 |
| >150 | contact sales |
For short codes (including vanity short codes), the throughput rate and costs are as follows:
| Throughput (msg/sec) | Additional Costs |
| 100 | $0 |
| 150 | $200 |
| 200 | $400 |
| 250 | $700 |
| 300 | $1,000 |
| 350 | $1,350 |
| 400 | $1,850 |
| 450 | $2,600 |
| 500 | $3,500 |
View Fixed Costs
The total of these additional charges can be found in the Fixed Costs section of your SMS card in Account Overview. The monthly fixed costs show the total costs per month.
To see a breakdown of this total, click View details. An expanded list of line items will appear.
In this expanded state, there is also a link to Manage Numbers. Clicking this will navigate you back to your SMS Settings page.
Additional Resources
If you want to learn about how billing works outside of SMS, head to our article on How Klaviyo Bills Customers for Email