SMS marketing statistics for US businesses
SMS marketing statistics start with price: 27 of the 39 US business SMS providers we track publish a per message rate, from 0.35c to 8.00c per SMS on pages read between 8 September and 21 September 2026, and 10,000 texts a month cost $35 to $400 in message charges, median $82.40. The most repeated figure, a 98% SMS open rate, has no published method: standard SMS does not record opens. 98% of US adults own a cellphone (Pew Research Center, 2025).
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US business SMS rates, September 2026: what 39 providers publish
Our own dataset, "US business SMS rates, September 2026: what 39 providers publish", records what each provider states on its own US pricing page. Every finding below comes from those pages, read between 8 and 21 September 2026, with the rate, its basis, the URL and the date stored for each provider.
- Analysis of 39 US business SMS providers' public pricing pages, read between 8 September and 21 September 2026, found that 27 publish a per message rate in US dollars, 1 (Messente) publishes only in euros, and 11 publish no per message rate at all.
- Across the 27 providers that publish a US rate, each provider's lowest published rate per outbound SMS runs from 0.35c (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to 4.00c (Salesmsg), with a median of 0.90c, read between 8 September and 21 September 2026.
- The dearest published US rate, 8.00c per SMS (Avochato), is 23 times the cheapest, 0.35c (Bird (formerly MessageBird)), on pages read between 8 September and 21 September 2026.
- Of the 7 providers that price US SMS by number type, the median rate is 0.77c on a long code, 0.78c on a toll-free number and 0.77c on a short code (pricing pages read between 8 September and 21 September 2026).
- Only 7 of the 39 providers publish one US rate that holds at any volume; the rest key their rates to a volume band, a top-up amount, a plan, a credit bundle or a number type.
- At 1,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $3.50 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $40 (Salesmsg), with a median of $8.24, across the 16 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees.
- At 10,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $35 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $400 (Salesmsg), with a median of $82.40, across the 16 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees.
- At 100,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $350 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $4,000 (Salesmsg), with a median of $818, across the 15 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees.
- 26 of the 34 providers whose trial terms we recorded on their own sites publish a free trial or free credits.
- 4 of the 34 providers we classified (Twilio, Bird (formerly MessageBird), Bandwidth, Telnyx) sell SMS through an API only, with no web app that sends one text to a whole contact list.
27 providers publish a US rate. Sorted from cheapest to dearest by their lowest published rate: Bird (formerly MessageBird) 0.35c, Telnyx 0.40c, Bandwidth 0.60c, TrueDialog 0.69c, Omnisend 0.70c, Postscript 0.70c, Clickatell 0.75c, Plivo 0.77c, Sinch 0.78c, Emotive 0.80c, Infobip 0.82c, Twilio 0.83c, Vonage 0.86c, Sendlane 0.90c, ClickSend 0.96c, EZ Texting 1.00c, Kudosity (formerly BurstSMS) 1.00c, Text Request 1.30c, Heymarket 1.50c, MessageMedia 1.60c, SMSGlobal 1.90c, Avochato 2.00c, Notifyre 2.00c, SimpleTexting 2.00c, Textline 3.00c, BulkSMS 3.21c, Salesmsg 4.00c.
How the dataset was built
We read each provider's own US pricing page through a United States connection and recorded the rate exactly as published. For every rate we stored its basis, whether flat, by volume band, by top-up amount, by plan, by credit bundle or by number type, together with the URL and the date. We convert no currency and estimate no missing rate, so a provider that publishes no rate is counted as not publishing one. Message charges at a volume use one rule per basis, the same rule our comparison pages use. Number rental and carrier fees are left out of message charges because providers bill them on different terms. The full scoring method sits at how we rate SMS providers.
Every sourced SMS marketing statistic
29 figures: the 10 findings above and 19 from other publishers, each traced to its primary source. Filter by topic, year or source type, and copy any figure with its citation.
Showing all 29 figures.
| Figure | Source | Cite | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analysis of 39 US business SMS providers' public pricing pages, read between 8 September and 21 September 2026, found that 27 publish a per message rate in US dollars, 1 (Messente) publishes only in euros, and 11 publish no per message rate at all. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| Across the 27 providers that publish a US rate, each provider's lowest published rate per outbound SMS runs from 0.35c (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to 4.00c (Salesmsg), with a median of 0.90c, read between 8 September and 21 September 2026. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| The dearest published US rate, 8.00c per SMS (Avochato), is 23 times the cheapest, 0.35c (Bird (formerly MessageBird)), on pages read between 8 September and 21 September 2026. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| Of the 7 providers that price US SMS by number type, the median rate is 0.77c on a long code, 0.78c on a toll-free number and 0.77c on a short code (pricing pages read between 8 September and 21 September 2026). | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| Only 7 of the 39 providers publish one US rate that holds at any volume; the rest key their rates to a volume band, a top-up amount, a plan, a credit bundle or a number type. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| At 1,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $3.50 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $40 (Salesmsg), with a median of $8.24, across the 16 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| At 10,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $35 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $400 (Salesmsg), with a median of $82.40, across the 16 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| At 100,000 texts a month, message charges at the published rate run from $350 (Bird (formerly MessageBird)) to $4,000 (Salesmsg), with a median of $818, across the 15 providers whose published pricing sets a rate at that volume, before number rental and carrier fees. | 2026 | Cost | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| 26 of the 34 providers whose trial terms we recorded on their own sites publish a free trial or free credits. | 2026 | Marketing | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| 4 of the 34 providers we classified (Twilio, Bird (formerly MessageBird), Bandwidth, Telnyx) sell SMS through an API only, with no web app that sends one text to a whole contact list. | 2026 | Marketing | SMS Comparison, 2026. Our own data, method on this page; sample 39 providers | |
| SMS flow click rates near 10% on average, about double campaign click rates; top performers above 16% (data from over 183,000 Klaviyo customers) | 2026 | Open and response | Klaviyo, 2026. Vendor report with a method; sample over 183,000 Klaviyo customers (all regions) | |
| 98% of US adults own a cellphone; 91% own a smartphone | 2025 | Adoption | Pew Research Center, 2025. Research body or regulator; sample 5,022 US adults | |
| Americans check their phones 186 times per day (11.6 times per hour), self-reported | 2025 | Adoption | Reviews.org, 2026. Vendor report with a method; sample about 1,000 US adults | |
| US adults owning a cellphone / smartphone by survey date: 2/7/2019 96% / 81%; 2/8/2021 97% / 85%; 9/5/2023 97% / 90%; 6/10/2024 98% / 91%; 6/18/2025 98% / 91% | 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 | Adoption | Pew Research Center, 2025. Research body or regulator | |
| US SMS campaign click-rate tiers: great 14.6% and above, good 8.9% to 14.5%, room for improvement 6.0% to 8.8%, critical below 5.9%; unsubscribe great below 0.5%, good 0.6% to 1.4% | 2025 | Open and response | Klaviyo (Help Center), 2025. Vendor report with a method | |
| 30% of North American online shoppers name SMS their most preferred channel (24% globally); 72% have made a purchase after receiving a text from a brand | 2024 | Marketing | Klaviyo with Recharge, 2024. Vendor report with a method; sample 8,781 people (North America, Europe, APAC) | |
| US SMS marketing market valued at USD 2.86 billion in 2023; CAGR 20.8% from 2024 to 2030; USD 3.21 billion in 2024; USD 9.96 billion forecast for 2030 | 2023 | Marketing | Grand View Research, 2024. Vendor report, no method | |
| US MMS and SMS messages: 2.0 trillion in 2021; more than 2.1 trillion in 2022 (6% more than 2021) | 2021, 2022 | Adoption | CTIA, 2023. Industry association | |
| Reported US losses to text scams: $67M (2019), $86M (2020), $131M (2021), $330M (2022); text fraud reports 137K, 332K, 378K, 330K; median reported loss $1,000 in 2022 | 2019 to 2022 | Compliance | Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Sentinel Network), 2023. Research body or regulator; sample reports as counted | |
| Most preferred method for receiving marketing messages from brands: email 52%, messaging/SMS/text 19%, social media 16%; most wanted text types: shipping notifications 52%, sales and promotions 45% | 2022 | Marketing | Validity, 2023. Vendor report with a method; sample 1,218 consumers (US, UK, AU, NZ); results reported as global percentages | |
| 55% of all SMS are read; 100% are viewed (Mobilesquared latest data, 2022) | 2022 | Open and response | Mobilesquared, 2022. Vendor report, no method | |
| Consumers prefer texting over voice calling nearly 2 to 1; nearly half text every day (Morning Consult poll of 1,999 registered voters, 3 to 5 Dec 2021) | 2021 | Adoption | FCC Consumer Advisory Committee report citing a Morning Consult survey, 2022. Research body or regulator | |
| Complaints to the FCC about unwanted texts: 5,700 (2019) to 15,300 (2021); complaints to the FTC about unwanted texts: 107,673 (2019) to 377,840 (2021) | 2019, 2021 | Compliance | FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (citing FCC consumer alert of 28 Jul 2022 and FTC Consumer Sentinel), 2022. Research body or regulator | |
| 2.2 trillion SMS and MMS messages exchanged in the US in 2020, over 119 billion more than 2019; MMS up 28% | 2020 | Adoption | CTIA, 2021. Industry association | |
| US text traffic reached 2.1 trillion in 2019, up 52 billion texts from 2018 | 2019 | Adoption | CTIA, 2020. Industry association | |
| 9 out of 10 consumers want to use messaging to communicate with brands (global survey) | 2016 | Marketing | Twilio (research by Vanson Bourne), 2016. Vendor report with a method; sample 6,000 consumers, 7 countries including the US | |
| Global: 66% prefer messaging to reach or be reached by brands; 47% prefer native SMS when communicating with brands; more than 80% have notifications on for native SMS apps; 85% want to reply to business messages | 2016 | Marketing | Twilio (research by Vanson Bourne), 2016. Vendor report with a method; sample 6,000 consumers, 7 countries | |
| 61% of mobile marketers surveyed did not use SMS (Gartner 2016 Digital Channel Survey) | 2016 | Marketing | Gartner, 2016. Vendor report, no method | |
| 75% of consumers would rather text with a customer support agent than correspond via social media; 52% would prefer texting over their current support method | 2014 | Marketing | HeyWire Business (press release on Business Wire), 2014. Vendor report with a method; sample more than 700 consumers |
What the SMS open rate is
SMS opens are not measured, because standard SMS has no read receipt or tracking pixel, and the widely repeated 98% figure has no published method. The number traces back to Mobilesquared, a UK messaging research firm, which said in a 2022 blog post that its 2010 white paper "Conversational Advertising" found 98% of all SMS messages were read (Mobilesquared, 2022). The 2010 paper itself was not found, and no sample or method for it has been published. In the same post Mobilesquared said its latest data suggests 55% of all SMS are read and 100% are viewed, again with no method (Mobilesquared, 2022). A peer-reviewed paper in Political Behavior (2026) states that it is not clear where the 90 to 98% figure comes from, noting SMS lacks the pixel tracking email uses. Published claims run from 55% read to 98% read, and neither figure carries a method. What is measured instead is the click. Klaviyo's US benchmark tiers put SMS campaign click rate at 14.6% and above as great, 8.9% to 14.5% as good, 6.0% to 8.8% as room for improvement and below 5.9% as critical (Klaviyo, 2025). The comparison with email is where the survey evidence starts.
SMS against email, as surveys measure it
No source on this page measures open rates of the two channels side by side, so that comparison rests on preference and purchase surveys. In a survey of 1,218 consumers in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, 52% named email and 19% named text messaging as their most preferred way to receive marketing messages from brands, and 52% wanted shipping notifications by text (Validity, 2022). In a survey of 8,781 people, 30% of North American online shoppers named SMS their most preferred channel, 24% globally, and 72% said they had made a purchase after receiving a text from a brand (Klaviyo with Recharge, 2024). The only open rate comparison on record is Gartner's unsourced line that "various sources" report SMS open and response rates as high as 98% and 45%, against 20% and 6% for email (Gartner, 2016).
SMS statistics by year, 2019 to 2022
The year by year list below tracks US texting volume, ownership, scam losses and complaints from 2019 to 2022. Every figure in it carries its publisher and year.
2022
- More than 2.1 trillion text messages in the US in 2022, 6% more than 2021 (CTIA, 2023).
- Reported losses to text scams $330M, median loss $1,000; 330K text fraud reports; 25,725 bank-impersonation text reports (Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Sentinel Network), 2023).
- Survey fielded 25 Nov to 4 Dec 2022 (US, UK, AU, NZ; n=1,218): 19% most prefer SMS for brand marketing messages, 52% email (Validity, 2023).
- Mobilesquared: 55% of SMS read, 100% viewed (published 24 Aug 2022) (Mobilesquared, 2022).
2021
- 97% of US adults owned a cellphone and 85% a smartphone (Pew survey dated 2/8/2021) (Pew Research Center, 2025).
- 2.0 trillion MMS and SMS messages in the US in 2021 (CTIA, 2023).
- Reported losses to text scams $131M; 378K text fraud reports; 13,677 bank-impersonation text reports (Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Sentinel Network), 2023).
- 15,300 complaints to the FCC about unwanted texts; 377,840 complaints to the FTC about unwanted texts (FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (citing FCC consumer alert of 28 Jul 2022 and FTC Consumer Sentinel), 2022).
- Consumers prefer texting over voice calling nearly 2 to 1; nearly half text every day (Morning Consult, 1,999 registered voters, 3 to 5 Dec 2021) (FCC Consumer Advisory Committee report citing a Morning Consult survey, 2022).
2020
- 2.2 trillion SMS and MMS messages in the US in 2020, over 119 billion more than 2019, MMS up 28% (CTIA, 2021).
- More than 6,750 SMS and MMS messages per American in 2020 (FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (citing CTIA 2021), 2022).
- Reported losses to text scams $86M; 332K text fraud reports; 2,231 bank-impersonation text reports (Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Sentinel Network), 2023).
- 334,952 FTC text fraud reports in Q1 to Q4 2020 (FCC report footnote 17) (FCC Consumer Advisory Committee citing FTC Consumer Sentinel, 2022).
2019
- 96% of US adults owned a cellphone and 81% a smartphone (Pew survey dated 2/7/2019) (Pew Research Center, 2025).
- US text traffic reached 2.1 trillion messages in 2019, up 52 billion on 2018 (CTIA, 2020).
- Reported losses to text scams $67M; 137K text fraud reports; 1,355 reports of texts impersonating banks (Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Sentinel Network), 2023).
- 5,700 complaints to the FCC about unwanted texts; 107,673 complaints to the FTC about unwanted texts (FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (citing FCC consumer alert of 28 Jul 2022 and FTC Consumer Sentinel), 2022).
SMS marketing statistics questions
What is a good SMS response rate?
No published study measures SMS response rates with a method, so there is no sourced benchmark for a response rate. The measured figure is the click rate on a link in a text. Klaviyo's US benchmark tiers put SMS campaign click rate at 14.6% and above as great, 8.9% to 14.5% as good, 6.0% to 8.8% as room for improvement and below 5.9% as critical (Klaviyo, 2025).
What is a good SMS opt-out rate?
Klaviyo's US benchmark tiers for SMS unsubscribe rate put below 0.5% as great and 0.6% to 1.4% as good (Klaviyo, 2025). That is the only tiered benchmark among the sources on this page, and it comes from Klaviyo's own customer data. No other publisher cited here sets an opt-out benchmark.
What is a standard SMS rate?
There is no single standard rate, because providers publish different bases. In our September 2026 dataset of 39 providers, each provider's lowest published per message rate runs from 0.35c (MessageBird) to 4.00c (Salesmsg), with a median of 0.90c. You see every published per message US rate on our gateway prices page.
Is SMS getting phased out?
US texting volume does not show a phase out. US wireless customers exchanged 2.1 trillion texts in 2019 and more than 2.1 trillion in 2022 (CTIA). What is ending is the email to text gateway, which is not SMS itself. AT&T ended its gateway on 17 June 2025, and Verizon says it expects to end its email to text service by 31 March 2027 (each carrier's own support page, read 21 September 2026).
How effective is SMS marketing?
The measured evidence is click and purchase behavior. Automated SMS flows average a click rate near 10%, about double campaign click rates, from data on over 183,000 customers (Klaviyo, 2026). In a survey of 8,781 people, 72% said they had made a purchase after receiving a text from a brand (Klaviyo with Recharge, 2024). No sourced figure cited here measures SMS against a control group.
What's a good SMS open rate?
No open rate is measured at all, because standard SMS has no read receipt or tracking pixel. The widely repeated 98% traces back to a 2010 Mobilesquared white paper that was not found, with no sample or method published (Mobilesquared, 2022). A peer-reviewed paper in Political Behavior (2026) states it is not clear where the 90 to 98% figure comes from. Click rate is the figure to track instead.