SMS Character Limits Explained

Why your 165-character message costs twice as much.

The Basics

Standard SMS (GSM-7)

• Single message: 160 characters

• Multi-part: 153 characters per segment

• Characters: A-Z, 0-9, basic punctuation

Unicode SMS

• Single message: 70 characters

• Multi-part: 67 characters per segment

• Triggered by: Emojis, special characters

Why Messages Get Split

A 165-character message using GSM-7:

• Characters 1-153: Segment 1

• Characters 154-165: Segment 2

• Cost: 2 messages

A 75-character message with one emoji:

• Forces Unicode encoding

• 75 > 70 characters

• Cost: 2 messages

Pro Tips

• Use emojis sparingly - one is fine, ten is expensive

• Preview before sending - see segment count

• Shorten URLs - every character counts

• Skip fancy quotes - use straight quotes

Hermes shows segment count before you send. Try it free →