United States

Restricted country The United States has SMS restrictions in place. Before you can send messages to this country, you must request approval from MessageBird. More info: Requesting Access for Restricted Countries.

In order to send SMS to the United States, customers are required to: 1) Order a local US number from the Options below. Ordering and registration procedures vary. 2) Request access to be able to send SMS to this Restricted Country. 3) Use your local US number as the originator. MessageBird offers 3 types of numbers for sending SMS messages to the United States. Here, you can compare the various features of each number type and determine which number is the best fit for your use case.

Short Code

Toll-Free Number

10DLC - FAQ

How to order

via Account Manager

via Support or Account Manager

via Dashboard

Type of Number

Five/Six digit Short Code

Toll-Free Number

Geographical Number

Example

12345

18885555555

13458674329

SMS enabled

Yes

Yes

Yes

Voice-enabled

No

Yes

Yes

MMS enabled

No

Yes

Yes

2-Way Possible

Yes

Yes

Yes

Suggested Use Cases

High volumes, Marketing, 2FA, Alerts

Low - Medium volumes, 2FA, Non-Marketing & Marketing, Customer Service, Alert Notifications

Low - Medium volumes, All Use Cases

Mixed Use Cases

Yes

Yes

Not advised

Unicode

Yes

Yes

Yes

Concatenated

Yes

Yes

Yes

Carrier DLR's

Yes

Yes

No

Service Restrictions

Content pre-approved by CTIA. Content must follow CTIA Guidelines* and local regulations

Content pre-approved via Use Case Verification form. Content must follow CTIA Guidelines* and local regulations

Content must follow CTIA Guidelines* and local regulations

Daily Send Limit

N/A

N/A

Yes. TBC by operators on case by case basis after 10DLC registration

Throughput Limit

High. TBC by operators on case by case basis

Medium/High (increase after Use Case Verification)

TBC by operators on case by case basis after 10DLC registration

Pass-through fee**

Yes, depending on the recipient's operators

Yes, depending on the recipient's operators

Yes, depending on the use case and recipient's operators

Inbound Charge

Yes

Yes

No. Only carrier pass-through fees

Setup Time

8-12 weeks

1 business day Use case verification can take up to 1 week

1 week

Minimum Subscription Period

3 months

N/A

12 months

*Find here the current CTIA Guidelines **Passthrough fees are determined by the operators and are subject to change. This is out of MessageBird's control.

Additional Carrier Pass-through Fees

There are additional Carrier Pass-through fees per message on top of MessageBird message rates. These are determined by the operators and are subject to change. *Note: These additional costs will be added to current MessageBird message rates. Message charges will continue to be: Base MessageBird message rate + Surcharge to destination carrier = Total message cost.

Find the current US Carrier Fees here.

OPT-IN and OPT-OUT Compliance

MessageBird will monitor standard OPT-IN and OPT-OUT keywords (see list below) to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations. If an opt-out request is received, MessageBird will process it and block future communications between the Sender and the Recipient (opted-out number) until this same Recipient (the end-user) OPT-IN again by sending the appropriate keyword. Personalized opt-out acknowledgment, non-standard opt-out words - for example, in different languages - as well opted-out number tracking can be set up by customers using Flow Builder or, if you use Contacts, activating the Automatic SMS Subscriptions (Opt-in/Opt-out).

Standard OPT-OUT keywords used by MessageBird are (all case insensitive)

  • stop *

* No personalized opt-out confirmation is allowed for Toll-Free Numbers. For those keywords, the carriers will send a standard opt-out message as acknowledgment and block traffic immediately. This restriction does not apply to Long codes and Shortcodes.

Standard OPT-IN keywords used by MessageBird are (all case insensitive) are

  • unstop

  • start

  • yes

Support to HELP keyword for Opted-Out end-users

Each MessageBird customer must support the HELP keyword and send required HELP messages to end-users. HELP requests should be supported at all times, even when it is requested by opted-out end-users. To prevent abuse and unsolicited content delivery, Messagebird will allow only pre-approved HELP templates to be sent to OPTED-OUT end-users. Customized messages remain available for OPTED-IN end-users. To avoid blocking, please ensure your HELP answer to OPTED-OUT end-users matches the following template:

Manage your preferences. Reply STOP to opt-out or START to opt-in. Msg&Data rates may apply.

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