Bulk SMS questions and answers

BulkSMSOnline is a bulk SMS service where businesses send text message campaigns online, from the browser or through a REST API, to 227 countries and pay per message from a prepaid balance. You import a list, write one message, check the price per country and send now or at a set time.

It means sending one text message to many phone numbers from a web console instead of from a phone. You paste or upload the numbers, write the message once, and the service sends it to every recipient and reports what happened to each message.

No. The console runs in any current browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Developers who want to send from their own software use the REST API with a key from the console.

227 countries and territories in 11 regions, listed with their prices on the pricing page. One campaign can mix numbers from any of them, and each number is charged at its own country's price.

Appointment reminders, delivery windows, order and payment notices, one-time login codes, service alerts, event details and promotions to customers who agreed to receive them. Messages must follow the acceptable use policy.

Up to 50,000 recipients per campaign in the console and up to 10,000 per API request. Larger lists can be split into several campaigns that run one after another.

International format: the country calling code first, then the local number without any leading 0 used for domestic calls. +44 7700 900123, 0044 7700 900123 and 447700900123 are all read correctly. Spaces, dots, dashes and brackets are removed automatically.

Each number is used once, even if it appears several times. Lines that cannot be read as a phone number, or that belong to a destination we do not list, are set aside with the reason, and the composer shows how many were kept.

Put values after each number, separated by commas, semicolons or tabs, for example +447700900123, Maya, Friday. Then write {{1}}, {{2}} and so on in the message. Each recipient gets the text with their own values, up to nine per row.

One SMS holds 160 characters in the GSM-7 alphabet or 70 characters in Unicode. Longer messages are sent in segments of 153 or 67 characters that the phone joins back together, up to 10 segments per message.

A single character outside the GSM-7 alphabet, such as an emoji, a curly quote or a letter like ç, ł or ş, makes the whole message Unicode. The composer lists the characters that caused it so you can replace them if you want to keep 160 characters per segment.

Yes. Pick any time from 5 minutes to 60 days ahead. The time is entered in your browser's time zone, and the campaign starts on its own at that moment. A scheduled campaign can be canceled before it starts for a full refund.

Campaigns start immediately or at the scheduled time and leave the queue at up to 400 messages a minute. Delivery reports arrive as the destination networks confirm each message.

Yes. Enter one number in the test box of the composer and the message goes only to that phone, charged at that destination's normal price. It appears in your campaign list as a test.

Yes. Save your opt-out wording in Settings, for example a link, email or phone number where people can opt out, then tick the opt-out option in the composer to add it on a new line. It counts toward the message length. Add numbers that opt out to your do-not-send list and campaigns leave them out automatically.

Yes. Save up to 50 templates with a name and the text, including merge fields, and load any of them into the composer with one click.

Each campaign page shows live totals and one line per recipient with the status: queued, submitted, delivered, failed or canceled, plus the time of the last change and the reason for a failure.

Queued means waiting to leave, submitted means handed to the destination network, delivered means the handset confirmed it, failed means it could not be delivered and was refunded, and canceled means a scheduled message was stopped before sending.

Yes. Add a webhook URL in the API section of the console. Each final status is posted as JSON with an HMAC-SHA256 signature, and a delivery that fails is retried up to 9 times over about 22 hours.

A scheduled campaign can be canceled any time before it starts, and its full cost returns to your balance. Once a campaign is sending, messages leave within minutes.

Open Support in the console and create a ticket with a topic, a subject and the campaign or payment code if there is one. Before your first top-up is added, tickets cover payment questions; after it, every topic is open.

Messages your recipients expect: service notices, reminders, codes and marketing to people who agreed to receive it. The acceptable use policy lists what is not allowed, such as phishing, impersonation and messages to people who opted out.

Your campaigns, recipient numbers and message texts are kept in your account so that reports and billing stay complete. The privacy policy explains what is stored and for how long.