Ⓘ Available to Essentials, Teams, and Corporate accounts
How SMS credits work
When sending an SMS, each message segment corresponds to one SMS credit. The number of characters per segment depends on the type of characters used in the message. If the message only uses GSM-7 characters, then a single message segment is 160 characters or less; thus an SMS message with 235 GSM-7 characters will use two message segments / credits per recipient.
However, if the message contains any non-GSM-7 characters, such as emojis, then the message must be encoded differently for sending. As a result, in those cases a single message segment is 70 characters or less, meaning that a 235 character SMS message that contains an emoji will use four message segments / credits per recipient.
Due to their variable nature, any non-GSM-7 character may count as more than one character for the purpose of identifying the number of characters in the message. For example, some emojis may be counted as seven characters, while others may only be counted as three. This is caused by the way those non-GSM-7 characters have to be encoded for sending and is outside of our control.
SMS credit pools
By default, any subaccount that has SMS enabled will be able to draw from your entire SMS credit pool. For example, if you have 60,000 credits and three subaccounts with SMS enabled, those three subaccounts will all see the full pool of 60,000 credits. However, the account Parent and Managers* with access to billing information can choose to distribute the credits between subaccounts so that they are only able to see their allotment of SMS credits.
For example, if you set up SMS credit limits so that Subaccount A has a limit of 40,000 credits, Subaccount B has a limit of 5,000 credits, and Subaccount C has a limit of 15,000 credits, then none of those subaccounts will be able to see the full pool of 60,000. Instead, Subaccount A will see its allotment of 40,000 credits, Subaccount B will see its allotment of 5,000 credits, and Subaccount C will see its allotment of 15,000 credits.
The Manager role is only available in Teams and Corporate accounts.
Managing subaccount SMS credit limits
Similar to contact limits and overages, setting a subaccount SMS credit limit will not prevent a subaccount from exceeding that credit limit. Instead, it will create an alert banner when they are approaching or have gone over their limit.
- Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select Billing from the dropdown menu.
- In the Plan & usage section, click on the Subaccount SMS usage tab.
![]()
- Click on the Edit limit button next to a subaccount to set the SMS limit for that subaccount.
- Click on the Save limit button.
Repeat these steps for your remaining subaccounts, as desired. You can always return to this page to edit the credit limits, if needed.
What the subaccounts see
Assigning a limit will dictate how many credits appear in each subaccount’s ‘allowed’ usage bar within the SMS campaign wizard. This is helpful when you want to show subaccounts how many SMS credits they should be using instead of displaying how many you purchased for your entire organization.
Without a limit
In a tiered account with 60,000 credits, without any limits, each subaccount will see an allotment of 60,000 credits.
With a limit
In the same tiered account with 60,000 credits, after setting a 5,000 credit limit for this subaccount, it will see an allotment of 5,000 credits.
Frequently asked questions about subaccount SMS credit limits
Will adding a limit prevent the subaccount from sending any messages / using any credits once they reach their limit?
No, assigning a limit will only update the subaccounts’ usage bar and discourage them from going over; they will still be able to exceed their limit. Once the limit is exceeded, a red overage bar will appear within the SMS campaign wizard at the subacount level. Parent level users will also see an overage for that subaccount within the Subaccount SMS usage tab.
Once a limit is assigned, can I go back to showing the total parent bucket again?
No, once a limit is assigned to a subaccount, it cannot be removed. Instead, you can edit the limit to reflect a different number.
Will my subaccount users be able to tell that I’ve created a limit for them?
No, once a limit is set, subaccount users will only see their allotment of credits. There will be nothing visible at the subaccount level that would indicate that there’s a larger pool of credits.