Most 10DLC fee pages print one provider's price list and call it the market. This page separates the three layers: what The Campaign Registry charges, what each carrier adds per segment, and what your platform chooses to pass on. Every figure carries a date, and figures that come from provider documents rather than the registry or the carrier are marked.
Carrier-grade infrastructure we own and operate
As of October 2026, 10DLC fees come in three layers. The Campaign Registry charges providers a one-time $4.50 brand fee, $41.50 for optional standard vetting, and a monthly campaign fee of $1.50 (low volume) or $10 (standard). Carriers add their own surcharge on top, such as AT&T's $0.0035 per SMS segment. Your platform decides what reaches your invoice.
The registration steps that trigger these fees are in our 10DLC registration guide; the rest of the SMS cost stack starts at the SMS marketing hub.
Last reviewed: October 2026.
The Campaign Registry publishes what it charges messaging providers in its CSP User Guide (July 2026). No carrier-hosted fee table could be fetched, so carrier surcharges come from provider help centers and carry a marker. Nothing in this table is the total a customer pays. Providers add vetting, numbers and their own margin on top.
| Fee | Amount, as of October 2026 | Who collects it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4.50 per submission ($4.00 for a sole proprietor) | The Campaign Registry, billed to your provider | One-time; charged again on every resubmission |
| Standard vetting (optional) | $41.50 per vet | The Campaign Registry | One-time; a score of 75 or more earns the top throughput tier |
| Campaign vetting | $15 per campaign† | Your provider's upstream partner; this fee is not in TCR's own table | One-time at some providers; charged again on every vetting event at others |
| Campaign fee, standard | $10 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| Campaign fee, low-volume mixed | $1.50 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| Campaign fee, sole proprietor | $2 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| Campaign fee, charity | $3 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| Campaign fee, emergency services | $5 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| Campaign fee, agents and franchises | $30 a month | The Campaign Registry | Monthly, 3-month minimum |
| AT&T surcharge | $0.0035 per SMS segment and $0.009 per MMS, since April 1, 2026† | AT&T, via your provider | Per message sent |
| T-Mobile surcharge | $0.0045 per outbound SMS segment since January 19, 2026; $0.0025 per inbound SMS; $0.01 per MMS† | T-Mobile, via your provider | Per message, inbound included |
| Verizon surcharge | Verizon publishes its own surcharge; sources disagree, so no figure is quoted here | Verizon, via your provider | Per message sent |
| Phone number fee | Set by your platform: from included to $10 a month per number on the platforms compared below | Your platform | Monthly, per number |
† marks a figure published by a messaging provider, not by The Campaign Registry or the carrier itself. TCR raised the brand fee from $4 to $4.50 and standard vetting from $40 to $41.50 on August 1, 2025†. One provider now bills sole proprietors $4.50 where TCR's guide says $4.00†. Carrier surcharges change several times a year, so check the date before you budget.
The Campaign Registry and the carriers set their prices and bill the messaging provider. Your platform sits between them and you and decides what you see. It can pass the fees through at cost, fold them into a plan price, or add a flat "telecom fee" that may or may not match the real number. That is why two platforms quote such different totals for the same traffic.
You cannot register with TCR yourself. A messaging provider submits your brand and campaigns and gets the bill. TCR does not approve or reject campaigns either; your provider and its upstream partners do, which is why the $15 campaign vetting fee† is missing from TCR's own price list.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each charge a surcharge per segment on registered traffic, billed to the provider. One provider states that it passes them through at cost and that every segment pays the same surcharge whatever volume discount the account has†. T-Mobile also charges on inbound texts†.
Among the five platforms compared below, one includes registration in the plan price and one leaves it off the pricing page entirely. One charges $4 plus $10 a month, one charges $10 a month after a free first month, and one contradicts itself on the same page.
Our team registers your brand and campaigns directly with The Campaign Registry, so you never fill in a TCR form. How registry and carrier charges are handled on your account is answered on the demo, with your use case and volume in front of us. The per-segment credit price is on the SMS pricing page.
Three layers, added up for one month. Lines one and two are what the registry and the carriers charge providers, at the figures above. Line three is BestText's credit price from the 10,000-credit package. How lines one and two land on a BestText invoice is a demo question, so they are shown at wholesale. Month one also carries the one-time fees: $4.50 brand, $41.50 standard vetting and $15 campaign vetting†, about $61 at cost.
TCR campaign fee: $10. Carrier surcharge: $35 if every segment went to AT&T, $45 if every one went to T-Mobile† (Verizon not quoted). Credits: 10,000 at $0.022 is the $220 package, plus the default 3% card fee, $6.60. Total: $271.60 to $281.60, about 2.7 to 2.8 cents per segment.
TCR campaign fee: $10. Carrier MMS surcharge: $18 on AT&T, $20 on T-Mobile†. Credits: 3 per image plus 1 for a one-segment caption is 4 credits, $0.088 per message. That is 8,000 credits, $176 at $0.022 a credit, plus $5.28 of the 3% card fee. Total: $209.28 to $211.28, about 10.5 cents per MMS.
The campaign fee drops to $2, so the month costs $263.60 to $273.60. A sole proprietor gets one campaign and one number, capped at 1,000 segments a day at T-Mobile and 15 a minute at AT&T. At that cap, 10,000 segments to T-Mobile subscribers take ten sending days. The sole proprietor type is only for US and Canadian businesses without an EIN.
Most of the avoidable cost sits in two places: registration fees paid twice, and carrier surcharges on segments you did not mean to send.
Checked on each vendor's own pricing page on October 17, 2026. Two of the five contradict themselves on the same page, which is how much the word "included" is worth until you read the footnote.
| Platform | 10DLC registration fee | Number fee | Carrier fee policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Textedly | Visible FAQ: registration paid for your first 10DLC number. The page's own FAQ data: $4 to $44 | One toll-free and one 10DLC number included | $8 a month telecom surcharge; no per-message rate stated |
| SlickText | Not stated on the pricing page or the carrier-fee help page | One premium sending number included | Pass-through at no markup: $0.0042 per SMS, $0.0087 per MMS, billed in arrears |
| SimpleTexting | $4 one-time plus $10 a month; optional $40 vetting | Local $10 a month plus $4 activation; toll-free at no extra fee | Pass-through at no markup, about $0.0025 per message in the US |
| EZ Texting | Included in the plan price | Included per plan; extra numbers "for an additional fee", amount not given | $5 a month telecom fee on Launch, "included" above that, and a footnote saying carrier fees are billed separately on usage |
| Textmagic | Registration $0; $10 per campaign a month after a free first month | One number included on Professional; extra or pay-as-you-go numbers $10 a month, first month free | Not stated for its own numbers |
| BestText | Our team registers your brand and campaigns with The Campaign Registry for you; fee questions are answered on the demo | Answered on the demo | Credits are a flat $0.022 per SMS segment on every package; carrier-fee handling is covered on the demo |
Full teardowns with the cost per text at every tier: Textedly pricing and SimpleTexting pricing.
Sources: The Campaign Registry CSP User Guide (July 2026), TCR Intro 2026 and campaignregistry.com; a messaging provider's published fee schedules for 10DLC, carrier pass-through fees and non-compliance fines; vendor pricing pages: Textedly, SlickText, SimpleTexting, EZ Texting and Textmagic.
This page is educational information about 10DLC fees, not legal advice. Fee schedules change several times a year, so confirm current figures with your provider and consult a qualified telecommunications attorney before launching campaigns.
As of October 2026, The Campaign Registry charges providers $4.50 to register a brand ($4.00 for a sole proprietor) and $41.50 for an optional standard vet. Providers add a $15 campaign vetting fee from their upstream partner, so a first campaign costs about $61 in one-time fees at wholesale, before the platform's own margin. The TCR figures rose on August 1, 2025.
Yes. The Campaign Registry bills providers a monthly fee per campaign, as of its July 2026 guide. It is $10 for a standard campaign, $1.50 for low-volume mixed, $2 for a sole proprietor, $3 for a charity, $5 for emergency services and $30 for agents and franchises. Every campaign except political carries a three-month minimum, then renews month to month. Whether your platform passes it through is its own decision.
Carriers charge a surcharge on every registered 10DLC segment, billed to your provider. As of October 2026, provider documents list AT&T at $0.0035 per SMS segment and $0.009 per MMS (since April 1, 2026). They list T-Mobile at $0.0045 per outbound SMS segment (since January 19, 2026), plus $0.0025 on inbound texts. Verizon publishes its own surcharge; sources disagree, so it is not quoted here.
No. Registry fees are per brand and per campaign, and one campaign can carry many numbers; on BestText a campaign holds up to 49. Carrier surcharges are per segment, whichever number sends it. Number fees are a separate platform charge, from included to $10 a month per number on the platforms compared above, so spare numbers cost money without adding registry fees.
Plan on no. The Campaign Registry prices brand registration per submission and says each resubmission is charged again, and its Authentication+ vet is billed whether it passes or fails. The $15 campaign vetting fee is charged by the provider's upstream partner: once per campaign at some providers, again on every vetting event at others. Fix the name-and-EIN mismatch and the sample messages before you submit.
BestText's team registers your brand and campaigns directly with The Campaign Registry, so you never fill in a TCR form or sit in a vetting queue yourself. How registry and carrier charges are handled on your account is answered on the demo, with your use case and volume in front of us. Texts themselves are a flat $0.022 per SMS segment on every credit package.
On the five platforms' pricing pages checked October 17, 2026, an entry plan of about 500 texts a month costs $0.040 to $0.058 per text. Mandatory number, telecom and 10DLC fees raise that to $0.060 to $0.078. The largest published tiers run about $0.014 to $0.020. BestText credits cost a flat $0.022 per segment, and sending numbers carry a monthly fee quoted on the demo.
Bring your list size and use case to a free 30-minute demo. We will walk through registration, what the carriers add per segment, and what a month costs at $0.022 a segment. No card needed to book.