How to forecast your monthly texting spend before you send
A simple way to estimate what a month of texting will cost: contacts, segments, replies, and calls. Includes a worked example and the mistakes that blow up an estimate.
·5 min read
Texting is cheap per message, which makes it easy to forget that cost scales with volume. A campaign that costs a few dollars to a small segment costs a few hundred to a full list, and replies, follow-ups and calls add to it.
A short forecast before the month begins avoids two problems: running out of funds mid-campaign, and funding far more than you need. The arithmetic is not complicated.
Start with segments, not messages
Texts are billed per segment, and one message can be several segments. A standard segment holds 160 characters, or 70 if the message includes an emoji or certain special characters, and longer messages split into multiple parts. A 300-character message is two segments, so it costs twice as much as a message under 160.
Write your typical message, count the segments, and use that number everywhere below. This single step is the most common source of forecasting error.
The basic formula
Outbound cost is the number of contacts, times the segments per message, times the number of messages you plan to send each of them, times the per-segment price. At $0.015 per segment, a one-segment message to 2,000 contacts costs about $30 per send.
- ✓Contacts you will text this month
- ✓Segments per message
- ✓Messages per contact (first touch, follow-ups, reminders)
- ✓Per-segment price
Add replies and conversations
Replies are part of the cost. Inbound messages are charged at the carrier's actual cost, and your own responses are outbound segments. A reasonable planning assumption is that a campaign produces replies from a minority of contacts, each leading to a short back-and-forth. Estimate a handful of exchanges per replier and add that to the total.
If you use AI replies, add the per-reply charge for the conversations you expect AI to handle.
Do not forget calls and numbers
If your team also calls from the platform, estimate call minutes at the outbound and inbound per-minute rates. Calls are billed in whole minutes, so a 20-second call counts as a minute. Add any phone numbers you plan to buy.
Worked example, then a safety margin
Say you text 1,000 new leads with a one-segment message and follow up twice: that is 3,000 outbound segments, about $36. If 15 percent reply and each reply produces four segments of back-and-forth in total, that adds 600 segments, about $7. The messaging total is roughly $43 before any calls or AI replies.
Add 20 to 30 percent as a safety margin and fund the wallet accordingly. Then compare actual spend to the forecast at the end of the month and adjust your assumptions.
Key takeaways
- →Count segments, not messages; emoji and long text multiply cost.
- →Outbound cost is contacts times segments times messages times price.
- →Add replies, AI replies, call minutes and numbers.
- →Round up for safety and review actuals against the forecast each month.
- →A ten-minute forecast prevents both running dry and overfunding.
Put this into practice with Text2Sale
Import leads, create follow-up campaigns, organize replies, and connect texting, calling, and appointments in one workspace.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a text cost in Text2Sale?
Outbound texts are $0.015 per segment ($0.0135 after a single wallet deposit of $500 or more), and incoming texts are free. AI replies are $0.02 each plus the text segments, calls are $0.025 per minute outbound and $0.015 per minute inbound, and AI receptionist calls are $0.18 per minute.
Why did my message cost more than I expected?
Usually because it was longer than 160 characters, or contained an emoji or special character that switched it to 70-character segments. Each segment is billed.
Do inbound replies cost anything?
Yes. Inbound messages are charged at the carrier's actual cost per segment, so a campaign that gets many replies costs more than the outbound sends alone.