Send messages longer than 160 characters — seamlessly.
When your SMS runs past the 160-character limit, we split it into segments at the wire and your recipient sees it as a single message. Works in English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, and Telugu — with full DLT compliance.
Hi Priya, your order #INR-482910 has shipped via Delhivery and is out for delivery today between 2-5pm. Tra...Hi Priya, your order #INR-482910 has shipped via Delhivery and is out for delivery today between 2-5pm. Track live on order page.
A historical limit that turned into a universal standard.
The 160-character cap was designed in 1985 by Friedhelm Hillebrand, who typed out random postcards on his typewriter to figure out how long a 'typical message' could be. Three decades later, it's still the building block every phone understands.
The wire-level frame
A single SMS PDU (Protocol Data Unit) carries 140 bytes of payload. In GSM-7 encoding that fits exactly 160 characters. In UCS-2 (Unicode), it fits 70 characters.
Concatenation fills the gap
Longer messages are split into segments, each with a small UDH (User Data Header) identifying the segment number. The receiving phone reassembles them automatically.
Billed per segment
Every operator — in India and globally — bills per segment, not per reassembled message. A 200-character English SMS costs twice as much as a 150-character one.
Exact limits for every encoding.
The moment your message contains a single Hindi, Tamil, or emoji character, the whole SMS switches to UCS-2 — and your per-segment budget drops from 160 to 70. This trips up a lot of first-time senders.
| Encoding | Single SMS | Multi-segment | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
GSM-7 7-bit default alphabet | 160 chars | 153 chars/segment | Plain English, most European scripts |
GSM-7 + extension { } [ ] ~ ^ | € \ | 160 chars (extension chars count as 2) | 153 chars/segment | English with brackets, euro, etc. |
UCS-2 16-bit Unicode | 70 chars | 67 chars/segment | Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, emoji, any non-GSM character |
English: 200 characters
GSM-7Order update: Your package has shipped and will arrive by 5pm today. Track at order.example.com or reply for support. Thank you for shopping with us, we appreciate it!
Hindi: 150 characters
UCS-2नमस्ते प्रिया, आपका ऑर्डर शिप हो गया है और आज शाम 5 बजे तक पहुँच जाएगा। ट्रैक करने के लिए लिंक पर क्लिक करें या सहायता के लिए रिप्लाई करें।
Long SMS handled — so you don't have to.
On other platforms, you end up counting characters, guessing at encoding, and debugging why Hindi messages cost 3x what you expected. Our API just handles it.
Automatic segmentation
Write the message you want. We split, add the UDH, and reassemble on the recipient side. Your code doesn't need to think in segments.
Unicode + regional scripts
Full UCS-2 support for Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Punjabi, and emoji — without extra configuration.
Delivery reports per segment
You see the status of each segment separately so you can detect partial delivery (a rare but real operator issue) and resend if needed.
Scheduled sending
Schedule a long SMS campaign for a specific time. Messages queue by segment and go out in a coordinated window.
Variable substitution
{{name}}, {{order_id}}, {{tracking_url}}. Variables are resolved before encoding, so the final segment count is calculated from the actual rendered string.
DLT template preservation
Long DLT-approved templates (up to 2000 characters) send as concatenated SMS without needing a separate registration per segment.
Real-time character counter
Dashboard editor shows live segment count, encoding detection, and credit cost as you type — so there are no billing surprises.
Global delivery
Long SMS works identically on 190+ international destinations. Per-segment rates vary by country — see the pricing page for details.
Common patterns that don't fit in 160 characters.
Every extra segment costs money, so the bar for going long should be real. Here's where the extra length is usually worth it.
Order + shipping updates
Merchant name, item, ETA, link, support action — 220 characters of actual signal, not fluff.
Appointment reminders
Clinic name, doctor, date/time, address, reschedule link. Patients show up more when every detail is in the text.
Banking alerts
Bank, transaction type, amount, merchant, balance, fraud-report action. Compliance departments mandate every field.
COD delivery coordination
Rider name, rider phone, delivery window, payment expected, package ID. Riders save time when customers know what's coming.
Event invites + RSVPs
Event, venue, time, dress code, RSVP deadline, contact for questions. Long-form beats five short SMS.
Admission + fee notices
Institution, fee breakup, due date, payment link, helpline. Parents don't forget when the full context is in one text.
One credit per segment — always.
Credits are consumed per-segment, not per-message. A 200-character English SMS is 2 credits. A 150-character Hindi SMS is 3 credits (because Hindi uses UCS-2 at 67 chars per segment). The dashboard and API both surface the exact segment count before you send.
Segment cost — worked examples
How long SMS actually moves through our system.
Behind the scenes, there's more going on than just character counting. Here's the full pipeline for a single concatenated send.
- 01Step 1
Encoding detection
The moment your message arrives, we check every character against the GSM-7 alphabet. One non-GSM char and the whole message becomes UCS-2.
- 02Step 2
Template + variable resolution
If you're using a DLT template, variables are substituted first. The final rendered string is what we count for segmentation.
- 03Step 3
Segmentation + UDH
The string is split at 153 (GSM-7) or 67 (UCS-2) characters per segment. Each segment gets a UDH identifying its position and total count.
- 04Step 4
Per-segment delivery + reassembly
Segments go out on the DLT-registered route. Recipient's phone groups them by UDH reference ID and displays one continuous message.
Long SMS — asked and answered.
What's the maximum length a long SMS can be?
In theory, a single concatenated SMS can span up to 255 segments — about 39,000 characters in GSM-7 or 17,000 in UCS-2. In practice, most platforms cap at 10 segments (1,530 GSM / 670 UCS) and we do the same because longer messages stress the reassembly logic on older phones.
Why does my Hindi SMS cost more than my English SMS of the same length?
Hindi triggers UCS-2 encoding, which caps each segment at 67 characters instead of 153. A 150-character Hindi SMS is 3 segments; a 150-character English SMS is 1 segment. You pay per segment, so the Hindi version costs 3x.
What happens if one segment in a concatenated SMS fails to deliver?
The phone won't reassemble a partial message — the recipient sees nothing. Our dashboard shows per-segment delivery status so you can detect and resend if needed. Failure rates are under 0.1% on Indian operators for transactional traffic.
Can I use emoji in my SMS?
Yes, but emoji force UCS-2 encoding, which drops your per-segment budget from 160 to 70. One emoji in a 100-character English SMS changes it from 1 segment to 2.
Does DLT allow long promotional SMS?
Yes. DLT template registration covers the full message content regardless of segment count. Templates can be up to 2000 characters. The only gotcha: your approved template text must exactly match (variables aside), so lengthening a running template requires re-registration.
Can I schedule a long SMS campaign?
Yes. Scheduling, throttling, and retry logic all work identically for long and short SMS. Segments from the same campaign queue and send together so there's no visible gap in the reassembled message.
Long SMS pairs well with these.
Long SMS is a format choice. The channel choice — bulk, OTP, WhatsApp — depends on your use case.
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Stop truncating. Send the full message.
Upload your template, pick your language, and let the platform handle encoding, segmentation, and DLT compliance. ₹60 free credit lets you send hundreds of long SMS to see the delivery for yourself.