10DLC fees by vendor: what business texting registration costs in 2026

What is 10DLC registration, in one minute?

A 10DLC number is an ordinary ten-digit local number. When a business sends texts over one from software, which includes a phone app, a CRM, a review tool or a marketing platform, US carriers treat that traffic as application-to-person messaging and require the sender to be registered first. The registration goes through an industry database called The Campaign Registry, or TCR, and has two parts: the brand, meaning your business and its tax ID, and the campaign, meaning what you send and how customers agreed to receive it. Twilio's A2P 10DLC documentation calls it the standard the US carriers set up so that long-code SMS traffic is verified and consensual, and it says registration is required for anyone sending SMS or MMS to the US from an application over such a number.

Our guide to 10DLC registration explained covers the brand types, the vetting timeline and why campaigns get rejected. This page is about the money: who charges what for the same registration, and how to budget for it.

What does each vendor charge for 10DLC?

Each figure below comes from the vendor's own page, read in October 2026. Where a vendor shows no fee, the table says so; it does not mean there is none.

Quo's pricing page lists the $19.50 one-time TCR carrier review and setup fee, a TCR messaging fee of $1.50 to $3 a month, and $0.01 per segment for automated messages sent via its API or Zapier. Grasshopper's 10DLC post says businesses have to register with The Campaign Registry before they send, and itemizes what the registry charges: $4 to apply for brand registration, $15 to apply for each campaign, and $2 to $10 per campaign every month. Grasshopper's own pricing page lists business texting as unlimited with registration required, with a one-time registration fee of $19.50 and a messaging fee of $1.50 a month, and does not say how those two figures relate to the registry fees in the post. Podium's pricing page lists a $5 monthly base 10DLC fee charged for all US locations. RingCentral's plans page states that SMS and MMS require TCR registration and that additional fees may apply; the article giving the amount sits behind a customer login, which we could not read. Mailchimp's SMS help page says you need to submit an application and be approved before texting, and a separate page says SMS credits expire at the end of each billing cycle and do not roll over. Dialzara lists carrier fees of $0.0083 per segment on its AI texting agent.

Where does the money go?

There are three layers, and it helps to know which one you are paying.

• The registry. The Campaign Registry charges for registering a brand and each campaign, and a monthly fee per campaign. Grasshopper's blog post is the clearest published example: $4, $15 and $2 to $10 a month. These are the costs any vendor incurs on your behalf.
• The vendor's handling. Some vendors wrap the registry fees and their own review work into one charge. Quo's $19.50 one-time fee and $1.50 to $3 monthly fee, Grasshopper's $19.50 registration fee and $1.50 monthly messaging fee, and Podium's flat $5 a month, are examples. Whether that is more or less than the raw registry cost depends on how many campaigns you run.
• The carriers. Carriers charge per-message fees that are higher for unregistered traffic. Grasshopper's post puts the unregistered surcharge at $0.012 for an SMS and $0.021 for an MMS from June 1, 2024. Registered traffic carries smaller per-message carrier fees that most vendors build into the plan or pass through, which is what Dialzara's $0.0083 per segment is.

For a small service company with one number and one campaign, the whole thing is a few dollars a month. The point is that it is a required step with a real fee, and a vendor that does not mention it has either absorbed it or has not registered you yet. Ask which.

What happens to texts that are not registered?

The careful wording is this: texts from an unregistered number can be blocked or charged extra carrier fees. Both outcomes are documented. Twilio's error 30034 page says Twilio blocks messages to US numbers sent from a 10DLC number not associated with an approved A2P 10DLC campaign. Twilio's A2P 10DLC overview says senders using an unregistered 10DLC number receive additional carrier fees for that traffic. Grasshopper's post puts numbers on those fees for its own platform.

What that looks like in an office is quiet. The appointment reminder goes out, the delivery report says failed or filtered, nobody reads the report, and the customer never shows. A missed-call text back that never arrives looks like a customer who never replied. If your texting replies dried up at some point, check the message logs in your platform for the delivery status and error codes before you blame the customers. We have not written that texts are always blocked, because the documentation does not say that; it says they can be, and that they cost more when they are not.

What does registration not cover?

Registration tells the carriers who you are and what you send. It does not give you permission to text anyone. Marketing texts still need the customer's consent under federal law, with an opt-out that works and quiet hours that are respected, and those rules apply whichever vendor registered you. Our guide to SMS marketing rules and TCPA basics explains the consent requirements; that guide is general information rather than legal advice, and state rules can be stricter than federal ones.

Registration also does not switch off content filtering. A registered number sending messages with shared link shorteners, or sending something other than what the campaign described, can still be filtered. And registered brands get daily sending limits based on their vetting; a brand that suddenly sends far more than usual on a Saturday morning can hit its cap. The common ways this goes wrong are in our texting compliance mistakes guide.

What does texting registration cost in year one?

Our arithmetic on the list fees above, for one number and one campaign:

• Quo: $19.50 once plus $1.50 to $3 a month, which is $37.50 to $55.50 in the first year and $18 to $36 a year after that.
• Grasshopper: $19.50 once plus $1.50 a month on its pricing page, which is $37.50 in the first year and $18 a year after that. Its blog post itemizes what the registry itself charges, $4 plus $15 once and then $2 to $10 a month per campaign, without saying whether that sits inside the pricing-page fee or on top of it, so ask.
• Podium: $5 a month, which is $60 a year per US location, on top of a plan that starts at $399 a month.
• RingCentral: not shown; ask for the registration fee in writing and add it to the taxes and fees the plans page lists.

A second campaign, say one for appointment reminders and another for marketing offers, can double the registry's per-campaign fees at vendors that pass them through per campaign. One well-described campaign that covers your real use cases is usually the right answer for a small company; ask your vendor how they would structure it. Our business phone plans comparison shows the registration fees next to the plan prices.

What should you ask your vendor?

1. Is my number registered with The Campaign Registry today, as a brand and a campaign? Can I see the status?
2. What do you charge for registration, one-time and monthly, and is the registry's own fee inside that or on top?
3. How many campaigns will my use cases need, and what does each additional one cost?
4. What per-message carrier fees do you pass through, and do they differ for registered and unregistered traffic?
5. If I leave, does the registration come with my number or do I start over? Registration is usually filed through the vendor that sends your messages, so a new vendor may need to register you again; ask what moves and what you pay twice.
6. Where do I see delivery status and error codes for each message?

Get the answers by email and keep them with your account records. Our business phone setup checklist has a line for it.

How we handle registration

When we set up a business phone system or SMS marketing for a client, we register the brand and the campaign in the client's company name, with the client's tax ID and website, and describe the real message flow and opt-in so the campaign passes vetting the first time. The registry and carrier fees are passed through at cost as their own line on the monthly bill, so you can see them. What we do not do is promise that registration makes your texting legal. It makes it deliverable. The consent you collect, the opt-outs you honor and the hours you send at are still your company's responsibility, and we build the system so the right thing is the default.

Frequently asked questions