SMS Cost by Country and Message Length
SMS cost in Octavia is worked out per message segment. The final credit cost depends on two things: the recipient's country and how many segments the message takes. At the moment, the same one segment message costs fewer
What Changes the Cost
Every SMS send uses your school's prepaid SMS credits. The cost is not a flat "one text = one credit". Instead, Octavia works it out from:
- The recipient's country — each destination has its own per-segment rate
- The message length — longer messages split into multiple segments
- The characters used — plain text fits more into one segment than messages that use special characters or emoji
That means two messages with the same wording can cost different amounts if they go to different countries, and two messages to the same country can cost different amounts if one message is longer.
Current Destination Rates
The current rates in the supplied SMS rate list are:
| Destination | Credits per segment |
|---|---|
| Canada | 2 |
| United States | 2 |
| France | 5 |
| United Kingdom | 5 |
| Japan | 7 |
| New Zealand | 7 |
| Australia | 9 |
| Germany | 10 |
These are the charges for one segment. If a message uses two segments, double the charge. If it uses three, triple it.
What Counts as One Segment
For most plain-text SMS messages:
- Up to 160 characters fits in one segment
- Longer plain-text messages are split into segments of 153 characters each
If the message uses characters outside the standard SMS character set, such as many emoji or some special symbols:
- Up to 70 characters fits in one segment
- Longer messages are split into segments of 67 characters each
This is why short, simple reminder-style wording is the cheapest way to send SMS.
What One Top-Up Roughly Buys
The current seeded SMS top-up pack in the repo is A$20, which grants 2000 Octavia SMS credits.
If every message stayed within one segment, that top-up would cover roughly:
| Destination | One-segment messages from A$20 top-up |
|---|---|
| Canada | 1000 |
| United States | 1000 |
| France | 400 |
| United Kingdom | 400 |
| Japan | 285 |
| New Zealand | 285 |
| Australia | 222 |
| Germany | 200 |
These are only rough examples. Real usage can be lower if:
- your message runs into two or more segments
- you send to a mix of countries
- you include wording that pushes the character count up
Where You See the Cost Before Sending
For manual sends such as news by SMS, Octavia shows the estimated credit cost before you confirm. That estimate is based on the actual recipients and message version you are about to send.
For automatic sends such as weekly lesson reminders, the same rules still apply behind the scenes, which is why reminder wording stays intentionally short.
How to Keep SMS Costs Down
- Keep messages short and practical
- Use the short news SMS option when the full news body would be long
- Avoid unnecessary emoji or decorative characters
- Remember that mixed-country recipient lists cost more than local-only sends if some destinations have higher rates
A Note About Future Changes
Destination rates can change over time, so treat the figures above as the current rates reflected in the supplied SMS pricing data, not as a forever-fixed price list. Your balance and send previews remain the best guide at the point you actually send.
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