When sending messages with Twilio Blaster, you’ll notice a Segments count in the Status column. This helps you understand how your message is split and charged.
What is a Segment? #
A segment is a portion of your message that fits within a specific character limit before it gets split into multiple parts.
- Standard SMS (GSM-7 encoding): Up to 160 characters per segment.
- Messages with special characters (UCS-2 encoding, e.g., emojis, certain symbols): Up to 70 characters per segment.
- If your message exceeds these limits, it will be split into multiple segments.
Why Does It Matter? #
Each segment is counted separately when determining cost and delivery speed. The more segments a message has, the higher the cost.
Check Your Message Segments #
To see how many segments your message will use, try Twilio’s official Message Segment Calculator.
For more details on how message segments work, check out Twilio’s blog: What the Heck is a Segment?.
