A2P 10DLC Requirements: Everything You Need Before You Register (2026)

Quick answer: what A2P 10DLC registration requires

To send application-to-person (A2P) SMS to US mobile numbers from a 10-digit long code, you must register two things with The Campaign Registry: a brand — your legal business identity, checked against IRS and state records — and one or more campaigns, each describing a single messaging programme. Before you start you need your exact legal entity name and EIN, a registered business address, a live website on your own domain, a published privacy policy stating that mobile numbers are not shared with third parties for marketing, a documented opt-in flow you can evidence, and two to five realistic sample messages carrying STOP and HELP language. Registration is not optional: unregistered long-code traffic is filtered or blocked outright by the US carriers.

This article is part of the Signalmash 10DLC compliance hub. If you already have your documents together and want the review criteria, go to the campaign approval checklist instead.

The six things to have ready before you open the portal

1. Legal entity name and EIN. The name must match your IRS EIN letter character for character, including "Inc.", "LLC" and punctuation. US companies register with an EIN, not a DUNS number.
2. Registered business address. Use the address on your Secretary of State filing. Mailboxes and coworking addresses that do not match public records are a common vetting failure.
3. A live website on your own domain. It must resolve over HTTPS with a valid certificate, show a physical address and contact details, and not be a parked or "coming soon" page.
4. A published privacy policy on that same domain, containing an explicit sentence that mobile numbers and SMS consent are not shared with third parties or affiliates for their marketing purposes. Reviewers look for this specific statement.
5. A documented opt-in flow. You need to be able to name the mechanism — web form URL, keyword and number, paper form, verbal script at point of sale, in-app checkbox — and ideally show a screenshot in which the SMS disclosure sits next to the phone-number field.
6. Sample messages. Two at minimum, five is better. Each names the brand, matches the declared use case, uses full links on your own domain rather than a shortener, and at least one carries opt-out instructions.

Brand registration: what the record contains

The brand record is your company, registered once. It captures legal name, EIN and country of registration, business address, website, vertical or industry, and a contact person. Two fields cause most of the trouble. The first is the vertical: choosing one that does not match your campaigns' use cases is a standard vetting flag. The second is the website domain, which should match the domain in your contact email and in your sample messages; a mismatch between the three reads as a red flag to a reviewer scanning for lead generation.

Vetting: standard, enhanced, or none

Once the brand exists, a third-party vetting provider scores it. That score drives your trust rating, and the trust rating drives how many messages per minute the carriers will accept from you. There are three practical choices:

• No vetting. You are assigned conservative default throughput. Workable only for very low volumes.
• Standard vetting. The normal path for the great majority of businesses, and the one we recommend for anyone sending more than a trickle.
• Enhanced vetting. A deeper check that unlocks higher throughput tiers; worth it if you have genuine volume or send time-sensitive traffic.

Vetting scores are not a pass or fail — they are a number that sets your ceiling. Our post on trust scores and throughput explains how the score translates into messages per second and what raises it.

Campaign registration: one campaign per programme

A campaign is a single messaging programme, not your whole account. Each one declares:

• Use case — customer care, two-factor authentication, account notifications, marketing, mixed, low-volume mixed, or a special category such as political, charity, or agents and franchises.
• Campaign description — two to four plain sentences naming who receives the messages, what they are about and how those people consented.
• Opt-in description and evidence — the exact mechanism, plus confirmation that consent is single-brand and is not a condition of purchase.
• Sample messages — matching the use case, with STOP and HELP language.
• Message flow — every path by which someone can join the list.
• Help and opt-out keyword handling — STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE and QUIT processed automatically; HELP returning the brand name, a support contact and opt-out instructions.

Special use cases require extra documentation and take materially longer. If you send both promotional and transactional content, register a mixed use case rather than trying to stretch a transactional campaign to cover marketing — that mismatch is an automatic rejection.

What it costs

10DLC has three cost layers, and they are frequently confused with each other:

• One-time registration and vetting. Brand registration is a few dollars; standard vetting runs in the region of $40 and enhanced vetting around $100, with campaign vetting charged per attempt at roughly $15. Expedited vetting is available at a premium.
• Monthly campaign fees. A standard campaign is around $10 a month; a low-volume mixed campaign is closer to $1.50 a month but caps your volume and number count.
• Carrier pass-through fees per message. Charged separately by each carrier on every message sent, and independent of anything above.

These are pass-through registry charges published in 2026 rather than Signalmash's own pricing, and providers differ in whether they add a margin on top. Always compare a provider's registration fees and their per-message pass-through separately, and ask whether vetting resubmissions are billed again. Our pricing page lists what we charge; the fee that most often surprises people is a resubmission after a rejection, which is why getting the submission right first time is worth real money.

How long it takes

A complete, internally consistent submission usually clears quickly: brand registration is often instant to 24 hours, and standard campaign review typically completes within one to three business days. End to end, a clean registration is normally done inside a week. A rejection, though, does not cost you a day — it costs a full review cycle plus the resubmission, which in practice adds one to two weeks. Special use cases run one to three weeks even when everything is correct.

Sole proprietors and very small senders

If you have no EIN, there is a sole proprietor path. It requires personal identity verification instead of business records and comes with tight limits — a small number of phone numbers and a low daily message cap — but it is a legitimate route for independent operators and one-person businesses that would otherwise be shut out of A2P messaging entirely.

One more requirement that is not on the form

Your sent traffic has to keep matching what you registered. Campaigns are approved against your samples and use case, and carriers continue filtering after approval based on what you actually send. Content drift — a transactional campaign that slowly fills with promotions — is the most common reason messages start disappearing weeks after a successful registration. Attach numbers to the campaign promptly too; T-Mobile charges a non-use fee on campaigns left without numbers attached.

Have us do it

Signalmash registers brands and campaigns for customers as part of onboarding: we write the campaign description and samples with you, assemble the opt-in evidence, order the right vetting tier for your volume, and handle any resubmission. It is included, not a paid add-on.

Book a 15-minute call with Signalmash and we will tell you exactly what your registration is missing before it costs you a review cycle.

People also ask

Is A2P 10DLC registration required?

Yes, for any application-to-person SMS or MMS sent to US mobile numbers from a 10-digit long code. The US carriers filter or block unregistered long-code traffic, so registration is a precondition for delivery rather than a formality. Person-to-person conversations from a normal handset are not affected, and toll-free and short code numbers use their own separate approval processes.

What do I need to register for A2P 10DLC?

Your exact legal entity name and EIN as they appear in IRS records, a registered business address matching your state filing, a live website on your own domain, a published privacy policy stating that mobile numbers are not shared with third parties for marketing, a documented and evidenced opt-in flow, and two to five sample messages that name the brand and include STOP and HELP instructions.

How much does A2P 10DLC registration cost?

There are three layers: one-time brand registration and vetting (a few dollars for the brand, roughly $40 for standard vetting or about $100 for enhanced, plus around $15 per campaign vetting attempt), a monthly campaign fee of roughly $10 for a standard campaign or about $1.50 for low-volume mixed, and separate per-message carrier pass-through fees. These are 2026 registry pass-through rates; check whether your provider adds a margin and whether resubmissions are charged again.

How long does A2P 10DLC registration take?

Brand registration is often instant to 24 hours and a standard campaign typically clears in one to three business days, so a clean end-to-end registration is usually complete within a week. Rejections add a full cycle plus resubmission, generally one to two weeks, and special use cases such as political or charity messaging take one to three weeks even when the submission is correct.

Can I register 10DLC without an EIN?

Yes, through the sole proprietor route, which verifies your personal identity instead of business records. It carries strict limits on the number of phone numbers and daily message volume, so it suits independent operators rather than growing businesses. If you have an EIN, register as a standard brand instead — the throughput ceiling is far higher.