How Much Does RCS Business Messaging Cost Per Message? US Rates Compared (2026)

Short answer: in the US, a text-only RCS message costs between $0.0039 and $0.0083 on published rate cards, and a rich media RCS message (image, carousel, video) costs between $0.015 and $0.022, before carrier fees. Carrier fees add roughly $0.0045 to $0.0135 per message depending on the carrier and message class. Several large providers do not publish US RCS rates at all, which is why the range looks wide.

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This guide lays the published numbers side by side, explains the three layers that make up an RCS bill, and shows a worked example so you can price a real campaign. Every figure is taken from the provider's own pricing page or documentation as of September 2026, and we link each one. Signalmash's own product, SimplyRCS, is in the table; we have kept its row to the same standard as everyone else's.

The three layers of an RCS bill

1. The per-message rate. Providers price RCS by class: text only (sometimes called basic or rich text), rich media (anything carrying an image, video or carousel), and, at some providers, a conversational session with a 24-hour window.
2. Carrier and registry fees. AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and the regional carriers charge their own per-message fees for RCS, in the same way they surcharge 10DLC SMS. Some providers pass these through at cost on a separate line; others fold them into a marked-up rate.
3. Fixed and platform costs. Per-agent or per-sender fees, number rentals, sender vetting, one-time carrier activations, and any support minimum. These do not scale with volume, so they matter most at low volume.

Published US RCS rates, September 2026

Rates are each provider's published US figures as of September 2026, linked in the sources below. Confirm current pricing with the provider before you budget.

What the table hides

Rich media is the rate that matters. The reason to run RCS is the card, the carousel and the image. At Twilio that class is roughly 2.6 times the text rate ($0.0220 vs $0.0083). At SimplyRCS an interactive card with buttons and no attached media bills at the text rate, and only a message carrying an image, video or carousel moves to the $0.0150 media rate. Price your campaign off the class you will actually send.

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One RCS message is not one SMS segment. SMS bills per 160-character segment. An RCS message bills once and carries up to 3,072 characters, so a long transactional message that costs three SMS segments costs one RCS message.

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Fallback changes the blend. Recipients who cannot receive RCS get the message as SMS or MMS, and you pay that rate instead. An image-led campaign to an audience with a low RCS-capable share can cost more than the plain-text version because the fallback lands as MMS. Ask your provider for a delivered-as breakdown so you can reconcile the invoice.

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Fixed costs dominate at low volume. A $250 per-agent fee is negligible at 500,000 messages a month and decisive at 5,000. Run the math at your real volume rather than the headline rate.

Worked example: 100,000 rich media messages

• Twilio: about $2,200 in message charges at $0.0220, plus per-message carrier fees, number rentals, registration filings and a share of failed-message fees.
• SimplyRCS by Signalmash: $1,500 in message charges at $0.0150, plus one $250 agent fee, so $1,750 before carrier fees, which are itemized on their own line at cost. Send the same 100,000 as rich cards without attached media and the message charge is $390.
• AWS: $2,000 in AWS fees at $0.020 plus $949 in listed carrier fees, so about $2,950, and you build the sending application yourself.

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Telnyx sits close to SimplyRCS on the media rate ($0.016 vs $0.0150) with no per-agent fee but self-service carrier approval; at low volume with an engineering team, that can be the cheaper route.

How to compare providers fairly

1. Ask for the all-in cost at your volume, including carrier fees, per-agent or platform fees, number rentals and registration.
2. Ask whether carrier and registry fees are passed through at cost or marked up.
3. Ask which class your typical message falls into, and whether an interactive card without media bills as text or as media.
4. Ask who files sender verification and 10DLC, because a self-service approval process is a cost in weeks even when it is free in dollars.

Frequently asked questions

How much does RCS business messaging cost per message?

‍On published US rate cards, $0.0039 to $0.0083 for a text-only RCS message and $0.015 to $0.022 for a rich media message, before carrier fees of roughly $0.0045 to $0.0135. SimplyRCS by Signalmash publishes $0.0039 and $0.0150; Twilio publishes about $0.0083 and $0.0220; Telnyx publishes $0.0065 and $0.016; AWS publishes $0.007 and $0.020 plus listed carrier fees.

Is RCS more expensive than SMS?

‍Text-only RCS is usually priced at or near the SMS rate, and on SimplyRCS it is the same $0.0039. Rich media RCS costs more per message, roughly two to three times the text rate at most providers, but usually earns it back in engagement; Sinch's customer aggregate reports 3 to 7 times higher click-through than rich SMS.

Which RCS provider is cheapest per message?

‍On published US RCS rates, SimplyRCS by Signalmash ($0.0039 text, $0.0150 media) and Telnyx ($0.0065 text, $0.016 media) are the lowest in writing. Which is cheaper for you depends on volume, because SimplyRCS carries a $250/month per-agent fee and Telnyx does not, and on whether you want carrier approval handled for you.

Do RCS providers charge setup fees?

‍Often. Twilio's RCS sender onboarding has been reported at around $700. SimplyRCS itemizes a $250 agent install, $200 a year for Aegis sender vetting and a one-time $500 T-Mobile activation, all passed through at cost. Sinch, Infobip, Vonage and Bandwidth quote setup as part of an enterprise contract.

Do carrier fees apply to RCS like they do to SMS?

‍Yes. US carriers charge per-message fees for RCS by message class, in the same way they surcharge 10DLC SMS. AWS lists them at $0.00494 per rich segment and $0.00949 per rich media message; SimplyRCS lists them by carrier at $0.0045 to $0.0135. Ask whether your provider passes them through at cost.

Sources

• SimplyRCS pricing: simplyrcs.ai/pricing and simplyrcs.ai/billing-transparency
• Twilio RCS rates as documented on SimplyRCS vs Twilio (verify with Twilio directly)
• Telnyx messaging pricing: telnyx.com/pricing/messaging
• AWS End User Messaging pricing: aws.amazon.com/end-user-messaging/pricing
• Infobip RCS pricing: infobip.com/rcs/pricing
• Sinch RCS pricing: sinch.com/pricing/rcs
• Plivo, How RCS pricing works: plivo.com/blog/how-rcs-pricing-works