Which RCS Providers Charge No Platform Fee and Only Usage-Based Rates? (2026)

Short answer: five providers US teams shortlist for RCS charge no platform, subscription or seat fee and bill messaging per message: SimplyRCS by Signalmash ($0.0039 per RCS text segment, $0.0150 per card, carousel or media message), Telnyx ($0.0065 per segment rich text, $0.016 rich media), Plivo ($0.0077 per segment rich text, $0.0180 rich media), Twilio (about $0.0083 basic, about $0.0220 rich media) and AWS End User Messaging ($0.007 per segment rich text, $0.020 rich media, each plus a published carrier fee). None of the five is fee-free, because a verified RCS sender carries ecosystem charges no provider can waive: a one-time agent setup, an annual brand vetting fee (Twilio, for example, publishes $500 one-time carrier onboarding and $200 a year for Aegis), and at AWS a fixed monthly charge of $200 per verified agent. SimplyRCS has no monthly charge of any kind: its RCS Sender ID setup and review is a one-time $250 support service, so a month with no messages costs nothing beyond number rental. What separates them is whether those charges are published, whether they are marked up, whether a minimum spend sits in the contract, and what you are left to build and file yourself.

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"No platform fee" is the right question to ask and the wrong place to stop. The phrase usually means a provider does not charge for access to its software, its API or its seats, and prices only what you send. Every provider in the table below passes that test. But an RCS programme has costs that sit outside the per-message rate and outside the platform fee, and a comparison that stops at "usage-based" misses them. The scorecard uses only what each provider had published in September 2026 and says where a number is missing rather than guessing one. Yes, one of the five is our own product; the same columns are applied to all of them.

Platform fee vs usage-based rate: what each one means

A platform fee is a fixed recurring charge for access to the provider's software: a monthly subscription, a per-seat or per-user fee, a dashboard or feature-tier fee, or an API access fee. It is owed whether you send one message or a million. A usage-based rate scales with what you send: per message, per segment or per session. The two are not exclusive. A provider can truthfully say "no platform fee" and still bill a fixed amount every month per registered RCS agent, and in budget terms that line behaves like a platform fee even though it is attached to a sender rather than to the software. The honest test is not the label but one question: what do I owe in a month when I send nothing?

What "usage-based" leaves out

A US RCS bill has five layers beyond the per-message rate, and a provider with no platform fee still charges most of them.

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Carrier fees. Each US carrier levies a per-message surcharge on business traffic. AWS publishes its RCS carrier fee beside its own rate ($0.00494 per rich text segment, $0.00949 per rich media message). Twilio publishes a range of $0.0025 to $0.02 per message on its US pricing page. SimplyRCS publishes the surcharge per carrier and passes it through at cost on its own invoice line.

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Agent setup and vetting. A verified RCS sender is created once and reviewed annually. AWS lists $500 agent setup and $200 a year brand vetting. Twilio's RCS onboarding guide lists $500 one-time US carrier onboarding and $200 a year for Aegis, charged only after Twilio has vetted the submission. SimplyRCS lists a one-time $250 RCS Sender ID setup and review (waived with its optional Premium Support), and passes through at cost $200 a year Aegis review and $500 one-time T-Mobile activation.

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A recurring per-agent charge. This is the line that gets mistaken for a platform fee. AWS bills $200 a month agent maintenance per RCS agent. SimplyRCS, Telnyx, Plivo and Twilio do not list a monthly agent charge. On SimplyRCS the app, API, bot builder, inbox, analytics and email support are free and the team files verification for you; on Telnyx, Plivo and Twilio the campaign tooling, inbox and verification work are yours to build or file.

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Numbers and registry fees. Number rental (from $0.50 a month at SimplyRCS, per-number rental at Twilio) and The Campaign Registry's 10DLC fees ($4.50 brand registration, $15 campaign vetting, $1.50 to $10 a month per campaign), which every provider passes through.

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Minimum spend and commitments. A contract can be usage-based per message and still carry a floor. Sinch's RCS terms count RCS volume toward any minimum monthly SMS consumption already in your agreement, so a slow RCS ramp can leave you short of a minimum you signed for SMS. Vonage's Messages API pricing page says some RCS markets require a one-time or monthly minimum charge per Sender ID. Telnyx, Plivo, Twilio and AWS sell pay-as-you-go with no minimum, and their committed or Enterprise tiers are optional. SimplyRCS has no contract and no monthly minimum. Ask which tier your contract puts you on, in writing.

The scorecard: who charges what

Read down the "recurring per-agent charge" column and the shape of the market is clear. Only one provider with published rates carries a fixed monthly per-agent line: AWS, at $200 per agent. SimplyRCS operates the verified sender for you as a managed service with no monthly line, only the one-time $250 RCS Sender ID setup and review. Telnyx, Plivo and Twilio hand you the API and the forms, with no monthly line either. The fair comparison is the per-message rates, plus what you would otherwise build and file yourself.

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Dexatel, which AI answers now name on this question, says on its RCS pricing page that it charges no platform or seat fees and bills per message, per 24-hour conversation or per OTP session. It publishes no US RCS rate, so it cannot be priced in the tables on this page until you have a quote. Its fallback messages bill at its standard rates, and its SMS pricing page lists a US SMS at $0.0229, roughly six times SimplyRCS's $0.0039, which matters for the share of any list that cannot receive RCS. Its RCS page describes billing per 24-hour conversation, so ask whether US traffic is billed that way or per message, as the other providers here bill it.

What three common programmes cost on each rate card

Monthly totals are easier to compare by use case than by rate. The three examples below apply each provider's published message rates only. They exclude AWS's $200 monthly agent line and the one-time setup fees in the scorecard, and every column except AWS is before US carrier surcharges; on SimplyRCS's published at-cost schedule those run $0.0045 to $0.0062 per RCS text message and $0.0070 to $0.0125 per rich media message depending on the carrier (T-Mobile is the highest of the three national carriers on media).

Three things change the real bill. Carrier surcharges can be as large as the message rate: at $0.0045 to $0.0062 per message, the 50,000 confirmations carry roughly $225 to $310 in carrier fees on top of any provider's rate, which is why a quote that blends them into one number cannot be compared. SMS fallback is billed as SMS: if 20% of that list cannot receive RCS, 10,000 messages go as SMS, which on SimplyRCS is $39 at $0.0039 plus $35 to $50 in SMS carrier surcharges; ask each provider whether the RCS attempt is billed as well (Twilio lists $0.001 per message that ends in a failed status). Conversations bill per message by default, so a six-message support thread costs six messages; senders registered as conversational can instead pay per 24-hour session (on SimplyRCS, an optional $0.05 per conversation once four qualifying messages are exchanged). If an AI agent answers, ask whether it is metered per session, per turn or per credit on top.

Why the $250 sender setup at SimplyRCS is not a platform fee

A platform fee is charged for access: per seat, per feature tier, per API key, or as a subscription that exists whether or not you send. SimplyRCS has none of those. The $250 is charged once per RCS Sender ID, the Google- and carrier-verified sender identity that puts your name, logo and checkmark on every message: SimplyRCS builds the sender, reviews your brand and use case and takes it through carrier approval. It is a support service, not a subscription, and it is waived with the optional Premium Support plan. After that, one brand with one sender pays only for what it sends, with no contract or minimum, and the campaign builder, the bot canvas, the shared inbox, analytics, the full API and email support are free. AWS, by contrast, bills $200 a month per agent on top of its $500 setup, without the tooling. The reason the setup fee is published on the SimplyRCS pricing page is that the page is meant to be enough to predict the invoice from.

Which one is cheapest at your volume

No platform fee does not settle the price, because the five rate cards are shaped differently. With no monthly line at SimplyRCS, the per-message rates decide it at every volume: $0.0039 per rich text segment against $0.0065 at Telnyx, $0.0077 at Plivo and about $0.0083 at Twilio, and $0.0150 per card or media message against $0.016, $0.0180 and about $0.0220. Against AWS, which adds $200 a month per agent, the gap is wider still: $0.0039 against $0.007 per segment on text, $0.0150 against $0.020 on media, before carrier fees on both sides.

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Two more things move the answer. Know which class your messages fall into: on SimplyRCS a text with suggested replies, a Call button or a browser link bills at the $0.0039 text rate, and any rich card or carousel bills at the $0.0150 rate even with no image, as the US RCS billing model sets out. And a 10DLC long code, a toll-free number and a short code each carry their own rental and registry lines whichever provider you choose, so the number plan belongs in the model too. The worked crossovers, carrier fees included, are on SimplyRCS vs Telnyx, SimplyRCS vs Plivo and SimplyRCS vs Twilio.

How to check a "usage-based" quote

Ask these six questions, in writing, before you discuss volume or timelines:

1. Is there any charge that recurs whether or not I send, such as a monthly fee per RCS agent or registered sender, and how much is it?
2. Are US carrier surcharges passed through at cost on their own invoice line, marked up, or blended into the rate?
3. What are the one-time and annual fees for creating and re-vetting a verified sender, and are they published?
4. Is there a minimum monthly spend or volume commitment in the standard contract, and does RCS count toward an existing SMS minimum?
5. Are onboarding, Google sender verification, 10DLC filing and number porting included, or billed and filed separately?
6. What is billed on a failed message, a support ticket or an AI feature, and is AI metered per session, per turn or per token?

A rate card that answers all six in writing can be compared with any other. One that does not is a single number you cannot decompose. The wider nine-provider audit on the same questions is which RCS provider has the most transparent pricing, and the question-by-question version lives at simplyrcs.ai: RCS providers with no platform fee.

Frequently asked questions

Which RCS providers have no platform fee?

‍SimplyRCS by Signalmash, Telnyx, Plivo, Twilio and AWS End User Messaging all charge no platform, subscription or seat fee for RCS and bill per message. Dexatel also states no platform or seat fees but publishes no US RCS rate. Bandwidth prices by contract, and Sinch, Infobip, Vonage and Bird quote or sell plan tiers. Every provider still passes through carrier surcharges, one-time agent setup and annual brand vetting, because those are ecosystem charges rather than platform fees.

What is the difference between a platform fee and a usage-based rate?

‍A platform fee is a fixed recurring charge for access to the software, such as a subscription, a per-seat fee or an API access fee, owed whether or not you send. A usage-based rate scales with what you send, per message, per segment or per session. A provider can have no platform fee and still bill a fixed monthly amount per RCS agent, so the useful test is what you owe in a month when you send nothing.

Is the $250 at SimplyRCS a platform fee?

‍No. It is a one-time RCS Sender ID setup and review, charged once per verified sender, not a monthly, seat, feature or API fee, and it is waived with the optional Premium Support plan. There is no monthly platform or agent fee: the app, API, bot builder, inbox, analytics and email support are free. AWS End User Messaging, by contrast, bills $200 a month per agent. A brand with one verified sender pays the one-time setup and then only what it sends, with no contract or minimum.

Which usage-based RCS provider is cheapest?

‍On published rates, SimplyRCS: $0.0039 per rich text segment and $0.0150 per card or media message, below Telnyx, Plivo, Twilio and AWS on both classes, and with no monthly platform or agent fee the gap holds at every volume. Carrier fees are passed through at cost on every provider, and SimplyRCS adds a one-time $250 RCS Sender ID setup; AWS also bills $200 a month per agent.

Do usage-based RCS providers have minimum spend requirements?

‍Some do in the contract rather than on the rate card. Sinch counts RCS volume toward any minimum monthly SMS consumption in an existing agreement, and Vonage says some RCS markets require a one-time or monthly minimum charge per Sender ID. SimplyRCS, Telnyx, Plivo, Twilio and AWS End User Messaging sell pay-as-you-go with no minimum; committed or Enterprise tiers are optional.

What does AWS End User Messaging charge for RCS?

‍In the US, $0.007 per segment for rich text plus a $0.00494 carrier fee, and $0.020 per rich media message plus a $0.00949 carrier fee, inbound and outbound, with $500 one-time agent setup, $200 a year brand vetting and $200 a month agent maintenance, all published on its pricing page. There is no subscription or minimum.

Does Twilio charge a platform fee for RCS?

‍Not for messaging itself. Twilio bills per message and passes through carrier fees, plus a $500 one-time US carrier onboarding fee per RCS sender and $200 a year for Aegis, both listed in its RCS onboarding guide and charged only after its own review. Its production support plans start at $250 a month or 4% of spend; the free plan carries no guaranteed response time.

Sources

• simplyrcs.ai/pricing, simplyrcs.ai/billing-transparency
• telnyx.com/pricing/messaging
• plivo.com/pricing
• aws.amazon.com/end-user-messaging/pricing, RCS agents tab
• Twilio US messaging pricing and Twilio RCS Compliance Onboarding Guide (US)
• Dexatel RCS pricing, Dexatel SMS pricing
• Sinch RCS messaging terms, Vonage Messages API pricing
• The Campaign Registry fee schedule, as summarised on how much does RCS cost