How to use the SMS length & pricing calculator
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Type or paste your copy into the message box, or pick one of the pre-built templates to get started instantly.
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Watch the live counter track your total characters, remaining spare space, active segments, and message encoding (GSM-7 or UCS-2 Unicode).
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Choose your rate from the Price Per SMS (Rs. Ex VAT) dropdown and enter your expected monthly message volume to calculate costs.
Nest SMS's length calculator gives you complete clarity over your multi-part message limits. It highlights exact segment boundaries — 153 characters for GSM and 67 for Unicode — and calculates annual VAT pricing, so you can adjust your message length before you spend a rupee.
Why SMS character count matters
Standard GSM limit is 160 characters
GSM-7 is the standard SMS encoding for basic English text and numbers. A single GSM message allows up to 160 characters before splitting into multiple parts.
Unicode & emoji drop the limit to 70 characters
Adding emoji or non-Latin text forces UCS-2 Unicode encoding. This drops your single SMS limit to 70 characters, and each part of a multi-part split holds only 67.
Keep your sending costs in check
Exceeding limits by even one character splits your text into multiple segments. This charges extra credits per recipient and doubles what your bulk campaign costs.
Improve readability & conversions
Keeping messages concise prevents awkward text breaks on recipient screens, ensures key details are not missed, and drives significantly higher conversions.
Why segment 2 drops to 145 while segment 3 stays 153
When you type 161 characters, your message splits into multi-part segments. Segment 1 loses 7 characters to the invisible network header, dropping its limit from 160 to 153. Those 7 lost characters get pushed into segment 2 along with your 161st character.
Even though you only typed 1 character over 160, you instantly lose 15 characters of spare space in segment 2, because segment 1 shrinks by 7 characters and segment 2 absorbs those 7 overflow characters plus your 161st character.
How Nest SMS's length calculator helps
Nest SMS gives you total clarity over campaign costs with real-time character analysis. Instantly track character counts, spare space, and segment splits, auto-detect hidden encoding triggers, and trim your copy before an accidental overwrite costs you a second segment on every send.
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