What is a message segment?
A message segment is the unit used to measure the length of an SMS text message. Instead of counting messages as a whole, most SMS platforms (including Raise More) calculate how many segments your message uses.
The longer or more complex the message, the more segments it may require to be sent. This will directly affect your campaign cost and how you deliver SMS text across recipients and devices.
What kind of characters affect segment length?
Some characters take up more space than others, which affects how many segments your message will use.
Standard characters
Standard characters are the basic letters, numbers, and punctuation commonly used in English messages. Messages that include only these characters can use the full 160-character limit per segment. Standard characters include:
Letters: A–Z, a–z
Numbers: 0–9
Common symbols such as ! @ # $ % & * ( ) - _ = + : ; ' " , . ? /
Example:
"Hi John, just checking in to see if you’re free for a quick call." → This would count as 1 segment (160 characters).
Special characters (unicode)
If your message includes special characters like:
Emojis, such as 😊
Accented letters (é, ñ, ü)
Curly quotation marks (“ ”)
it will be sent using a different format that allows fewer characters per segment.
In this case:
First segment = 70 characters
Additional segments = 63 characters each
A short message with just one emoji might increase your segment count, since once a special character is detected, it changes how segment limit is applied from the entire message.
How does each segment work?
If your message contains only standard characters, the first segment can include up to 160 characters.
If the message is longer than that, it gets broken into 153-character segments to allow for technical linking between parts. For example, a message with 161 characters will be sent as 2 segments:
The first with 153 characters
The second with the remaining 8
This process continues as your message gets longer — and your segment count (and cost) increases accordingly.
How Raise More estimates segments?
Raise More displays an estimated segment count on the Review and Send screen before launching your campaign.
The segment count and cost estimate helps you see your campaign cost, so you can edit or shorten the message before sending if needed.
How does Raise More charge for texts?
For SMS messages Raise More charges 2 cents per segment. However, you already have a specific amount of free monthly segments depending on the size of your race. You can find that amount on https://join.raisemore.app/pricing . That amount of free segments will be deducted from your usage of each month, before the quarterly total is calculated and billed at the end of each quarter.
What are merge fields and their impact?
Dynamic fields like {firstName} may vary in length per contact
To increase your confidence in the estimate, we do not charge you for real cost overages over the length of the merge field
How do I view my organization’s total segment usage?
The Usage page provides a monthly summary of billing usage, helping you track how much you've spent across different communication channels like SMS, email, and calls. Below are the steps to access the usage information.
Navigate to left sidebar menu and click icon with labeled Usage
You can view monthly summaries of your communication activity and billing on the Usage.
Column | What It Shows |
Month | The billing period (monthly summary). |
SMS Sent | Number of individual SMS messages sent (not segments — just message events). |
SMS Segments | Total number of segments sent (based on actual message length & character type). |
SMS Cost | Cost billed for all SMS segments in that month. |
Emails Sent | Number of emails sent. |
Email Cost | Total cost from email distribution. |
Calls Made | Number of phone calls initiated. |
Call Cost | Total billing for all voice calls made. |
Total Cost | Combined billing for SMS, email, and calls. |
Here’s what the Usage page looks like:
Tips
Keep messages under 3 segments when possible