How does the A2P 10DLC cost calculator work?

Enter five numbers about your messaging setup: how many brands you need to register, how many campaigns sit under those brands, the campaign use case (which sets the monthly per-campaign fee), the outbound SMS segments you expect to send each month, and the carrier pass-through fee per segment. The calculator splits the result into three buckets. One-time costs cover brand registration, campaign vetting, and the Hermes submission handling fee. Monthly recurring covers the per-campaign carrier fee plus the per-segment pass-through on your SMS volume. First-year total adds the one-time costs to twelve months of recurring. Everything runs in your browser, so your volumes stay private, and the share link carries every input so a partner sees the exact same estimate.

What is A2P 10DLC and why does an AI voice agency need it?

A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person messaging over standard 10-digit long codes. It is the registration framework US carriers require before a business can send SMS at scale from a local number. If your AI voice agents send any text — appointment confirmations, follow-up links, missed-call texts, review requests — those messages route through 10DLC, and unregistered traffic gets filtered, throttled, or blocked outright. For an agency running messaging on behalf of multiple clients, each client is usually its own brand with one or more campaigns, so the registration cost scales with your client count. Registering properly is the difference between texts that land and texts that silently disappear, which is why it belongs in your per-client cost model from day one.

What are the one-time versus monthly A2P 10DLC fees?

One-time fees hit when you register. Brand registration with The Campaign Registry runs around four dollars per brand, and campaign vetting runs around fifteen dollars per campaign. Those are paid once when the brand and campaign are approved. Monthly fees are ongoing. Each campaign carries a recurring carrier fee that depends on the use case, from roughly a dollar and a half a month for low-volume mixed up to about ten dollars a month for a standard marketing campaign. On top of that, every SMS segment you send carries a small carrier pass-through fee, typically a fraction of a cent. The calculator keeps these separated so you can see what you pay to get registered versus what you pay every month to keep sending.

Do my voice minutes need A2P 10DLC registration?

No. A2P 10DLC is an SMS framework. It governs text messaging, not voice calls, so the minutes your AI voice agents talk are not subject to brand or campaign registration and carry no 10DLC fees. The calculator takes your voice volume only to make this distinction clear, because operators new to the space often assume one registration covers both channels. It does not. The voice-side analog to messaging trust is branded caller ID, handled through CNAM and emerging branded-calling standards, which is a separate setup from 10DLC. If your agents only call and never text, you can skip A2P registration entirely. The moment you add a single outbound text, even an appointment reminder, 10DLC applies.

How does Hermes handle A2P compliance and the submission fee?

Hermes passes A2P registration through at cost. The platform charges a flat thirty dollars per submission to handle the brand and campaign paperwork with The Campaign Registry, and that fee is pass-through with zero margin — you pay what the registration plumbing costs to file, not a marked-up compliance product. The calculator counts each brand and each campaign as a submission, so an agency registering one brand with two campaigns sees three submissions. On top of the submission handling, the underlying registry and carrier fees still apply, which is why the estimate separates the Hermes handling line from the raw TCR and carrier costs. The point is transparency: you see every dollar, and none of it is hidden inside a vague compliance bundle.

How can I lower my A2P 10DLC costs?

Three levers. First, consolidate campaigns. Carriers charge per campaign per month, so running one well-scoped campaign per client instead of three near-duplicates cuts the recurring fee directly. Second, pick the right use case. A low-volume mixed campaign costs a fraction of a standard marketing campaign each month, so do not register marketing throughput you will not use. Third, watch segment count. Long texts split into multiple segments, and the carrier pass-through is charged per segment, so tightening message copy lowers the per-message cost at volume. Beyond fees, registering cleanly the first time avoids rejected campaigns and re-vetting charges. Model your real client count and volume here before you commit, because the cheapest A2P bill is the one you planned instead of the one you discovered.

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A2P 10DLC Cost Calculator

See what SMS registration really costs your agency. Enter your brands, campaigns, and message volume to get one-time fees, monthly carrier costs, and a first-year total you can put in a client quote.

/ your messaging setup

Brands to registerUsually one per clientCampaigns totalAcross all brandsCampaign use caseSets the monthly carrier feeOutbound SMS segments / monthLong texts split into segmentsCarrier fee / segment $

$

Pass-through, ~$0.003 typicalVoice minutes / monthNot subject to A2P 10DLC

/ one-time setup

$124

3 submissions

/ monthly recurring

$63.00

campaigns + carrier fees

/ first-year total

$880

setup + 12 months

/ where the dollars go

Brand registration (one-time)$4

Campaign vetting (one-time)$30

Hermes submission handling ($30 each, pass-through)$90

Campaign carrier fees / month$3.00

SMS carrier pass-through / month$60.00

/ heads up Your 5,000 voice minutes a month do not need A2P 10DLC. It is an SMS framework. Voice trust runs through branded caller ID (CNAM), a separate setup from 10DLC.

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how it works

The A2P 10DLC fee stack, line by line.

A2P 10DLC costs confuse operators because the fees come from three different places and land at three different times. This calculator separates them so you can quote a client accurately instead of getting surprised on the first invoice. The framework only applies to SMS, so your voice minutes never enter the math — they are shown only to make that boundary obvious.

The first bucket is one-time registration. Every brand you register with The Campaign Registry carries a brand fee, and every campaign under that brand carries a one-time vetting fee. On Hermes, each brand and each campaign is also a submission, billed at a flat thirty dollars of pass-through handling with no margin. So an agency registering one client brand with two campaigns has one brand fee, two campaign fees, and three submission fees, all paid once at setup.

The second bucket is monthly recurring. Carriers charge a per-campaign monthly fee that depends on the use case — a low-volume mixed campaign is cheap, a standard marketing campaign costs several times more. Layered on top is a per-segment carrier pass-through on every message you actually send, usually a fraction of a cent, which scales with your SMS volume. The third bucket is simply the first two combined across twelve months, which is the number that belongs in your per-client margin model. Register cleanly, consolidate campaigns where you can, and the A2P line stays small. On Hermes the whole stack runs under your own brand from one hundred forty-nine dollars a month, with the compliance fees passed straight through at cost.

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A2P 10DLC Cost Calculator

The A2P 10DLC fee stack, line by line.

Common questions.

Map your A2P setup in 20 minutes.

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