Twilio A2P 10DLC: Brands, Campaigns, Costs, Throughput, and Compliance

What is A2P 10DLC and How It Works in the U.S. Carrier Ecosystem

A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code. It is a regulatory system U.S. telecom carriers implemented to verify business messaging and protect consumers from spam on standard 10-digit phone numbers. In essence, A2P 10DLC lets businesses send SMS/MMS from local-looking numbers (10-digit long codes) but with carrier oversight and approval:

• Purpose: Originally, 10-digit numbers were meant for person-to-person texting. Unregulated A2P (business) use led to spam and consumer distrust. Carriers created A2P 10DLC to ensure messages are consensual and legitimate, restoring trust in SMS.
• How it works: Businesses must register their identity (“Brand”) and messaging campaign (“Campaign”) in a central registry (via providers like Twilio). Carriers review this information so they know who is texting and what type of messages are being sent. Only registered 10DLC traffic enjoys high deliverability and throughput; unregistered traffic faces heavier filtering and extra fees.
• Benefit: Once registered, businesses get higher messaging throughput and reliability similar to short codes but with a local number feel. Consumers benefit because they can clearly identify the sender and have the required opt-out controls, reducing unwanted messages.

In summary, A2P 10DLC is a framework that requires U.S. businesses to identify themselves and comply with carrier rules when messaging via 10-digit numbers. This ensures messages are wanted (opted-in) and legal, protecting end-users and improving SMS delivery rates across the U.S. carrier ecosystem.

Twilio’s A2P 10DLC Model: Brands, Campaigns, and Messaging Services

When using Twilio for A2P 10DLC, you’ll encounter three key concepts: Brands, Campaigns, and Messaging Services. These work together as follows:

• Brand: In Twilio’s A2P context, a Brand represents the business or organization sending messages. Registering a Brand means providing your business’s identity details (legal name, address, EIN/tax ID if applicable, etc.) so carriers can vet you as a legitimate sender. Think of the Brand as the “who” behind the messages.
• Campaign: A Campaign defines a specific messaging use case or program under a Brand. When you register a Campaign, you supply information about the messages’ purpose (e.g. marketing, account alerts), sample message content, and how users opt-in/out and get help. This tells carriers what you’ll be sending and ensures compliance (opt-out/HELP info must be provided in the registration). Each Campaign is associated with one Brand, and a Brand may have multiple Campaigns (up to 5 active campaigns per Brand in Twilio’s system).
• Messaging Service: A Twilio Messaging Service is a container to organize phone numbers and apply common settings/features for messaging. For A2P 10DLC, Messaging Services play a crucial linking role: each 10DLC Campaign must be tied to a Messaging Service that contains the phone number(s) used for that campaign. Essentially, you link a Campaign to a Messaging Service, and all 10DLC-approved numbers in that service’s sender pool become associated with the campaign. Twilio requires at least one 10DLC phone number in the Messaging Service when registering a Campaign. A Messaging Service can only be linked to one Campaign at a time (one-to-one mapping).

How they relate: First, you register your Brand (business identity). Next, under that Brand you register a Campaign (use case details). As part of campaign registration, Twilio will either prompt you to select an existing Messaging Service or create a new one, and you’ll attach your phone number(s) to that service. Once the Campaign is approved, Twilio reports the linked phone numbers as A2P 10DLC-enabled for that use case. In practice, whenever you send messages via that Messaging Service (or from those numbers), Twilio tags them with the campaign and brand info so carriers recognize the traffic as your registered campaign.

Example: Suppose ACME Corp registers Brand “ACME Corp, Inc.”, then Campaign “ACME Order Notifications”. They create a Messaging Service (e.g. “ACME SMS Service”) and add their Twilio number +1 212 555 0123 to it. Twilio links the “Order Notifications” campaign to that service. Now messages sent from +1 212 555 0123 (through the service) will carry the Brand/Campaign identifier to carriers, meeting A2P 10DLC requirements.

A2P 10DLC Brand Types (Twilio): Sole Proprietor vs. Low-Volume vs. Standard (and Special Cases)

Twilio offers a few different Brand registration types to accommodate various business sizes and needs. The Brand type determines requirements, costs, and messaging limits for your 10DLC campaigns. The main Brand types are:

• Sole Proprietor Brand (aka “Starter” Brand): Intended for individuals or very small businesses without an EIN (tax ID). Eligibility is typically limited to users with a US or Canadian identity/address who aren’t registered corporations. This brand has the fewest requirements – you don’t need to provide an EIN, and identity info is minimal (usually just personal info and a simplified verification). However, it has strict limits: Only 1 phone number can be registered to a Sole Prop Brand, and it supports at most one campaign (Starter campaign) at a time. Throughput and volume are low (details in next section), reflecting that it’s for very small-scale sending. Use case: single-owner businesses or developers sending low-volume texts (e.g. a boutique or hobby project).
• Low Volume Standard Brand: Meant for businesses that do have an EIN (or foreign business registration) but only need to send low volumes of messages. This is a “lighter” version of a Standard Brand with reduced throughput. It does require a valid business identity (EIN for US companies, or equivalent for foreign), so you must create a Customer Profile with business details in Twilio’s Trust Hub. Compared to a full Standard Brand, the Low Volume Brand is easier to obtain (no extensive vetting) and cheaper, but comes with limits. You can register up to 400 phone numbers under it (same as Standard), and potentially up to 5 campaigns (if needed), but each campaign’s traffic is capped at a low throughput (suitable for a few thousand messages per day). Use case: small businesses with an EIN who want to comply with 10DLC without the higher cost of full vetting – for example, a local restaurant or an online boutique sending occasional promotions or notifications.
• Standard Brand: Intended for established businesses with an EIN expecting higher messaging volumes. You’ll need to provide full business details (legal name, address, EIN, industry, etc.), and this Brand undergoes a more thorough vetting by The Campaign Registry (TCR) which results in a Trust Score (0–100) for your brand’s reputation. Standard Brands support up to 400 phone numbers and up to 5 campaigns in Twilio. The big advantage is much higher potential throughput (tied to your Trust Score – see later section) and higher daily messaging limits than Low Volume brands. This is suitable for companies that plan to send significant traffic (e.g. tens of thousands of messages per day or more) or run multiple distinct messaging campaigns. Use cases: medium and large businesses, or any organization (including foreign companies) that needs scale – for example, an e-commerce platform sending marketing blasts, or a bank sending 2FA codes and alerts.

Special Brand considerations: Nonprofit organizations and political entities technically register as “Standard Brands” but with special designations:

• 501(c)(3) Nonprofit or Government: You’ll register as a Standard Brand but indicate nonprofit status (and may need to provide proof, like IRS 501c3 documentation). This qualifies your campaigns for special Charity use case pricing ($3 monthly campaign fee and certain fee waivers). Twilio also has a separate onboarding path for Government/Nonprofit (e.g. emergency services), but fundamentally you still create a brand in the system.
• Political (US 527 org or campaign): Political organizations (like PACs or campaigns) must go through an extra external verification via Campaign Verify to prove they are registered political entities. Once verified, they can register a Political campaign use-case. The brand is often just a Standard Brand marked as a Political entity. Carriers grant special throughput and pricing for verified Political campaigns (often very high throughput allowances for voter communications). Note: Only eligible registered political orgs can use the Political use case – if you’re running political-type messaging, you must complete that vetting step.

In short, choose the Brand type based on your business status and volume:

• No EIN? → Sole Proprietor Brand (very limited volume).
• Have EIN but small volume? → Low Volume Standard Brand.
• Larger scale or multiple campaigns? → Standard Brand (with full vetting).
• Nonprofit or Political? → Standard Brand with appropriate verification (for charity or political privileges).

We compare these Brand types in detail in the table below, including use cases, limits, and pros/cons.

A2P 10DLC Campaign Types and Use Cases (Standard, Mixed, Special, etc.)

When registering an A2P campaign with Twilio, you must select a Campaign Use Case type that best describes your messaging purpose. This is essentially the “campaign type.” It’s important to choose the right type, as it determines certain fees, throughput limits, and compliance rules. Here are the main categories of campaign use cases:

• Standard Use Cases: These cover typical business messaging scenarios. Examples include:
  • Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) – One-time passcodes or login verifications.
  • Account Notifications – Updates about account status, order status, billing, etc.
  • Customer Care – Support conversations or service messages initiated by a user.
  • Delivery Notifications – Shipping status alerts or appointment reminders.
  • Fraud Alerts – Suspicious activity alerts (e.g. bank fraud notifications).
  • Higher Education – Messages from universities/colleges to students or staff.
  • Marketing – Promotional or marketing content (sales, offers, coupons).
  • Polling and Voting – Surveys or voting polls (non-political).
  • Public Service Announcement (PSA) – Informational, non-commercial alerts.
  • Security Alerts – System or physical security breach warnings. Each of the above is a predefined campaign type. If you pick one specific use case, your campaign is considered a “Declared” standard campaign, meaning it has a focused purpose (often non-marketing). Marketing is also a standard use case, but carriers generally consider marketing/promotional campaigns higher risk for spam, so keep that in mind for content and opt-in compliance.
• Mixed Use Case (Standard Mixed): A “Mixed” campaign allows you to combine multiple use cases in one campaign. For example, you might send both order confirmations and marketing promos from the same number(s). With a Mixed campaign type, you must specify at least two sub-use-cases it will cover (e.g. “Customer Care + Marketing”). This flexibility comes at a slightly higher compliance scrutiny – carriers know you’re sending varied content. The monthly fee is the same as other standard campaigns ($10), and throughput is similar to other standard campaigns, determined by your Brand’s trust score. When to choose Mixed: if you truly cannot separate your traffic by use case or you want to reuse one number for multiple purposes. However, if your use cases are very different (say, critical alerts vs. ads) and volume is high, best practice is to use separate campaigns to avoid intermixing content (this can help with deliverability and compliance tracking).
• Low-Volume Mixed Use Case: This is a special campaign type introduced for small businesses. It’s essentially a Mixed campaign (can send multiple types of messages) but with low fixed throughput and a discounted monthly fee. Twilio offers “Low-Volume Mixed” campaigns at $1.50 per month – much cheaper than the $10 standard – specifically for those who registered a Low Volume Brand or who only need minimal messaging. The trade-off is that throughput is capped at the lowest tier regardless of Trust Score (we’ll detail numbers later, but roughly 3 msg/sec and small daily limits). This is ideal for a small organization that sends maybe a few hundred messages a day across various purposes. When to choose: if you want to minimize cost and your messaging volume is very low, and you don’t want to maintain separate campaigns for different content. (Often recommended: Low Volume Brand + Low-Volume Mixed campaign for many small businesses to cover all their messaging at minimal cost.)
• Special Use Cases: These are campaign types that carriers treat specially (often requiring pre-approval or additional verification). Key special use cases include:
  • Charity / Nonprofit: For 501(c)(3) nonprofits sending communications as part of their charitable mission. Example: a charity organization sending donation appeals or program updates to subscribers. This type requires you to prove nonprofit status (e.g. EIN category and maybe IRS letter) during registration. Monthly fee is only $3 (heavily discounted), and typically carrier messaging fees are waived for verified charity campaigns (no per-message carrier surcharge). Throughput is generally high (and not trust-score-limited in the same way) because nonprofits are not seen as spam risk. Choose this if you are eligible – it significantly lowers costs for genuine nonprofits.
  • Emergency Services: For certified government or emergency service entities sending urgent public safety messages. e.g. local government emergency alerts, 911 outbound notifications, weather emergencies. This use case is strictly limited to authorized senders (often government or emergency management agencies). It offers priority delivery. Monthly fee is $5. Carriers typically waive content restrictions for critical alerts and may allow very high throughput for emergencies. Only choose this if you truly operate in public safety – it requires verification (sometimes through Twilio’s special onboarding for government).
  • Political: For political campaign communications (to voters) by eligible organizations (e.g. a campaign, political action committee, or similar). As noted, it requires external vetting (Campaign Verify token) to prove the sender is a registered political entity. Once verified, carriers assign extremely high throughput limits for Political campaigns (to allow mass texts to constituents). Monthly fees are around the standard level ($10), but note you might incur a separate one-time fee with Campaign Verify. Only 501(c)(4/5/6) or 527 orgs can use this; it’s not for issue advocacy by normal businesses. If you aren’t a qualified org, you must use standard or mixed use cases instead (e.g. “Polling and voting” if running a survey, but not partisan messaging).
  • Others: There are a few less common special use cases like K-12 Education (for school districts, often $10/month) and Proxy/Conversational (for platforms that facilitate person-to-person conversations like ride-share driver ↔ passenger chats, often $10/month with special per-message fees). These are niche – e.g. K-12 is restricted to eligible educational institutions, Proxy might be used by contact centers or apps simulating P2P chats. If you need one of these, you'll know by your application (and Twilio may require additional info).

Choosing the campaign type: The general rule is to pick the single use case that best matches your primary messaging purpose. If you have multiple distinct purposes, you can either choose Mixed (to cover all) or register multiple campaigns (one for each use case). Multiple campaigns mean you’ll pay multiple monthly fees, but each campaign is more narrowly defined which carriers prefer. A best practice: don’t abuse “Mixed” just to save money if you truly have, say, promotional traffic and important alerts – separating those into separate campaigns can safeguard your deliverability (e.g. if one campaign faces an issue, it won’t affect the other). Twilio’s guidance: if you have multiple use cases, register each one if feasible. However, for small senders worried about cost, the Low-Volume Mixed is a great cost-saving option to cover all message types in one campaign. We’ll cover recommendations in detail later.

Below we include a comparison table of campaign types (use cases, fees, throughput, pros/cons) to help decide.

Costs and Fees Breakdown (USD)

Using A2P 10DLC involves one-time registration fees, monthly fees per campaign, and per-message fees (on top of Twilio’s usual messaging costs). Below is a detailed breakdown:

• Brand Registration Fees (one-time): When you register a Brand, Twilio charges a one-time fee based on the brand type:
  • Sole Proprietor Brand: $4.50 one-time fee (Twilio’s help doc quotes $4.50, though some sources round to $4). Twilio often calls this the Starter Brand registration fee. If you had a legacy “Starter” brand from early 2021, Twilio converted it to Sole Prop for free, but new ones pay ~$4.
  • Low Volume Standard Brand: $4.50 one-time (roughly the same small fee). Twilio sometimes lists ~$4.41 due to minor tax variations. Essentially, it’s a token fee similar to Sole Prop since no secondary vetting is involved.
  • Standard Brand: $44 one-time. This is much higher because it includes a primary vetting fee by TCR. (Typically, TCR’s base fee is $40 and Twilio adds ~$4 admin.) This fee is charged at brand approval time.
  • Special cases: Nonprofit and Government brands also use the Standard brand flow, so they pay $44 as well. Political brands: registering the Brand via Twilio is $44, plus you’ll separately pay Campaign Verify (currently $95 for verification token for political entities, outside Twilio). Political and certain large brands might later choose Secondary Vetting (an optional deeper vetting to improve trust score) for an additional fee (around $40–$60) – but this is optional and not common unless you need higher throughput and got a low initial score.
• Campaign Registration Fees (vetting fee, one-time per campaign): As of 2023, there is a $15 vetting fee for each campaign registration. This applies to all campaign types (Standard, Low-Volume, etc.) and is charged when you submit the campaign for review. It’s essentially the fee for carriers/TCR to review and assign a Campaign ID and (if applicable) a Trust Score for the campaign/brand combination. Important: This $15 is non-refundable, even if your campaign is rejected. Twilio will charge again if you register a new campaign (or sometimes if you make major edits that require re-registration). However, Twilio does not charge additional if minor resubmissions are needed to fix details on the same campaign record.
  • Exception: Twilio at one point waived the $50 campaign setup fee for Low Volume campaigns – that was the old fee structure. The current $15 vetting fee is generally standard for all now.
• Monthly Campaign Fees: Once approved, each campaign incurs a monthly fee (billed by Twilio, passed to carriers). This is charged per campaign (not per number) and varies by campaign type:
  • Standard Campaigns: $10 per month. This covers any standard use case (marketing, 2FA, notifications, etc.) as well as Mixed campaigns (if not using the low-volume version). So if you have a regular campaign on a Standard Brand, expect $10/mo campaign fee.
  • Sole Proprietor Campaign (Starter): $2 per month. Sole Prop brands can only have the one starter campaign, and it’s charged at $2 monthly.
  • Low-Volume Mixed Campaign: $1.50 per month. This discounted rate applies only if you chose the “Low-Volume Mixed” use case (usually tied to Low Volume Brand). It’s the cheapest option.
  • Charity (501c3) Campaign: $3 per month. Significantly reduced to encourage nonprofit messaging.
  • Emergency Services Campaign: $5 per month.
  • Political Campaign: Twilio doesn’t list a special price in the source, so it’s likely $10/mo (same as standard). Some other carriers waive per-message fees for political, but monthly is typically standard.
  • Others: K-12 Education and Sweepstakes etc. often carry $10/mo (like standard). “Proxy” conversational campaigns are $10/mo as well. These fees are per active campaign. So if you have two $10 campaigns, you pay $20/mo. Twilio usually pro-rates them if you start mid-month. They appear on your Twilio bill as A2P Campaign fees.
• Per-Message Carrier Fees: U.S. carriers impose small surcharges on A2P messages in addition to Twilio’s messaging price. The fees differ by carrier and whether traffic is registered or not:
  • AT&T: for registered A2P messages: $0.002 per SMS and $0.0035 per MMS. For unregistered (sending 10DLC without a campaign): $0.01 per SMS and $0.015 per MMS (note how much higher – AT&T raised unregistered fees on June 1, 2023). These are outbound fees (AT&T’s surcharge applies only to messages sent to AT&T subscribers).
  • T-Mobile (including Sprint): charges apply for both inbound and outbound messages on T-Mobile’s network. Registered: $0.003 per SMS and $0.01 per MMS. Unregistered: currently $0.006 per SMS and $0.015 per MMS (T-Mobile increased these on Aug 1, 2023). So an outbound text to a T-Mobile phone, if your number is registered, adds $0.003; if not, $0.006. If that T-Mobile user replies (inbound to you), Twilio passes through another $0.003 or $0.006 respectively.
  • Verizon: $0.0025 per SMS and $0.005 per MMS for any A2P message, registered or not. Verizon doesn’t currently penalize unregistered traffic with higher fees (they instead heavily filter or block unregistered, but fee is same).
  • US Cellular and others: smaller carriers have various tiny surcharges (often around $0.0025~0.003 per message). The big three above are the main ones. Twilio will automatically add these fees on a per-segment basis. For example, sending a 2-segment SMS to an AT&T phone will incur $0.004 in AT&T fees (2 × $0.002) if registered, or $0.02 if unregistered. These appear in your billing as “Carrier Fees”. Keep in mind MMS often count as multiple segments or have per-message fees as shown.

    Important: If you send 10DLC messages without registering, you pay those elevated “unregistered” fees (and risk blocking). For instance, each unregistered SMS to a T-Mobile user costs an extra $0.006 – that adds up quickly. So it’s very cost-effective to register and pay the low registered rates. The difference can be 5–10× higher cost per message when unregistered (e.g. AT&T $0.01 vs $0.002).

Aside from the above, Twilio’s standard per-message charge for the SMS/MMS itself still applies (e.g. ~$0.0075 per SMS segment to US). Toll-free and short code messages do not incur these 10DLC fees but come with their own rules. For completeness, Twilio also notes additional fines/penalties can be charged by carriers for non-compliance (more on that in compliance section).

The table below summarizes the key costs for each Brand/Campaign type.

Throughput and Volume Limits (by Brand/Campaign Type and Vetting Score)

One of the main advantages of A2P 10DLC registration is access to higher throughput (messages per second) and higher daily send limits – but these limits vary widely by brand type and your Trust Score. Here’s a breakdown:

• Sole Proprietor Brand Limits: This is the most restricted tier. A Sole Prop (Starter) campaign is limited to 1 MPS (message per second) sending rate. In addition, there is a daily cap of 3,000 SMS segments/day across all carriers, with a sub-limit of 1,000 SMS/day to T-Mobile numbers. These limits are imposed by carriers to ensure small senders don’t spam. In practical terms, 3,000 messages/day (~90k/month) is the absolute max for Sole Prop, and if more than 1k of those go to T-Mobile, the rest may be blocked until the next day. This tier has no formal Trust Score – it’s just fixed capacity.
• Low Volume Standard Brand Limits: By design, Low Volume campaigns are capped at the “lowest throughput tier.” Currently, that means about 3 MPS total sending rate (Twilio cites 3.75 MPS as a combined throughput). Daily volume is capped around 6,000 SMS/day, with a sub-cap of 2,000 SMS/day to T-Mobile. These numbers are roughly double the Sole Prop, but far below what a fully vetted standard brand can achieve. Notably, Trust Score does not apply – even though you have an EIN, Twilio does not do secondary vetting for low volume, so your throughput is essentially fixed at this low tier. This is sufficient for many small businesses (a few thousand texts/day). If you exceed these, you should upgrade to a Standard brand.
• Standard Brand Limits (with Trust Scores): Standard brands can achieve very high throughput, but it depends on the Trust Score assigned during brand vetting:
  • If your Trust Score is 75–100 (High), you get the maximum throughput: up to ~225 MPS across major carriers. In practice, that equates to 75 MPS on AT&T, 75 MPS on Verizon, 75 MPS on T-Mobile simultaneously (the sum ~225). Daily volume allowed can be ~200,000 messages/day or higher (and carriers can lift it further on request for very large senders). This tier is usually granted to large, well-established brands (e.g. Fortune 500 companies).
  • Trust Score 50–74 (Medium): throughput about 120 MPS total, which breaks down to ~40 MPS per major carrier. Daily cap maybe around 50k–100k/day.
  • Trust Score 1–49 (Low): throughput around 12 MPS total (approx 4 MPS per carrier). Daily sending might be limited to ~2,000–10,000/day (Twilio mentions 2,000 for lowest tier in older docs).
  • If a Standard Brand had 0 Trust Score (meaning you skipped vetting – not typical now since $15 vetting is mandatory for new campaigns), it would be treated equivalently to the 1–49 tier, ~12 MPS. Note: These throughput numbers refer to SMS segments per second outbound. “Major networks” usually means AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile (each considered a channel). “Minor” carriers (others) are typically collectively given a smaller portion (like 1 MPS each or a combined minor bucket). The table from Twilio (via CallHub) shows the per-carrier breakdown clearly. Essentially, a high trust brand can send extremely fast, whereas a low trust brand might only send 12 SMS/sec (which is ~720 SMS/minute). If you need more throughput and got a low score, Twilio offers a Secondary Vetting process (for a fee) that can potentially bump your score into a higher tier if justified. Also, daily limits still exist at each tier (to prevent massive spam dumps). Twilio indicates 200k/day at high score, down to 2k/day at low score. T-Mobile’s daily cap for a low-tier campaign is 2k (matching the low score case), which aligns with those numbers. High-score campaigns get 200k/day or more (T-Mobile can approve higher via Special Business Reviews if needed).
• Special Use Case Throughput: Many special campaigns are not governed by trust score at all, but by their nature:
  • Charity: Often given a fixed high throughput (e.g. treated as high trust by default). There is indication that Trust Score doesn’t limit special cases. So a small nonprofit might still get good throughput for urgent sends, though in practice nonprofits rarely need huge MPS.
  • Emergency: Typically very high throughput (carriers will allow blasting out alerts rapidly, as these are life-safety).
  • Political: If verified, these campaigns have predefined high throughput buckets (for example, registered 527 political campaigns often get tens of MPS or more by default, since election texts are high volume).
  • Low-Volume Mixed: As noted, fixed at 3 MPS (regardless of Brand’s potential trust).

To summarize: Standard brands with high trust can send at short-code-like speeds (hundreds of msgs/sec), whereas sole prop/low vol are throttled to a crawl (1–3 MPS). Thus, choose your brand type and consider vetting if you need more speed. Also design your campaigns accordingly – e.g. if you plan a big blast to 50k users in 5 minutes, you will need a high throughput campaign (High trust or short code); a Low Volume campaign would take hours to send that many messages (and may violate daily caps).

Twilio’s system will queue messages beyond your throughput rate automatically. It’s good practice to spread out large sends if you are on a limited tier to avoid hitting caps. Twilio provides a “Market Throughput” API/guide to show expected MPS for your campaign after approval.

Compliance and Policy Requirements (Opt-In/Out, Content, Violations)

A2P 10DLC comes with strict compliance rules. When you register and use a campaign, you must adhere to carrier and industry (CTIA) guidelines or risk message blocking and hefty fines. Key requirements:

• Consent (Opt-In): You must only message users who have given proper consent. This is the golden rule of A2P. Acceptable opt-in can be the user providing their number for a specific purpose (e.g. signing up on your website and agreeing to receive texts). Implicit consent (like an existing business relationship) is not sufficient for marketing texts – you need explicit opt-in for promotional campaigns. During campaign registration Twilio asks how users opted in; make sure you have a solid process (web form checkbox, SMS keyword, etc.) and retain proof of opt-in in case of carrier audit.
• Opt-Out (STOP) and Help: You must support the standard keywords for opt-out and help. If a user texts “STOP”, “STOPALL”, “UNSUBSCRIBE”, “CANCEL”, “END” or “QUIT” to your number, you must immediately stop sending messages to that user. Twilio can manage this automatically if you enable the Messaging Service’s Opt-Out feature. Similarly, if a user texts “HELP”, you should reply with a message describing how they can get assistance or unsubscribe (e.g. “Reply STOP to unsubscribe, or contact us at 1-800-XXX for help”). Carriers monitor that these keywords function correctly. Not honoring STOP is one of the most serious violations and can lead to your campaign being shut down or fines (T-Mobile has a known $10,000 fine for not honoring opt-out).
• Forbidden Content: Carriers and CTIA forbid certain types of content on A2P messages. A common acronym is SHAFT – Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco – as categories that are generally disallowed in marketing messages. This means no pornography, no hate speech or harassment, no promotion of illegal drugs, etc. Other forbidden content includes:
  • Illegal substances or activities: e.g. cannabis (still federally illegal, so carriers ban cannabis dispensary texts even in legal states), gambling (unless legal and very targeted), fake pharmaceuticals, etc.
  • Harassment or hate: any content that harasses or discriminates is banned.
  • Spam behavior: Scams, phishing, or fraudulent content is obviously forbidden.
  • “S.H.A.F.T.” for marketing: Even for legal products like alcohol or firearms, carriers do not allow marketing texts unless very tightly controlled (age-gated lists, etc.). It’s safest to avoid those content categories entirely in texting.
  • Note: Charities can send certain fundraising messages, and some regulated content (like prescription reminders from pharmacies) may be allowed if the user explicitly opts in and laws permit. Always check Twilio’s Use Policy and the CTIA guidelines if in doubt.
• Content Compliance: Every message should ideally include identifying info (e.g. your company name in the message) especially for marketing. Avoid link shortening with public link shorteners (bit.ly etc. are red flags for carriers; use your own domain or Twilio’s branded domain if using their shorter). Do not send on forbidden hours if any apply (for instance, some states have telemarketing curfews – text is generally exempt, but best practice is avoid very late marketing texts).
• Frequency and Volume: Don’t suddenly blast at your max throughput without warning. Carriers watch for unusual spikes. If you plan a large campaign, you might want to notify Twilio support in advance. Also, ensure your sending volume aligns with what you stated in campaign registration – e.g. if you said “we send 100 messages/day” and then send 50k in an hour, that mismatch can trigger filtering.

Consequences of Violations: If you violate these rules, carriers may:

• Filter or block messages: The first sign of non-compliance is usually messages failing to deliver. Carriers have automated filters that will block texts that look like spam or forbidden content.
• Issue fines: For egregious or repeated violations, carriers (especially T-Mobile) can charge substantial fines passed through to you via Twilio. For example, T-Mobile’s spam violation fine is $10,000 per instance. They also fine for “snowshoeing” (spreading traffic across many numbers to evade limits) – e.g. $1,000 fee for evasion attempts. AT&T and others have similar penalties. These fines are not theoretical – companies have been hit with them, and Twilio will bill you if it happens.
• Campaign suspension or ban: Carriers can revoke your campaign registration. If your campaign gets suspended or permanently deactivated due to compliance issues, you’ll be barred from using those numbers for texting until you remedy it (if possible). Twilio may also suspend your messaging capabilities if you get flagged for serious violations.

In short, play by the rules:

• Make sure everyone you text has opted in and is expecting your messages.
• Always include an easy opt-out. (Twilio’s automated STOP handling can insert “Reply STOP to unsubscribe” for you – use it.)
• Don’t send disallowed content. When in doubt, consult Twilio’s AUP or contact their compliance team.
• Keep your campaign description truthful. If you registered for “account alerts” and start sending marketing, that’s a violation.

Following these guidelines not only avoids penalties but also improves your deliverability. Carriers want to deliver wanted messages; if you follow best practices, your messages are far more likely to reach recipients.

Comparison Tables

Below are two tables comparing (1) Brand types and (2) Campaign use case types for A2P 10DLC on Twilio, summarizing their characteristics, costs, limits, and pros/cons.

Brand Types Comparison

Campaign Types/Use Cases Comparison

(Table notes: “MPS” = messages per second throughput. Trust Score impacts apply only to Standard campaigns. Fees cited are Twilio’s charges per month per campaign. Content rules are simplified summaries; always ensure compliance with detailed guidelines.)

Best Practices and Recommendations

Finally, to get the most out of Twilio A2P 10DLC while keeping costs down and deliverability up, consider these best practices:

• Choose the Right Brand Type: If you’re a low-volume sender, don’t overpay for a Standard Brand. For example, an individual or small startup sending a few hundred texts a day should go with Sole Prop or Low Volume Standard – the fees are minimal and registration is easier. On the other hand, if you anticipate scaling or need multiple campaigns, invest in a Standard Brand from the start. Tip: If you have an EIN, you might opt for Low Volume first (cheap) and Twilio allows later upgrading to Standard Brand if needed. Upgrading will involve the higher fee but can be done when justified.
• Choose Campaign Use Case Wisely: Match the campaign type to your primary content. If most of your messages are one type (say, purely notifications), register that specific use case – don’t pick “Mixed” just to cover a rare promo, you could instead send that promo on a separate smaller campaign or even via a different channel. Specific use cases mean carriers know what to expect, which can help with deliverability. If you truly have multiple equally important use cases on one number and volume is low, the Low-Volume Mixed is a perfect catch-all. If volume is higher, you might still consolidate under a Mixed campaign but be aware of the trade-offs. Twilio’s guidance is if you can separate use cases into distinct campaigns, do so for clarity – especially separating marketing vs. critical alerts.
• Use Separate Campaigns for Marketing vs. Transactional: It’s often considered best practice to separate promotional traffic from transactional traffic. Reason: transactional (alerts, 2FA, receipts) typically have high deliverability requirements and users expect them, whereas marketing content has higher opt-out rates and filtering risk. If they are on the same campaign/number and a carrier filters some of your marketing messages for spam suspicion, your important messages might also be affected (since the campaign could get a bad “reputation” temporarily). By using say one campaign/number for marketing and another for notifications, you isolate risk. Many businesses use one long code for service messages and a different long code (or set of numbers) for marketing blasts.
• Minimize Costs:
  • Low Volume option: As mentioned, if your needs are modest, use the Low Volume Brand + Low-Volume Mixed campaign – you’ll only pay $19 one-time and $1.50/mo, which is incredibly cheap compliance. Compare that to not registering: you’d pay extra per message fees that likely exceed $1.50 within a few hundred texts. So registration almost always saves money unless you truly send only a handful of messages ever.
  • Avoid unnecessary campaigns: Each campaign is $10/mo (except special ones). If one campaign can cover two related use cases without issue, consolidate them. For example, if you send account notifications and also occasional security alerts, those are similar enough you could register a single “Account Notifications” campaign for both rather than two separate $10 campaigns – as long as content fits the description.
  • Use special categories if eligible: If you’re a nonprofit, definitely register your campaign as Charity – you’ll save $7/month in fees and $0.002–0.003 per message in surcharges. If you’re a political org, use the Political route (yes, it’s some extra work up front, but then you avoid carrier shutdown during election season and your throughput will be sufficient).
  • Keep your number pool minimal: You pay $1 per month for each Twilio phone number. For most A2P campaigns, you only need as many numbers as required for throughput or regional presence. Don’t register dozens of numbers “just because” – you’ll incur extra monthly costs (and carriers dislike unused numbers parked on campaigns). Start with 1 or a few and add as needed.
  • Toll-Free for very low volume? If your SMS volume is extremely low and you want to avoid all A2P registration, a workaround is to use a Toll-Free number, which currently has a separate (free) verification process and no per-message surcharges. Toll-free texting can handle decent throughput for transactional messages (and now even limited marketing). However, note toll-free has its own rules and carriers are enforcing verification for it too. If you already have Twilio setup, sticking to 10DLC is usually fine; but for a hobby project sending a handful of texts, toll-free might save the $19 registration fee. (This is a side note – Twilio itself in docs suggests toll-free or even using their Verify API for solely auth messages if you truly want to skip 10DLC.)
• Maintain Compliance Proactively: The best way to ensure good delivery and avoid costs is to never trigger carrier red flags:
  • Make sure opt-out language is present at least in initial messages. For marketing in particular, best practice (and in some cases required by CTIA) is to include “Txt STOP to stop” in the first message to a user. Twilio’s compliance tools can automate this in Messaging Service.
  • Monitor your opt-out (STOP) rates and complaint rates. Twilio provides feedback via delivery receipts (some carriers report if a user replied STOP). If you see high opt-outs after a send, evaluate your contact list and content – it could indicate those users didn’t expect that message.
  • Quality over quantity: Do not spam blast messages or send repeatedly to non-responders. Carriers watch patterns like a high volume of identical messages or rapid-fire deliveries – that can cause filtering. Space out large sends when possible, and personalize content if you can (non-identical messages are less likely to get auto-filtered).
  • Content checks: Avoid ALL CAPS, spammy phrases (“FREE!!!”), excessive link use in marketing texts. These can trip filters. Also, avoid public URL shorteners (they are often blocked). Use your own domain or Twilio’s shortener with a branded domain.
  • Update campaign details if things change: If you pivot your use case significantly, officially you should register a new campaign for the new use. Don’t keep using an old campaign for a totally different messaging purpose – that could lead to content that doesn’t match what carriers expect, and result in filtering or suspension.
• Leverage Messaging Service Features: Twilio Messaging Services offer features like Sticky Sender (keeping the same number per contact) and Scalability with multiple senders. If you have multiple numbers in a campaign, Twilio can distribute traffic (Scaler) to maximize throughput and avoid hitting per-number carrier limits. Ensure these are configured to optimize delivery. Also enable Smart Encoding and consider using Twilio’s Queueing with a proper logic if you know you might exceed throughput – Twilio will queue messages above your MPS, but you might manage scheduling on your side too.
• Monitor and Test: Use Twilio’s Messaging Insights and delivery reports to keep an eye on how your messages are doing. If you see sudden increases in failures or latencies, it might be a compliance issue (e.g. carriers started filtering). Address issues quickly – sometimes a tweak in messaging or a direct talk with Twilio support to understand a block can resolve it. Staying in good standing is key; once a campaign or number gets a bad reputation, it’s hard to reverse during its active period.

By following these practices, you’ll ensure your Twilio A2P 10DLC experience is smooth – with optimized costs, maximum deliverability, and compliance. The A2P system may seem complex, but it ultimately works in your favor by boosting trust in the messages you send, which means more of your customers actually receive and engage with your texts. Good luck with your messaging campaigns!

Sources: The information above is based on Twilio’s official documentation and help center articles, Twilio’s stated pricing and fee schedules, and industry guidelines for A2P messaging compliance. All data is up-to-date as of 2025 for US A2P 10DLC regulations and Twilio’s services.