Determine the number of text messages sent and received

To view your messaging usage:

You will see a summary of your usage for sent and received messages in the Text Message meters. For a more detailed view of your messaging usage, look under the Daily messaging usage section.

To reduce the cost per message, consider getting a

messaging package

that’s right for you. The package includes per-message discounts and free incoming messages.

The international standard for 1 text message is limited to 140 bytes, which translates into a maximum length between 63 and 160 characters, depending on the type of characters used by the phone.

When writing a text message, the characters used will impact the type of encoding used by the phone.

The 2 most common character encoding types used by devices are:

The phone picks the encoding automatically, depending on the characters used. For example, the phone will convert the text into Unicode automatically, when using an emoji, a symbol or a letter with an accent (e.g. é).

The maximum size of a text message is always 140 bytes, but the number of characters will vary, depending on which ones are used.

A long message will be automatically split into multiple ones. To ensure the receiver gets them in the correct order, each multi-part message uses 6 bytes for its User Data Header (UDH), which allows the parts to assemble correctly when received. This leaves 134 bytes for the actual message content.