How is SMS character limit calculated?

Using characters from the standard character set

  • Up to 160 characters will be composed in a single SMS.
  • Once the number of characters exceeds 160, the character limit for each SMS will be reduced to 153 and sent accordingly.

Hence the character limit will be as follows:

No. of SMS  Maximum Characters allowed (including spaces)
1 160 characters
2 306 characters (2*153)
3 459 characters (3*153)
….
26 3978 characters (26*153)

Using characters outside the standard character set

  • According to Unicode character encoding standard, using letters of Indian languages such as Hindi in the message will restrict the characters per SMS to 70.
  • Once the number of characters exceeds 70, the character limit for each SMS message will be reduced to 67 and sent accordingly.

Hence the character limit will be as follows:

No. of SMS Maximum Characters allowed (including spaces)
1 70 characters
2 134  characters (2*67)
3 201 characters (3*67)
…. ….
30 2010 characters (30*67)
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