10DLC is the US system for business text messages sent from a normal 10-digit phone number. Before you can text customers from that number, you must register your business (the brand) and your use case (the campaign) with The Campaign Registry. Since February 1, 2025, US carriers block unregistered 10DLC traffic.
This guide answers the questions most businesses have about 10DLC: what it is, who must register, how 10DLC registration works step by step, what it costs and how long it takes. It then compares five SMS platforms by how much of the registration work they do for you.
What is 10DLC?
10DLC means “10-digit long code.” It is the standard, carrier-approved way for a business to send application-to-person (A2P) texts from a local phone number in the US.
The system exists because carriers treat two kinds of texting differently:
- P2P (person-to-person): one person texts another. Volume is low and replies are normal.
- A2P (application-to-person): software sends texts for a business, such as appointment reminders, order updates, two-way support chats or marketing offers.
For years, businesses sent A2P texts over long codes with no checks, and spam grew. The carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon) responded with A2P 10DLC. Every business that sends A2P texts from a 10-digit number now has to say who it is and what it sends.
The Campaign Registry (TCR) is the central database for this. Your SMS provider (called a campaign service provider) sends your details to TCR. TCR checks the brand, gives it a trust score and passes the campaign to the carriers. Each carrier then decides whether to accept your traffic and how many messages you can send.
The result is a trade. Registered senders get better delivery, higher throughput and lower carrier fees. Unregistered senders get blocked.
10DLC vs toll-free vs short code
10DLC is the best choice for most small and mid-size businesses, because the number is local, it works for calls and texts, and setup costs only a few dollars. Toll-free numbers suit national brands that want one number everywhere. Short codes suit very high-volume senders with a large budget.
| Number type | Example | Best use | Setup time | Throughput | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10DLC | (512) 555-0142 | Local businesses, two-way texting, reminders | About 2 weeks | 2,000 to 200,000 messages/day on T-Mobile, by trust score | About $4.50 brand + $15 campaign vetting + $1.50–$10/month |
| Toll-free | (888) 555-0142 | National brands, support lines | 1–3 weeks for toll-free verification | Moderate, set by verification | Number fee + per-message fees; no TCR fees |
| Short code | 55512 | Mass alerts, large marketing programs | 8–12 weeks | Highest | About $1,000+/month |
Toll-free numbers do not use 10DLC. They have their own toll-free verification process. Short codes have their own carrier approval process too.
Who needs to register for 10DLC?
Every business that sends A2P texts from a 10-digit US number must register. Size does not matter. A one-location salon that sends appointment reminders must register, the same as a national retailer.
The rules by business type:
- Businesses with an EIN register as a standard brand. If you send fewer than about 6,000 message segments a day, a low-volume standard campaign costs less per month.
- Sole proprietors with no EIN can register as a sole proprietor brand. Limits: one campaign, one phone number and about 1,000 messages a day on average.
- Businesses outside the US that text US customers from a US 10-digit number must also register. They use their own country’s tax ID in place of an EIN.
So is 10DLC mandatory? For A2P texting on a US 10-digit number, yes. Person-to-person texting from a personal phone does not need it. Texting from a toll-free number or short code uses a different process.
How to register for 10DLC step by step
To register, your SMS provider files your brand and then your campaign with The Campaign Registry, and the carriers approve them. You cannot register with TCR directly. You do it through your provider’s portal or its support team.
Before you start, have these details ready:
- Legal business name, exactly as it appears on your IRS records
- EIN (or other tax ID)
- Business address, website and a contact email and phone number
- A privacy policy on your website that says you do not share mobile numbers or opt-in data
- Proof of opt-in: a screenshot of your web form, your keyword instructions or your paper form
- Two to five sample messages, with your business name and opt-out instructions
Then follow these seven steps.
- Gather your business details. Check that the legal name and EIN match your IRS records letter for letter. A mismatch is the most common reason a brand fails.
- Register the brand with TCR. Your provider submits the brand. TCR checks the EIN and business details, usually within minutes to a few days.
- Review the trust score. TCR gives the brand a score from 0 to 100. A low score limits your throughput. You can pay for secondary vetting (about $41.50) to get a more accurate score.
- Create the 10DLC campaign. Choose the use case (for example, customer care, account notifications or marketing), describe what you send and add your sample messages.
- Add opt-in proof and policy links. Show exactly how people agree to receive texts, and link your privacy policy and terms.
- Submit for carrier approval. The campaign goes through vetting and then to the carriers. Reviewers reject vague descriptions, sample messages with no business name and opt-in flows they cannot see.
- Send only on the approved campaign. Link your phone numbers to the campaign. Send only the types of messages the campaign describes.
Can you send texts while registration is pending? No. Since February 2025, carriers block A2P texts from numbers that are not linked to an approved campaign. Plan your 10DLC registration at least two weeks before you need to text.
How long does 10DLC registration take?
Most 10DLC registrations take about two weeks from start to approval.
- Brand registration: 2–5 business days
- Campaign approval: 1–4 weeks
- Typical total: about 2 weeks for a standard use case
Rejections add time. Each fix goes back into the review queue. Some providers offer expedited campaign vetting (about $50) that returns a decision in about 48 hours.
How much does 10DLC registration cost?
10DLC registration costs about $20 up front and $1.50 to $10 per month for each campaign, plus a carrier surcharge on every message segment.
| Fee | Amount | When you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Brand registration (TCR) | About $4.50 ($4 for sole proprietors) | One time |
| Secondary brand vetting (optional) | About $41.50 | One time |
| Campaign vetting | About $15 per attempt | One time, and again after each rejection |
| Monthly campaign fee | $1.50 (low-volume mixed), $2 (sole proprietor), $10 (standard and marketing) | Monthly, per campaign |
| Carrier surcharge, registered traffic | About $0.003–$0.005 per SMS segment, by carrier | Per message |
| Carrier surcharge, unregistered traffic | About $0.006–$0.017 per segment, when it is not blocked | Per message |
*number may vary according to region, carrier, volume etc.
These 10DLC fees come on top of your SMS platform’s own price. Some platforms pass them through at cost. Others add them to the plan price or charge a registration fee of their own.
Worked example: a small office in year one
A dental office sends about 3,000 reminder and confirmation texts a month on one standard campaign. Its first-year 10DLC cost:
- Brand registration: $4.50
- Campaign vetting: $15
- Monthly campaign fee: $10 × 12 = $120
- Carrier surcharges: 36,000 segments × $0.004 = $144
Total: about $284 in year one, plus the platform fee. On a low-volume mixed campaign at $1.50 a month, the same office pays about $182.
Trust score and message limits
Your trust score sets how many messages the carriers accept from you. A higher score means higher daily caps on T-Mobile and more messages per minute on AT&T.
| Brand type or T-Mobile score | T-Mobile daily cap | AT&T class and limit |
|---|---|---|
| Sole proprietor | About 1,000/day | up to 75 SMS/minute |
| Score 0–24 | 2,000/day | Class E/F: 240 SMS/minute |
| Score 25–49 | 10,000/day | Class E/F: 240 SMS/minute |
| Score 50–74 | 40,000/day | Class C/D: 2,400 SMS/minute |
| Score 75–100 | 200,000/day | Class A/B: 4,500 SMS/minute |
| Low-volume standard campaign | Low cap [Confirm] | Class T: 75 SMS/minute |
A local business rarely hits these caps. They matter when you send a promotion to a large list at one time.
What happens if you do not register?
Unregistered A2P texts from a 10-digit number do not reach the customer. Since February 1, 2025, the carriers block them.
Other risks:
- Higher fees on any unregistered traffic that still gets through
- Carrier fines: T-Mobile can charge up to $10,000 per content violation and $1,000 per incident of 10DLC evasion
- Blocked numbers: carriers can suspend a number that sends spam-like traffic, and it can take weeks to clear
- TCPA risk: texts sent without consent can bring lawsuits of $500 to $1,500 per message under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Some states, such as Texas and Virginia, add their own penalties.
Registration does not protect you from the TCPA. It shows the carriers who you are. Consent is a separate legal duty.
10DLC compliance rules after you register
10DLC compliance does not stop at approval. Carriers audit traffic, and a campaign that drifts from what you registered can be suspended.
Follow these rules:
- Get clear opt-in. Collect consent before the first text, and keep a record of when and how each person agreed.
- Support STOP and HELP. Honor STOP (and words like “unsubscribe” or “cancel”) at once. Reply to HELP with your business name and contact details.
- Identify your business in the first message and in most messages after that.
- Match the approved 10DLC campaign. If you registered for appointment reminders, do not send promotions on that campaign. Register a second campaign for marketing.
- Avoid restricted content. Cannabis, firearms, high-risk loans and third-party lead generation are banned or tightly limited. Public URL shorteners (such as bit.ly) often get filtered.
- Respect quiet hours. Many state laws limit marketing texts to daytime hours in the recipient’s time zone.
Healthcare and financial businesses have extra rules. A healthcare practice must keep protected health information out of texts unless its texting platform signs a business associate agreement (BAA). See our guide to [HIPAA compliant phone systems] for more on healthcare texting.
The best 10DLC SMS platforms
The best 10DLC SMS platform for you depends on how much of the registration work you want to do yourself. We compared five platforms side by side on registration method, price and compliance help.
| Platform | Score | Best for | Start price | Registration method | Help with rejections | Two-way texting | Integrations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleTexting | 4.2 | Small businesses, retail | $39/month | Guided, with support | Yes | Yes | 1,000+ via Zapier and native apps |
| SlickText | 3.7 | SMS marketing and loyalty | $29/month | Guided, with compliance tips | Some | Yes | E-commerce and CRM apps |
| Twilio | 3.5 | Developers and enterprises | $0.0083/segment + carrier fees | Self-serve portal and API | No (you fix it) | Yes, you build it | Unlimited, via API |
| TextMagic | 3.5 | Mass campaigns, SMBs | Pay as you go [Confirm] | Self-serve with support | Some | Yes | Email-to-SMS, CRM apps |
| Textedly | 3.2 | Budget, single-brand campaigns | $26/month [Confirm] | Self-serve, basic help | Little | Yes | Few |
How we picked these platforms
We read the four ranking lists for “best 10DLC platforms” (TXTImpact, Outright Systems, Subtext and Conversive) and kept every platform named in at least two of them. A vendor’s list of itself did not count. We then rated each platform on five criteria:
| Criterion | Weight | What we checked |
|---|---|---|
| Registration help | 30% | Who files the brand and campaign, and who fixes a rejection |
| Cost and price transparency | 20% | Public prices, and how 10DLC fees are passed through |
| Compliance tools | 20% | Opt-in capture, STOP/HELP handling, quiet hours, fit for regulated industries |
| Messaging features | 15% | Two-way texting, scheduling, templates, keywords |
| Integrations | 15% | Native apps, Zapier and API access |
Registration help carries the most weight, because a rejected campaign is the main thing that delays a business from texting. Each criterion gets a rating from 1 to 5. The final score is the weighted average, shown at the end of each review.
1. SimpleTexting
SimpleTexting is the easiest way for a small business to get a 10DLC campaign approved with help from a real person.
At a glance:
- Best for: small businesses, retail and e-commerce
- Price: from about $39 per month.
- Registration: guided onboarding, with support staff who help with the forms
Strengths:
- Guided registration: the onboarding team helps you write the campaign description and sample messages that reviewers accept.
- Easy to use: staff with no technical background can send and reply on the first day.
- Integrations: more than 1,000 through native apps and Zapier.
- Free trial, so you can test before you pay.
Considerations:
- Complex compliance cases: less depth for regulated industries with unusual opt-in flows.
- Agencies: not built to manage many client brands.
- Credit-based plans: long messages and MMS use more credits.
Choose it if you want someone to walk you through the forms. Skip it if you need to manage many brands.
Score: 4.2/5 (Registration help 4.5 · Cost 4 · Compliance 4 · Features 4 · Integrations 4.5)
2. SlickText
SlickText is a strong choice for SMS marketing and loyalty programs, with good guidance on compliance.
At a glance:
- Best for: retail and restaurant marketing, loyalty clubs
- Price: from about $29 per month
- Registration: guided, with compliance tips during setup
Strengths:
- Onboarding and education: clear guides on opt-in, keywords and quiet hours.
- Marketing features: keywords, contests, drip campaigns and segmentation.
- Loyalty tools built in.
Considerations:
- Few developer tools: a limited API compared with Twilio.
- Regulated industries: not built for healthcare or finance texting.
- Marketing focus: less suited to one-to-one support conversations.
Choose it if texting is mainly a marketing channel for you. Skip it if you need healthcare-grade compliance.
Score: 3.7/5 (Registration help 4 · Cost 3.5 · Compliance 3.5 · Features 4 · Integrations 3)
3. Twilio
Twilio is the most flexible option and the one most developers use, but you do the 10DLC registration work yourself.
At a glance:
- Best for: developers, software companies and enterprises
- Price: about $0.0083 per SMS segment, plus carrier and 10DLC fees
- Registration: self-serve in the Twilio Console or by API
Strengths:
- Flexible APIs: build any texting flow into your own app.
- Documentation: the most complete 10DLC help articles of any provider.
- Global reach: messaging to more than 180 countries.
- Direct carrier connections for reliable delivery.
Considerations:
- Little hands-on help: you write the campaign and fix rejections yourself.
- Learning curve: you need a developer to build and maintain the setup.
- Costs add up: per-segment prices, number fees, carrier fees and 10DLC fees are all separate.
Choose it if you have developers and want full control. Skip it if nobody on your team writes code.
Score: 3.5/5 (Registration help 2.5 · Cost 4 · Compliance 3.5 · Features 3.5 · Integrations 5)
4. TextMagic
TextMagic suits businesses that send bulk campaigns and want to pay by volume instead of a fixed plan.
At a glance:
- Best for: small to mid-size businesses that send mass campaigns
- Price: pay as you go; the rate varies by volume and country
- Registration: self-serve, with support available
Strengths:
- Unlimited accounts and contacts at no extra charge.
- Two-way messaging from a web app, a mobile app or email-to-SMS.
- AI chat tools to help write and answer messages.
Considerations:
- Price varies a lot by region and volume, so it is hard to predict a monthly bill.
- Registration help: less guidance than SimpleTexting or SlickText.
- Fewer marketing tools such as contests and loyalty programs.
Choose it if your volume changes from month to month. Skip it if you want a fixed monthly price.
Score: 3.5/5 (Registration help 3 · Cost 3.5 · Compliance 3.5 · Features 4 · Integrations 4)
5. Textedly
Textedly is a low-cost option for simple, single-brand campaigns.
At a glance:
- Best for: budget teams with one brand and simple campaigns
- Price: from about $26 per month [Confirm]
- Registration: self-serve, with basic help
Strengths:
- Low price for small lists.
- Simple interface that takes minutes to learn.
- Free plan or trial to test [Confirm].
Considerations:
- Little help with rejections: you fix most problems yourself.
- Regulated industries: not a fit for healthcare or finance.
- Few integrations compared with the others here.
Choose it if price comes first and your use case is simple. Skip it if a rejected campaign would cost you weeks you do not have.
Score: 3.2/5 (Registration help 3 · Cost 4.5 · Compliance 2.5 · Features 3 · Integrations 3)
Also consider: TextUs and EZ Texting
TextUs is built for sales, staffing and recruiting teams that hold many one-to-one conversations. A customer success team helps with registration. It is less focused on mass marketing.
EZ Texting suits small businesses with no technical staff. It guides you through registration step by step and has good compliance resources, but it gives less help with unusual cases.
Does your business phone system handle 10DLC?
If your business phone system includes texting, your phone provider may register 10DLC for you. This option is often simpler than a separate SMS platform, because your customers text the same local number they already call.
Before you sign up for an SMS platform, ask your phone provider three things:
- Do you file the brand and the 10DLC campaign for us, and who fixes a rejection?
- Do you pass through the TCR and carrier fees at cost, or add a markup?
- Can we text from our existing main numbers at every location?
Many phone providers answer yes to the first question. Healthcare offices, restaurants and home service businesses benefit most, because their texts (reminders, confirmations, missed-call replies) come from the same number as their calls.
Vivant Business Text Messaging
Vivant’s texting runs on the same platform as its business phone system, so calls and texts share one number, one app and one bill.
- 10DLC registration handled for you: Vivant registers the brand and campaign during setup. [EDITOR: confirm how fees are passed through and the typical approval time.]
- Built for multi-location businesses: sort messages by business number, so each office keeps its own local number and inbox.
- Team tools: shared templates, scheduled messages, private notes and conversations you can mark as resolved.
- Picture messaging (MMS) and document sharing.
- Missed-call texts: Call Deflection sends a text to callers when your team cannot answer.
See business text messaging with 10DLC registration.
FAQ
Does 10DLC registration need to be renewed?
The brand does not expire, but each campaign has a monthly fee and renews automatically while you pay it. TCR bills campaigns in three-month terms. If you change what you send, such as adding marketing to a reminders campaign, you must update the campaign or register a new one.
Can I move my registration when I switch providers?
Often, yes. Your new provider can usually import the brand and request a campaign migration in TCR, so you do not start from zero. Ask the new provider before you port your numbers, because texting can pause until the numbers link to the migrated campaign.
Can one business register more than one campaign?
Yes. A standard brand can register several campaigns, one for each use case, such as account notifications and marketing. Each campaign has its own vetting fee and monthly fee. Sole proprietor brands are limited to one campaign.
Does 10DLC apply to toll-free numbers?
No. 10DLC applies only to standard 10-digit local numbers. Toll-free numbers go through a separate toll-free verification process, and short codes have their own carrier approval. Both are still subject to consent rules and carrier content policies.
Do healthcare businesses have extra rules?
Yes. Healthcare campaigns get closer review, and texts must not include protected health information unless your platform signs a business associate agreement under HIPAA. Keep reminders general, such as a date and time, and never send test results by text.
Bottom line
Register before you text. 10DLC registration takes about two weeks and costs about $20 up front plus a small monthly fee, and unregistered texts do not get delivered. Choose SimpleTexting or SlickText if you want help with the forms, or Twilio if you have developers. If your phone provider offers texting, ask it to register for you first. Learn more about business text messaging with 10DLC registration.
