How fast can I send?
The platform sends as fast as each carrier accepts messages. Most carriers take everything you send at full speed. A few set limits of their own, and those are listed below. For the platform’s overall sending capacity, see Platform features.What are the limits for each sender type?
The carriers set these numbers, and they can change.
What happens when my send reaches the AT&T limit?
Recipients on other carriers keep sending at full speed. AT&T recipients are sent right away as well, and the carrier queue delivers them at the limit, usually within about an hour of sending. The project is not paused and there is nothing you need to do: it finishes by itself.How long will AT&T take?
Multiply the number of AT&T recipients by the number of parts in your text, then divide by the per-minute limit. The estimate in the Start dialog already accounts for your message length, and for any AT&T messages your campaign already has waiting. The platform sends AT&T recipients right away, so the project finishes sending quickly. Delivery to AT&T phones follows the limit, and in practice AT&T recipients usually receive the message within about an hour of sending. For example, suppose you send to a 1,000,000 recipient audience and about a third are on AT&T. That is roughly 330,000 AT&T recipients. With a one-part text and a limit of 4,500 per minute, they take about 73 minutes. With a two-part text, the same audience uses 660,000 parts and takes about 147 minutes. A text that fits in one part reaches AT&T recipients up to three times faster than a three-part text.What is the sending window and how does it affect AT&T?
Each project has one sending window, worked out from your audience’s area codes rather than from the time zone you schedule in. If more than half of your recipients are in one time zone, messages send between 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM in that zone. If no time zone has a majority, the window opens at 8:00 AM Eastern and closes at 10:00 PM Pacific. Before you start a project, the Start dialog shows about when the last AT&T recipient will be reached. If the sending window will close first, it warns you and shows how many recipients will wait. Recipients not reached by the close wait until you start the project again the next morning. In the last 90 minutes of the sending window, the platform hands over only as many AT&T messages as AT&T can deliver before the window closes, so AT&T messages do not arrive after it closes. The rest wait and go out when you start the project again in the next window.How can I send faster?
- Keep your text within one part where you can. This is the cheapest option. The message editor shows the character count, and a notice tells you when a text runs to more than one message part.
- Start earlier in the day. A project started before the last 90 minutes of the window sends all of its recipients right away, so nothing waits until the next morning.
- Use a short code. A short code has no per-minute carrier limit. Provisioning takes roughly 8 to 12 weeks. For current pricing, contact support.
- Add a 10DLC campaign. Each campaign has its own AT&T limit, but carriers can reject a campaign that duplicates an existing one. Contact support and we will check whether a second campaign is appropriate for your use case.
Can I check this through the API?
Yes.GET /campaigns/{id}/throughput and GET /projects/{id}/throughput return the carrier limits and estimates. See Carrier throughput limits.