{"id":4696,"date":"2025-05-20T09:22:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T09:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/?page_id=4696"},"modified":"2025-05-23T12:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:43:21","slug":"how-sms-splitting-works","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/customer-support\/how-sms-splitting-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How SMS splitting works - what happens when the message is too long?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-columns justify-content-center mt-5 has-white-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sa-fungerar-uppdelning-av-sms-vad-hander-nar-meddelandet-blir-for-langt\"><strong>How SMS Segmentation Works \u2013 What Happens When Your Message Is Too Long?<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>When you send a text message, you probably don't think about the technical details behind the scenes. But did you know there\u2019s a character limit for SMS, and that longer messages are automatically split into multiple parts? In this guide, we explain how this works, what affects the limits, and why you might sometimes be able to send fewer characters than expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns justify-content-center has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"background-color:#fafafa\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-grundlaggande-teckengranser\"><strong>Basic Character Limits<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A Standard SMS Can Contain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Up to 160 characters<\/strong> if using <strong>7-bit encoding<\/strong> (commonly used for standard Latin letters, numbers, and basic symbols).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Up to 70 characters<\/strong> if using <strong>Unicode encoding<\/strong> (required for things like emojis or languages that use special characters, such as Arabic or Chinese).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But what happens when your message exceeds these limits?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns justify-content-center has-white-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-flerdelade-sms-concatenated-sms\"><strong>Multipart SMS (Concatenated SMS)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When an SMS exceeds the character limit, it is split into multiple parts. These parts are sent separately but are automatically reassembled on the recipient\u2019s phone, so it appears as one continuous message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this to work, each part must include what's called a <strong>data header.<\/strong>This tells the recipient\u2019s phone that the message is split\u2014and how the parts should be reassembled. However, this extra information takes up a bit of space, which affects how many characters each part can actually contain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hur-manga-tecken-far-plats-i-varje-del\"><strong>How Many Characters Fit in Each Part?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>When an SMS is split, the number of characters that fit in each part decreases<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>7-bit encoding:<\/strong><br>\u27a4 Instead of 160 characters per SMS part, you get 153 characters per part. <strong>153 characters per part<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Unicode encoding:<\/strong><br>\u27a4 Instead of 70 characters per SMS part, you get 67 characters per part. <strong>67 characters per part<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because 7 characters (or 3 in the case of Unicode) are reserved for the data header.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns justify-content-center has-white-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-varfor-ar-det-viktigt-att-veta-det-har\"><strong>Why Is It Important to Know This?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you send many or long SMS messages\u2014such as in marketing campaigns or customer communications\u2014it\u2019s helpful to understand how splitting affects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Cost:<\/strong> More SMS parts mean higher costs per message sent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Experience:<\/strong> Although recipients see the message as a whole, some older devices might display the parts separately.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Planning:<\/strong> You can optimize your message to keep it within one or two parts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to keep track of how long your message is and how many parts it will be split into? Our web services include an automatic counter that shows exactly how many characters and SMS parts your message will consist of.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns justify-content-center has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"background-color:#fafafa\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sammanfattning\"><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Encoding<\/th><th>Max Characters (Single SMS)<\/th><th>Max Characters (Concatenated SMS)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>7-bit<\/td><td>160<\/td><td>153 per part<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Unicode<\/td><td>70<\/td><td>67 per part<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By understanding how splitting works, you can plan your SMS campaigns more smartly\u2014both from a cost and content perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-teckengranser-per-sms-del-beroende-pa-kodning\">Character Limits per SMS Part Depending on Encoding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-7-bitars-kodning\">7-bit encoding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Number of SMS parts<\/th><th>Characters per part<\/th><th>Total number of characters<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>160<\/td><td>160<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>153<\/td><td>306<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>153<\/td><td>459<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>153<\/td><td>612<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>153<\/td><td>765<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-unicode-kodning\">Unicode encoding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Number of SMS parts<\/th><th>Characters per part<\/th><th>Total number of characters<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>70<\/td><td>70<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>67<\/td><td>134<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>67<\/td><td>201<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>67<\/td><td>268<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>67<\/td><td>335<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons mb-5 mt-5 is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/sms-service\/\">Read more about our SMS services<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>S\u00e5 fungerar uppdelning av SMS \u2013 vad h\u00e4nder n\u00e4r meddelandet blir f\u00f6r l\u00e5ngt? N\u00e4r du skickar ett SMS t\u00e4nker du kanske inte p\u00e5 hur det tekniskt fungerar bakom kulisserna. Men visste du att det finns en teckengr\u00e4ns f\u00f6r hur l\u00e5ngt ett SMS kan vara och att l\u00e4ngre meddelanden automatiskt delas upp i flera delar? H\u00e4r [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":487,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4696","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4696\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ip1sms.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}