SMS containing under 160 characters costs one credit. MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service – image) costs three credits. However, this number changes when you incorporate emojis or special characters.
If your message reaches over 160 characters (or 70 with emojis and special characters), the message is sent as multiple SMS messages. However, subscribers only see one message. You will be charged for each sending message.
When the character count exceeds 160 characters, the first message length will be automatically reduced to 153 characters. Each following message count will be limited to 153 characters.
Due to the encoding that is required to support sending emojis and special characters ( − ° ‘ « · ½ ¢ © ® ¶ ± ×), messages which contain these have a maximum character count of 70. Single emojis can take up 2 – 7 characters in your message. This can lead to extra SMS count even if the total character count doesn’t reach full 70 characters. Check the number of SMS counts next to the character counter for the accurate number of SMSs used. If you exceed 70 characters in a non-latin message, each following message will be reduced to 66 characters.