How much does the Bird SMS API cost in 2026?

TL;DR

Bird SMS API starts at $0.00331 per outbound US message and $0.003 per inbound US message. That makes it one of the cheaper entry-level SMS API options among major providers. Bird also offers a free plan with 5 SMS/day for testing, and the Pro plan costs $49/month with 1,000 SMS credits included.

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Introduction

MessageBird rebranded to Bird in 2023. The platform now focuses on AI-powered omnichannel communication across SMS, WhatsApp, email, and voice. For developers, the important part is the pricing model: Bird uses a platform fee plus pay-as-you-go message rates, with a low base SMS price for US traffic.

If you are building an SMS integration, model the total cost before you ship:

• Base outbound and inbound message rates
• Carrier fees such as US 10DLC
• Phone number rental
• Message segmentation
• International routing
• Fallback channels such as WhatsApp

You should also test your requests before sending real messages. Apidog can help you design Bird API requests, manage environments, mock responses, and validate webhook behavior before production.

This guide breaks down Bird SMS pricing for 2025 and 2026, the main cost drivers, and how Bird compares with other SMS API providers.

Bird SMS pricing overview

Bird uses a two-part SMS pricing model:

1. A monthly platform plan
2. A per-message fee after included usage

Plan	Monthly cost	SMS included
Free	$0	5 SMS/day
Pro	$49	1,000 SMS/month
Enterprise	Custom	Custom volume

For US SMS traffic, Bird lists these base rates:

Direction	US SMS rate
Outbound SMS	$0.00331/message
Inbound SMS	$0.003/message

Bird displays some CRM and Marketing Automation pricing in EUR on its detailed rate pages, while the USD figures above apply to the API/developer tier. Always verify current rates on Bird's SMS pricing page, because carrier fees, exchange rates, and country-specific rates can change.

Pricing breakdown by channel

SMS

US outbound SMS starts at $0.00331/message. Rates vary by destination country, so do not use the US rate for global cost projections.

Examples from Bird's published rate sheet:

Country	Outbound rate
United States	~$0.00331
United Kingdom	~€0.036
Australia	~€0.009
Germany	~€0.056
India	Varies by route
Brazil	~€0.047

US and Canada messages can also include additional carrier fees such as 10DLC and toll-free messaging surcharges. These are separate from Bird's base per-message rate.

MMS

MMS costs more than SMS because it carries media. Bird supports MMS for US and Canada numbers. Expect MMS to cost more than SMS, often several times the base SMS rate depending on the destination and plan tier.

Check the current MMS country rates at bird.com/en/pricing/sms.

WhatsApp

Bird's WhatsApp pricing has two parts:

1. Bird processing fee
2. Meta passthrough fee

Bird processing fees are charged per 1,000 messages:

Monthly volume	Bird fee per 1,000 messages
1 to 1,000	$0.001
1,001 to 100,000	$0.005
100,001 to 500,000	$0.0045
500,001+	$0.004

Meta fees are conversation-based and vary by country and conversation type.

For US numbers, Meta charges:

Conversation type	Meta fee
Marketing	$0.0250
Utility	$0.0034
Authentication	$0.0034

Bird passes through Meta's WhatsApp fees at cost with no markup.

Email

Bird's API email pricing starts at $0.001/email for low volumes and decreases at higher volume. The Pro plan includes 10,000 emails/month.

Email is usually one of the lowest-cost channels in an omnichannel workflow.

Voice

Bird Voice API pricing is usage-based and varies by country. US outbound calls typically run around $0.013 to $0.015/minute, while inbound US calls are usually slightly cheaper. For high-volume voice traffic, contact Bird sales for custom rates.

What affects your Bird SMS bill

The published per-message rate is only part of the total cost. These factors can change your actual monthly bill.

1. Destination country

US SMS is cheap compared with many international routes.

For example:

• US outbound SMS: ~$0.00331/message
• Germany: ~€0.056/message
• Bangladesh: ~€0.208/message
• Burundi: ~€0.269/message

Before launching internationally, create a country-by-country cost model instead of multiplying global volume by the US rate.

Example:

monthly_cost = messages_per_country * country_rate
total_sms_cost = sum(monthly_cost for all countries)

2. Phone number type

Your sender type affects both fees and throughput.

Number type	Use case	Cost impact
Long code / 10DLC	Standard US A2P messaging	Registration and monthly campaign fees
Short code	High-throughput campaigns	Higher monthly rental, often $500 to $1,000/month
Toll-free	Moderate-throughput business messaging	Monthly rental plus verification requirements

Phone number rental is charged in addition to message rates.

3. Message length and encoding

SMS billing is segment-based.

A standard SMS supports:

• 160 characters with GSM-7 encoding
• 70 characters with Unicode encoding

If a message exceeds the single-segment limit, it is split into multiple billable segments.

Example:

"Your verification code is 123456"

This is likely one GSM-7 SMS segment.

But this message may use Unicode because of the emoji:

"Your verification code is 123456 🔐"

Unicode lowers the segment size, so longer messages with emoji, accented characters, or non-Latin scripts can cost more than expected.

Implementation tip: calculate segment count before sending.

function estimateSmsSegments(message) {
  const gsm7Regex = /^[\u0000-\u007F]*$/;
  const isGsm7 = gsm7Regex.test(message);

  const singleSegmentLimit = isGsm7 ? 160 : 70;
  const multiSegmentLimit = isGsm7 ? 153 : 67;

  if (message.length <= singleSegmentLimit) return 1;

  return Math.ceil(message.length / multiSegmentLimit);
}

console.log(estimateSmsSegments("Your code is 123456"));
console.log(estimateSmsSegments("Your code is 123456 🔐"));

Use this only as a basic estimate. Production-grade SMS encoding logic should handle the full GSM-7 character set and extension table.

4. Channel fallback

Bird supports omnichannel workflows. If your workflow falls back from SMS to WhatsApp or email, your bill can include charges from multiple channels.

Example workflow:

Send SMS
  -> if failed, send WhatsApp
  -> if no response, send email

Before enabling fallback routing, estimate each branch:

expected_cost =
  sms_attempts * sms_rate +
  whatsapp_fallbacks * whatsapp_rate +
  email_fallbacks * email_rate

5. Volume

Bird does not publish a public SMS volume discount table like some providers. High-volume senders should contact Bird for Enterprise pricing.

If you send millions of messages per month, do not rely only on public rates. Ask for custom pricing and include:

• Monthly volume by country
• Sender type
• Expected inbound volume
• MMS usage
• WhatsApp fallback volume
• Required throughput

Hidden costs and fees

Bird's pricing is relatively transparent, but some costs are not included in the headline SMS rate.

US carrier fees and 10DLC

For US A2P SMS, 10DLC registration is required. Bird passes through carrier fees such as:

Fee	Typical cost
Brand registration	One-time fee, roughly $4 to $44 depending on brand type
Campaign registration	Around $10/month per campaign
Per-message carrier surcharge	Additional carrier-set fee per message

These fees are set by US carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, not by Bird.

Phone number rental

Typical monthly number costs:

Number type	Approximate monthly cost
US long code	$1 to $2/month
Toll-free number	$2 to $3/month
Short code	$500 to $1,000/month

Inbound SMS

Inbound SMS is billable. For US numbers, Bird charges $0.003 per inbound message.

This matters if you support:

• STOP replies
• HELP replies
• Two-way conversations
• Verification code responses
• Keyword campaigns

Platform subscription

The Pro plan costs $49/month and includes 1,000 SMS/month. If your usage is low, the platform fee may be a larger part of your total cost than the per-message charge.

Bird vs other SMS API providers

Here is a base-rate comparison for US SMS.

Provider	US outbound SMS	US inbound SMS	Notes
Bird	$0.00331	$0.003	Low base rate; omnichannel platform
Twilio	$0.0079	$0.0079	Larger ecosystem; higher base rate
Telnyx	~$0.004	~$0.001	Competitive carrier-direct model
Plivo	$0.0055	$0.0005	Lower inbound rate; simpler platform

Bird has one of the lowest public base rates for US outbound SMS. Twilio's entry-level outbound SMS rate is higher, though enterprise discounts can narrow the gap. Telnyx and Plivo are also competitive, especially if you want a more focused SMS API.

The trade-off is platform scope. Bird combines SMS, WhatsApp, email, voice, CRM, and automation. If you only need a minimal SMS API, compare the total cost against simpler providers. If you need multiple channels and workflow automation, Bird's bundled platform may be useful.

How to get started with Bird SMS

1. Create a Bird account

Create a free account at bird.com. The free plan includes 5 SMS/day and does not require a credit card.

2. Register for US 10DLC if needed

If you send A2P SMS to US numbers, register your brand and campaign in Bird's dashboard.

Plan for registration lead time. Standard registration can take 1 to 3 business days.

3. Get a phone number

Provision a US long code, toll-free number, or another supported sender type from Bird's dashboard or Numbers API.

Choose the sender type based on:

• Destination country
• Throughput requirements
• Compliance requirements
• Budget
• Whether you need two-way messaging

4. Configure your API environment

Store credentials and IDs as environment variables instead of hardcoding them.

Example .env structure:

BIRD_API_KEY="your_api_key"
BIRD_WORKSPACE_ID="your_workspace_id"
BIRD_CHANNEL_ID="your_channel_id"
BIRD_FROM_NUMBER="[phone]"
TEST_TO_NUMBER="[phone]"

5. Build and test the send request

Use Bird's official documentation at docs.bird.com for the current endpoint, authentication format, SDKs, and webhook setup.

A typical SMS API request should include:

{
  "to": "[phone]",
  "from": "[phone]",
  "body": "Your verification code is 123456"
}

Before sending real traffic, test the request flow in Apidog:

1. Create an environment for development.
2. Add variables for API key, workspace ID, channel ID, sender, and test recipient.
3. Create the SMS send request.
4. Add assertions for status code and response body.
5. Mock expected API responses for local development.
6. Add webhook tests for delivery receipts and inbound messages.

Example assertions:

pm.test("request succeeded", function () {
  pm.response.to.have.status(200);
});

pm.test("response contains message id", function () {
  const json = pm.response.json();
  pm.expect(json).to.have.property("id");
});

Adjust assertions to match Bird's actual response schema from the current API documentation.

Cost modeling example

For a US-only app sending 100,000 outbound SMS/month and receiving 5,000 inbound replies:

Outbound:
100,000 * $0.00331 = $331.00

Inbound:
5,000 * $0.003 = $15.00

Pro plan:
$49.00

Estimated subtotal before carrier fees and number rental:
$331.00 + $15.00 + $49.00 = $395.00

This estimate excludes:

• 10DLC brand registration
• Campaign registration
• Carrier surcharges
• Phone number rental
• MMS
• International traffic
• WhatsApp fallback
• Taxes

Use this type of model before you commit to a provider.

Conclusion

Bird SMS API has a low published US outbound SMS rate at $0.00331/message, plus $0.003/message for inbound US SMS. The free plan is useful for testing, and the $49/month Pro plan includes 1,000 SMS/month.

The main cost risks are not the base SMS rate. Watch for:

• US 10DLC fees
• Phone number rental
• Inbound replies
• Message segmentation
• International rates
• Channel fallback costs

If you are evaluating Bird, test the integration before production. Apidog can help you build requests, manage environments, mock responses, chain test scenarios, and validate delivery webhooks.

FAQ

What is the Bird SMS API price per message in the US?

Bird charges $0.00331 per outbound US SMS and $0.003 per inbound US SMS. These are base API rates. Additional carrier fees such as 10DLC can apply.

Is Bird the same as MessageBird?

Yes. MessageBird rebranded to Bird in 2023. Some documentation and legacy integrations may still reference MessageBird.

Does Bird charge for inbound SMS?

Yes. Bird charges $0.003 per inbound US SMS. Opt-out replies, HELP responses, and other inbound messages are billable.

What is the Bird free plan?

Bird's free plan includes 5 SMS/day, 10 emails/day, and 15 AI agent messages/day. It includes public API access and does not require a credit card.

How does Bird SMS pricing compare to Twilio?

Bird's US outbound SMS rate is $0.00331, while Twilio's standard US outbound SMS rate is $0.0079. At 100,000 outbound messages/month, that is about $331 with Bird versus $790 with Twilio before carrier fees, number rental, and discounts.

Are there hidden fees with Bird SMS?

There are fees not included in the base per-message rate. US senders may pay 10DLC brand registration fees, campaign registration fees, per-message carrier surcharges, and phone number rental. International SMS rates can also be much higher than US rates.

How do I test the Bird SMS API without sending real messages?

Use Apidog to mock Bird API responses, manage test environments, chain requests, and assert response fields. You can also use Bird's sandbox or test tools where available, then send real messages only after your request and webhook flows are validated.