Get started
In order to use the SMS API, you need the following:
- A 46elks accountDon't have an account? Sign up
- Your API credentials Finding your API credentials
Format
The basic API request to send an SMS contains three key:value pairs which are
to
, from
and message
.
The to
parameter
should be the E.164
formatted number of the recipient.
Example: +46766861004.
The from
parameter should be either an E.164 number or
a string. That string is often called "Text sender ID" or
"alphanumeric sender ID".
Example: +46766861004, ElkCo
Fun fact about the message
string
- you can even send emojis!
Example: How was this interview, ๐๐ฝ or ๐๐ฝ ?
Message splitting
Messages that don't fit in a single SMS part will be split into multiple parts automatically by the API. The recipient will still see this as a single, coherent, SMS, so you don't really need to worry about it. More information available here.
Delivery reports
You can specify a webhook URL that we'll post to whenever the delivery
status of your message changes. This is done by setting the
whendelivered
parameter in the API request.
This will result in a x-www-form-urlencoded HTTP POST request to the given URL in the following format, whenever the delivery status of your message changes.
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
id | string | The unique id of the message in our systems. |
status | string | Either โdeliveredโ or โfailedโ. |
delivered | string | The delivery time in UTC. Only included if status is
set to delivered. |
For full details, see the API reference.
Pricing
We bill you (and are billed ourselves by the operators) per SMS part sent. Messages that don't fit in a single part will be split up into several parts and you'll be billed for each part. Our engineers have written a comprehensive Knowledge Base article that covers all the details, but a good rule of thumb is:
- If the message doesn't contain foreign characters, emoji, or symbols other than !"#ยค%&'()*+,-.:;<>=?ยก you can fit 153 characters per part.
- Otherwise, you can fit 67 characters per part.
This is just a rough estimate โ the actual number of characters that fit may be more or less than that (it's an encoding thing). You can use our GSM analyser to get a visual representation of how differrent types of characters affects the length of your message.
Up-to-date prices can be found on our pricing page. We offer volume discounts to customers that send more than 50 000 SMS / month.
Coverage
You can use 46elks to send SMS to almost anywhere in the world. The flags below represent all 219 countries and provinces we currently have coverage in. Our numbers team is really good so don't hesitate to reach out to support if you have special needs โ if there's a telco out there, they'll find a way to reach it.
๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐ฉ ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ท ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ผ ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฆ๐น ๐ฆ๐ฟ ๐ง๐ธ ๐ง๐ญ ๐ง๐ฉ ๐ง๐ง ๐ง๐พ ๐ง๐ช ๐ง๐ฟ ๐ง๐ฏ ๐ง๐ฒ ๐ง๐น ๐ง๐ด ๐ง๐ถ ๐ง๐ฆ ๐ง๐ผ ๐ง๐ป ๐ง๐ท ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ ๐ง๐ฌ ๐ง๐ซ ๐ง๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ญ ๐จ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ป ๐ฐ๐พ ๐จ๐ซ ๐น๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ณ ๐จ๐ฝ ๐จ๐จ ๐จ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐ท ๐ญ๐ท ๐จ๐บ ๐จ๐พ ๐จ๐ฟ ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐ด ๐ช๐จ ๐ช๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ป ๐ฌ๐ถ ๐ช๐ช ๐ช๐น ๐ซ๐ฐ ๐ซ๐ด ๐ซ๐ฏ ๐ซ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ท ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐น๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ช ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ท ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐ต ๐ฌ๐บ ๐ฌ๐น ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ผ ๐ฌ๐พ ๐ญ๐น ๐ญ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฎ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ช ๐ฎ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ช ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ช ๐ฐ๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ฑ๐ท ๐ฑ๐พ ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐น ๐ฑ๐บ ๐ฒ๐ด ๐ฒ๐ฐ ๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ฒ๐พ ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐น ๐ฒ๐ถ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ฒ๐บ ๐พ๐น ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฒ๐ธ ๐ฒ๐ฆ ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ณ๐ช ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ณ๐ด ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ธ ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฌ ๐ต๐พ ๐ต๐ญ ๐ต๐ฑ ๐ต๐น ๐ต๐ท ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ท๐ด ๐ท๐บ ๐ท๐ผ ๐ท๐ช ๐ง๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐จ ๐ป๐จ ๐ผ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐ธ๐น ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ณ ๐ท๐ธ ๐ธ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ง ๐ธ๐ด ๐ฟ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ท ๐ธ๐ธ ๐ช๐ธ ๐ฑ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฟ ๐ธ๐ช ๐จ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ ๐น๐ผ ๐น๐ฏ ๐น๐ฟ ๐น๐ญ ๐น๐ฑ ๐น๐ฌ ๐น๐ด ๐น๐น ๐น๐ณ ๐น๐ท ๐น๐ฒ ๐น๐จ ๐บ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ช ๐ฌ๐ง ๐บ๐ธ ๐บ๐พ ๐บ๐ฟ ๐ป๐ช ๐ป๐ณ ๐ป๐ฌ ๐ป๐ฎ ๐พ๐ช ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ผ ๐ฆ๐ฝThroughput
Default maximum throughput is 100 SMS per minute per account. Additional messages will be queued and sent in-order. Contact support if you require additional throughput.
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