US billing types

In the United States, RCS messages are billed as one of two types:

Rich messages
Rich media messages

Message classification depends on whether the content is text-only with basic actions or contains media and advanced suggested actions.

Type	Description
Rich media message	An application-to-person (A2P) or person-to-application (P2A) message that: Contains multimedia or text. Can contain the following suggested actions: Open URL (WebView) Show or request location Create calendar event (A2P only) Can contain media assets up to 100 MB. A rich media message can include suggested replies and suggested actions, such as Dial phone and Open URL (Browser). If the message contains any multimedia content, it is automatically classified as a rich media message. Messages with only text are also classified as rich media messages if they include one or more supported suggested actions. In such cases, they are not treated as simple rich messages. Note P2A billing: If a P2A message contains a file, it is billed as a rich media MO message.
Rich message	An application-to-person (A2P) or person-to-application (P2A) message that: Contains only text. Bills in segments of 160 UTF-8 bytes. Can contain suggested replies (A2P only). Can contain the following suggested actions: Dial phone Open URL (without WebView) (A2P only) A rich card that only contains a title and/or description is not considered a text-only rich message. Note Text-only P2A messages are charged in 160-byte segments.

Type

Description

Rich media message

An application-to-person (A2P) or person-to-application (P2A) message that:

Contains multimedia or text.
Can contain the following suggested actions:
- Open URL (WebView)
- Show or request location
- Create calendar event (A2P only)
Can contain media assets up to 100 MB.

A rich media message can include suggested replies and suggested actions, such as Dial phone and Open URL (Browser). If the message contains any multimedia content, it is automatically classified as a rich media message.

Messages with only text are also classified as rich media messages if they include one or more supported suggested actions. In such cases, they are not treated as simple rich messages.

Note

P2A billing: If a P2A message contains a file, it is billed as a rich media MO message.

Rich message

An application-to-person (A2P) or person-to-application (P2A) message that:

Contains only text.
Bills in segments of 160 UTF-8 bytes.
Can contain suggested replies (A2P only).
Can contain the following suggested actions:
- Dial phone
- Open URL (without WebView) (A2P only)

A rich card that only contains a title and/or description is not considered a text-only rich message.

Note

Text-only P2A messages are charged in 160-byte segments.

Note

Some carriers charge for P2A messages. Text-only P2A messages are billed in segments, following the same segmentation rules applied to A2P messages.

The following message types are billed as P2A:

Real MO messages: Sent when an end user manually sends a message directly to an agent.
Quick reply MO messages: Sent when an end user selects a Reply suggestion button.
Request location MO messages: Sent when an end user shares their location after selecting a Request location suggestion button.

If a P2A message contains a file, it is billed as a rich-media MO message.

Tracking US billing with webhooks

For messages in the United States, the trafficType field returns two additional values that map to the US billing types defined above:

trafficType value	Billing type
`RICH`	Rich message
`RICH_MEDIA`	Rich media message

Segment counts for rich messages: Rich messages in the US bill in 160-byte segments, and delivery reports and inbound webhooks report how many segments each message used.

Field	Webhook	Description
`messageCount`	Receive RCS delivery reports (opens in a new tab)	Number of 160-byte segments the outbound Rich MT message used. Found at `results[].messageCount` in the delivery report payload.
`rcsCount`	Receive RCS inbound message (opens in a new tab)	Number of segments an inbound Rich MO message contains. Found at `results[].rcsCount`. Can be greater than 1 for Rich messages in the US.

Global billing types RCS reports and insights