> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tied.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Channel fees

> What it costs to deliver a message — carrier passthrough plus a flat Tied platform fee, billed separately from resolutions.

Resolution fees are what it costs to **resolve** something. Channel fees are what it costs to **get the message there**. They are billed separately and never blended, for the same reason model cost is never blended into the resolution price: a single combined number hides which part you can actually influence.

## Every channel fee has two parts

| Part | What it is | Who sets it |
| - | - | - |
| **Carrier or platform surcharge** | What the carrier, Meta, or Apple charges to deliver the message. | Them. Passed through **at cost**. |
| **Tied platform fee** | Routing, delivery, orchestration, compliance and the verified sender layer. | Tied. Flat across carriers and directions. |

**All-in = surcharge + Tied platform fee.** Every rate table in this section shows all three columns, so you can always see which half moved.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/tied/EKg57bTFCkV_E_Je/images/diagrams/channel-fee-parts-light.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=EKg57bTFCkV_E_Je&q=85&s=cf47b89ef9404bbb266f0d0aaab27271" alt="A channel fee is a surcharge passed through at cost plus a flat Tied platform fee, applied to a unit that differs by channel." className="block dark:hidden w-full my-8" noZoom width="900" height="360" data-path="images/diagrams/channel-fee-parts-light.svg" />

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/tied/EKg57bTFCkV_E_Je/images/diagrams/channel-fee-parts-dark.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=EKg57bTFCkV_E_Je&q=85&s=a87677e387b3fe1697d2ebc4e4ea2f08" alt="A channel fee is a surcharge passed through at cost plus a flat Tied platform fee, applied to a unit that differs by channel." className="hidden dark:block w-full my-8" noZoom width="900" height="360" data-path="images/diagrams/channel-fee-parts-dark.svg" />

## Rates by channel

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="RCS" icon="message-square-more" href="/pricing/channel-fees/rcs">
    Per segment for text, per message for rich media. Six US carriers. Includes agent setup fees and each agent's SMS fallback number.
  </Card>

  <Card title="SMS, MMS and short codes" icon="message-square" href="/pricing/channel-fees/sms-mms">
    10DLC, toll-free and short code, plus number rental and 10DLC registration.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Apple Messages for Business" icon="apple" href="/pricing/channel-fees/apple-messages">
    Custom-quoted by volume. No agent fees: no setup fee and no monthly agent fee.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WhatsApp" icon="message-circle" href="/pricing/channel-fees/whatsapp">
    Meta fee by country and category, plus a flat \$0.005 Tied fee. Inbound always free.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How each channel meters

Channels do not all count the same thing, and the difference matters on your bill.

| Channel | Metered by | Note |
| - | - | - |
| **SMS** | Per **segment** | 160 GSM-7 characters, or 70 Unicode. Emoji and curly quotes shrink the segment. |
| **MMS** | Per **message** | Regardless of size, up to 5MB. |
| **RCS text** | Per **segment** | 160 characters. |
| **RCS rich media** | Per **message** | Images, carousels, video, interactive media. |
| **Apple Messages for Business** | Per **message**, both directions | No segment counting — every message is one unit regardless of length. |
| **WhatsApp** | Per **delivered template message** | By category and recipient country. Inbound is always free. |

<Info>
  **Test and sandbox traffic is free and unbilled** on every channel.
</Info>

## Channels with no channel fee

Email, web chat, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram and LINE carry no carrier cost and no channel fee. You pay only for resolutions.

## International

All published rates are in USD. International rates vary by destination country — for WhatsApp they are published per country, and for SMS and RCS they vary by destination. Contact us for a quote with country-specific routing.

## Where channel fees appear

Channel usage draws from the same prepaid balance as resolutions — one balance, not several. See [Credits](/pricing/credits).

On your invoice, channel fees appear as their own line per channel, with surcharge and platform fee shown separately.

<Note>
  Enterprise customers receive volume-based custom discounts on channel fees, negotiated per contract
  alongside per-class resolution rates.
</Note>

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Credits" icon="coins" href="/pricing/credits">
    The single balance channel usage and resolutions both draw from.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Channels" icon="radio-tower" href="/channels">
    What each channel can do, and what it takes to connect.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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