How much does 10DLC registration cost? The actual fee schedule

What a brand and campaign actually cost to register

10DLC registration has two separate charges: a one-time fee to register your business as a "Brand," and a recurring monthly fee for each messaging "Campaign" (one per use case — marketing, appointment reminders, two-factor codes, and so on) you attach to it. Neither fee is set by the platform you text from; both are set by The Campaign Registry (TCR), the industry body carriers created to run 10DLC, and then billed through to you by whichever messaging provider you use.

On Bandwidth's own fee schedule, last updated September 16, 2026, standard brand registration is $9 one time, and re-verifying a brand (if its details change) is another $9. A brand does not need to register per campaign; you pay the campaign fee separately for each use case you run through it.

Monthly campaign fees by use case

The recurring charge depends on what the campaign is for, not how many texts you send. Standard commercial messaging — appointment reminders, marketing, customer service — sits at $20 a month on Bandwidth's schedule. Lower-risk, lower-volume use cases cost less; higher-touch categories like franchise and agent networks cost more.

All campaigns except Political carry an initial 3-month minimum commitment — cancel early and the provider still bills the full three months.

The vetting fees that catch people off guard

Most Standard-use-case brands go through automatically with the base registration fee. Higher-throughput or higher-risk brands — and anyone who wants a faster path to full sending limits — can pay for additional vetting, and political campaigns require it. These are one-time charges, but they are easy to miss when budgeting because they only show up after the base registration.

T-Mobile's fees are separate, and some are large

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each apply their own surcharges on top of the TCR registration fees above, and T-Mobile publishes the most detailed, and the most punitive, schedule. A campaign that registers a number but never actually sends from it, a brand that needs special handling, or a sender that violates T-Mobile's code of conduct can all generate charges well beyond the base registration cost.

T-Mobile has also told providers to expect a $5,000 one-time fee for edge-case brands (proxy numbers, unusually high throughput) once that policy takes effect, with 30 days' notice before enforcement.

Why the fee you read about never matches your invoice

TCR and the carriers set the underlying charges, but they do not bill a small business directly — a messaging platform (Bandwidth, or any other provider you send through) registers your brand and campaign on your behalf and passes the fee through, usually with its own markup or bundling added. That is why two platforms' published fee pages can show different numbers for what looks like the same line item: they are not always marking up the identical underlying fee, or they bundle vetting and registration differently. If you text through a platform other than the one in this guide, check that platform's own billing or help page rather than assuming these numbers transfer directly — as of October 2026, verify the current schedule on your provider's site.

How to budget for registration before you start

1. 1

   Count your use cases, not your message volume

   Each distinct reason you text (marketing, appointment reminders, two-factor codes) is its own campaign with its own monthly fee. A business running two use cases on the Standard tier pays two $20 monthly fees, not one.

2. 2

   Decide if you need optional vetting

   Most small businesses on the Standard use case do not need to pay for Third-Party or Enhanced vetting; it mainly helps brands that need a higher daily throughput than the default. Start without it and add it only if a carrier throughput limit becomes a real problem.

3. 3

   Plan for the 3-month minimum

   Because nearly every campaign type bills a minimum of three months regardless of when you cancel, treat the first invoice as roughly 3x the monthly rate, not 1x.

4. 4

   Keep at least one number active per campaign

   T-Mobile's $250 non-use fee triggers when a campaign goes 60 days without an assigned, active telephone number — a common trap when a campaign is registered ahead of a launch that slips.

5. 5

   Get consent right before you register, not after

   Registration fees are a small cost next to a TCPA complaint. Capture and document consent for every number before the first text goes out; see our TCPA compliance checklist for the specifics, and /compliance for how Lead Friendly's campaigns are set up to keep that record automatically.