GSM characters accepted for sending from SMS
Discover all the characters supported by telecom operators. Character restrictions do not originate from our service, but from the harmonization of the GSM standard to make the SMS or Text Message service universal. Other types of limitations may exist, depending on the operator and the equipment used by your recipient.
How many characters do I need for my SMS ?
The size of your text, i.e. the number of characters in your message, depends on the encoding method you choose when sending SMS :
- SMS in normal ISO-8859-15 encoding
Maximum 160 characters per SMS. If your message exceeds 160 characters, the SMS are automatically concatenated (linked together so that the end-user receives only one on his device). up to 5 SMS concatenated
- SMS Unicode
70 characters maximum, the cost of 1 SMS sent per recipient every 70 characters and it handles all Unicode characters, including emoticons.
What's special about "special" characters?
- Les caractères suivants comptent double pour le calcul de la taille de votre texte : { } € [ ] ~ ^ ¨ | €
- There are also "substitutable" characters, such as ç, ê, ë or ô, which are non-existent in GSM characters. Unless you take action to the contrary, or send them in Unicode encoding, they will be automatically replaced by their plain version in your SMS mailing.
- If you insert a character in your message that is not present in the list, it will be replaced by "?".
Good practice
Before sending a massive SMS campaign through our API or Customer Area (GUI) solutions, we recommend that you always send a test SMS to validate the encoding of your text message and check that the special characters are identical to your initial request.
List of GSM characters and their encoding
Useful information: if you use our online platform, the REST API or a plugin, you can type the accepted characters directly, without using their ISO codes. Only uploads via the HTTP API require ISO codes for certain characters.
CHARACTERISTICS
ISO CODE 8859-15
New line
%OA
Back to cart
%OD
Space
+
!
%21
"
%22
#
%23
$
%24
%
%25
&
%26
‘
%27
(
%28
)
%29
*
*
+
%2B
,
%2C
–
–
.
.
/
%2F
{
%7B *
|
%7C *
}
%7D *
~
%7E *
[
%5B *
\
%5C *
]
%5D *
^
%5E *
0
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
:
%3A
;
%3B
<
%3C
=
%3D
>
%3E
?
%3F
@
%40
CHARACTERISTICS
ISO CODE 8859-15
A
A
B
B
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
F
G
G
H
H
I
I
J
J
K
K
L
L
M
M
N
N
O
O
P
P
Q
Q
R
R
S
S
T
T
U
U
V
V
W
W
X
X
Y
Y
Z
Z
–
–
a
a
b
b
c
c
d
d
e
e
f
f
g
g
h
h
i
i
j
j
k
k
l
l
m
m
n
n
o
o
p
p
q
q
r
r
s
s
t
t
u
u
v
v
w
w
x
x
y
y
z
z
CHARACTERISTICS
ISO CODE 8859-15
%A1
£
%A3
€
%A4
¥
%A5
§
%A7
¿
%BF
Ä
%C4
Å
%C5
Æ
%C6
Ç
%C7
È
%C8
É
%C9
Ñ
%D1
Ö
%D6
Ø
%D8
Ü
%DC
ß
%DF
à
%E0
ä
%E4
å
%E5
æ
%E6
è
%E8
é
%E9
ì
%EC
ñ
%F1
ò
%F2
ö
%F6
ø
%F8
ù
%F9
Ü
%FC
€
%80 *
* These characters count double.
REMINDER
What is the GSM standard?
GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a standard for mobile telephony, in particular for sending SMS (Short Message Service). It is used worldwide to manage different encodings. Originating in Europe, this standard has conquered the world thanks to its performance. It was created to handle the multiplicity of mobile devices capable of receiving calls and SMS. The emergence and disappearance of telephone operators, and the arrival of new digital and analog transmission techniques, have made it necessary to comply with a standard in which characters are encoded in GSM-7. This encoding makes communication between several terminals universal.
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