Message contains	One SMS holds	Joined messages, each part holds
Plain letters, digits, basic punctuation (GSM 7-bit)	160 characters	153 characters
Any emoji or special symbol (Unicode)	70 characters	67 characters

• Kiswahili fits in plain characters — no extra cost for writing in Kiswahili.
• Curly quotes (“ ”), long dashes (—) and emoji switch the whole message to Unicode and more than double its cost. Write straight quotes and hyphens.
• Put the sender name in the sender ID, not in the text, when you can.
• Test a template with real long names before a bulk send; one long name can push every message to two parts.