Is there a maximum SMS message length?

Yes. The maximum length of text message that you can send is 918 characters. However, if you send more than 160 characters then your message will be broken down in to chunks of 153 characters before being sent to the recipient’s handset.

The good news is that the vast majority of handsets nowadays will join the multiple message parts together and present a single, extra-length message for the recipient to view.

The bad news is that the networks will charge you for every chunk of 153 characters that you send! So a message of 420 characters will be sent and charged as three text messages.

So it’s good financial discipline, as well as SMS etiquette, to keep the message down to 160 characters; but if you need to, you can send quite large text messages.

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