RCS billing and pricing model

RCS messaging in AWS End User Messaging uses a pricing model with two cost components: an AWS message fee and a carrier fee that is passed through with no markup. This chapter explains the pricing structure for RCS messaging. For current rates, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

AWS End User Messaging charges for RCS messages only when they are successfully delivered to the recipient's device. You are not charged for delivery attempts that fail. If an RCS message fails and falls back to SMS, you are charged for the SMS message that is delivered, not for the failed RCS attempt.

Billing overview

RCS billing in AWS End User Messaging has the following components:

Each component appears as a separate line item on your AWS bill, giving you visibility into your RCS messaging costs.

United States pricing model

RCS messaging in the United States uses a message type called Rich RCS. Rich RCS messages are metered per 160-character segment, similar to SMS. Messages exceeding 160 characters are charged for multiple segments.

Each outbound or inbound Rich RCS message has two cost components:

The total cost per message is the message transport fee plus the carrier fee. Inbound RCS messages (messages sent from end users to your AWS RCS Agent) follow the same two-component pricing structure.

For current per-segment rates, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

Pricing for countries outside the United States

For all countries outside the United States (including Canada), RCS messaging uses two message types:

Each outbound or inbound RCS message in these countries has two cost components: a message transport fee and a carrier pass-through fee.

For current rates, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

Conversational pricing

For supported countries outside the United States, you can register an RCS agent to use conversational pricing. With conversational pricing, AWS End User Messaging charges a single session fee for all messages exchanged with a recipient during a 24-hour conversation session, instead of charging for each message individually. Conversational pricing is not available in the United States.

You choose the billing model when you register your RCS agent. Set the agent's billing category to conversational or non-conversational in the console, or set the billingCategory parameter to CONVERSATIONAL or NON_CONVERSATIONAL when you register the agent with the API. This setting applies to all traffic from that agent.

At send time, AWS End User Messaging cannot determine whether a message will become part of a conversation, so billing for messages from a conversational agent works as follows:

When a message is part of an active conversation session, its delivery event reports a totalMessagePrice and totalCarrierFee of 0.0 and includes a conversationSessionFee field with the one-time session fee. AWS End User Messaging also sends a CONVERSATION_STARTED event when a session begins. For details on these events and fields, see RCS message events.

Conversational pricing is available in a specific set of countries outside the United States. For the list of supported countries and current session fees, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

Registration fees

Launching an AWS RCS Agent requires registration with the RCS infrastructure provider. The following carrier pass-through fees apply to the registration process:

These registration fees are carrier pass-through charges. For current registration fee amounts, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

Registration fees appear as separate line items on your AWS bill. For details on how charges are categorized, review your AWS Cost and Usage Report.

RCS message spending limits

AWS End User Messaging applies a monthly spending limit to RCS messaging, separate from your SMS, MMS, and voice spending limits. This limit caps the amount, in US dollars, that you can spend sending RCS messages each month.

You can adjust the override up or down at any time without contacting Support, as long as it stays at or below your maximum limit. To set billing alarms for your spending, see Monitoring SMS, MMS, and voice spending activity with AWS End User Messaging SMS.

Requesting an RCS spending limit increase

To raise your maximum monthly RCS spending limit, request a spending limit increase as described in Quotas for AWS End User Messaging SMS. Requests above the amount that can be approved automatically are routed to AWS Support for review.

Double-delivery billing

When AWS End User Messaging sends an RCS message with SMS fallback enabled (through pool-based or account-level sending), the service attempts RCS delivery first. If RCS delivery fails, the service falls back to SMS.

Under normal circumstances, the RCS message is revoked before the SMS fallback message is delivered. In this case, you are charged only for the SMS message that was successfully delivered.

In rare cases, both the RCS message and the SMS fallback message may be delivered to the recipient. This can happen if the RCS message is delivered after the revocation window but before the SMS message arrives. When dual delivery occurs, you are charged for both the RCS message and the SMS message.

Content violation fees

It is the responsibility of any RCS message sender to comply with country laws and regulations for messaging, as well as carrier policies. Carriers may impose penalty fees for RCS messages that violate their message content policies. These penalties are carrier-imposed charges that AWS may pass through to customers that send RCS messages that carriers flag as violating their message content policies.

Carriers typically categorize content violations into the following tiers:

For more information about content violation fee amounts, see AWS End User Messaging Pricing.

Bill transparency

RCS charges appear as separate line items on your AWS bill, allowing you to distinguish between the following cost categories:

This separation helps you understand your messaging costs and identify opportunities to optimize your spending. For detailed billing information, review your AWS Cost and Usage Report.