HighLevel phone and SMS
Updated 2026-09-19
To text from HighLevel in the United States, you buy a phone number, register your business with the carrier system that governs business texting, and only then can you send. Reminders and missed-call replies cost little once registration clears. Campaign texting to a full list is where the budget actually grows, and it is worth modeling before you launch one.
The number itself
A local US number costs $1.15 a month; a toll-free number costs $2.15 a month, both as at September 2026. Toll-free numbers go through their own verification path, separate from the registration below, before they can send at volume. For most local service businesses a local number matches the way customers already expect to be contacted; toll-free suits a business that wants one recognizable number across many locations.
Registration before you can send
US carriers require businesses to register before their messages are treated as legitimate business traffic rather than blocked as spam. As at September 2026, HighLevel's own registration fees are: a one-time fee of $24.49875 for a sole proprietor (one number, a 3,000-segment daily cap) or for a low-volume standard registration (multiple numbers, a 6,000-segment daily cap), and $71.90625 for a high-volume standard registration (multiple numbers, a 600,000-segment daily cap). Adding another campaign under a brand already registered costs a further $15 vetting fee. On top of the one-time fee, a monthly campaign fee applies: $2 a month for a sole proprietor starter campaign, $10 a month for a standard use case, $1.50 for a low-volume mixed use case, $3 for a registered charity, $5 for emergency services. Carriers also charge their own small passthrough fee per message, around $0.003 for AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon and $0.005 for US Cellular, which HighLevel states it does not mark up.
What registration actually buys
Registering raises your daily sending ceiling and marks your traffic as a known business sender to the carriers, which is what keeps reminders and campaigns from being filtered as spam. Sending is limited or blocked entirely on an unregistered number, so this step is not optional if texting is part of how the business plans to run; it is a fixed cost to plan for before the first campaign, not a fee you can skip by sending less.
Per-message cost once you are registered
Every segment sent or received costs $0.00747 for US and Canada numbers as at September 2026. A short text is one segment; a longer message can use more than one, each billed at the same rate, so a habit of writing long texts costs more per message than a short one. Picture or video messages cost more again: $0.0220 per outbound MMS. Calls placed through the number cost $0.0166 a minute outbound and $0.01165 a minute inbound, billed in full minutes.
Budgeting the three common uses
Reminders. A booking or appointment reminder is one short segment per contact per appointment. For a business handling a few hundred appointments a month, this line typically stays under $5.
Missed-call text-back. A text sent automatically after a missed call is billed the same as any other outbound segment. Volume here follows call volume, not list size, so a business with a busy phone line will see this line track its call traffic. Setup detail is on the missed-call text-back page.
Campaigns. Texting a full list is where segment count multiplies fast: 2,000 contacts sent one campaign message is 2,000 segments, or roughly $14.94 at the standard rate. Run your list size against the calculator before committing to a regular campaign cadence, since this is the line most likely to be underestimated.
When to compare against a dedicated texting tool
If SMS is the main marketing channel rather than a supporting one, compare HighLevel's per-segment rate against a dedicated texting tool's flat monthly plan at your actual volume before deciding where that traffic should run. For reminders and missed-call replies alone, the per-segment model rarely outweighs the convenience of keeping messaging inside the same system as the calendar and the CRM.
If you never text
Skip the phone number entirely. Nothing about the core plan requires a phone number, and a business running purely on email and its calendar can leave this line at zero. Add a number later if a specific need for calling or texting shows up.
Questions people ask
How much does HighLevel SMS cost?
$0.00747 per segment for US and Canada numbers as at September 2026, on top of the monthly cost of the phone number itself.
Why can't I send texts yet?
A new US number needs to complete carrier registration before it can send business texts reliably. Sending is limited or blocked until that registration clears.
How long does phone registration take?
HighLevel's own fee structure sets out the registration tiers and their costs; the clearance timeline depends on the carrier review behind that registration and is worth confirming in your account before you plan a launch date around it.
Can I port my existing number?
Check this directly in your account or with HighLevel support before canceling service elsewhere; this page states only the costs HighLevel itself publishes, and porting mechanics are not among them.
Do I have to buy a phone number?
No. A phone number is only needed if the business plans to call or text from inside HighLevel. Everything else on the plan works without one.