SMS Character Calculation

Long Messages

The standard encoding for GSM messages is the 7-bit default alphabet that has a maximum of 160 characters. exceeding 160 characters will require a 2^nd message.
The recipients will see this as 1 long message on their handset.

Messages longer than 160 characters are refered as multi-part messages as they contain multiple messages (or multiple-parts).
For long messages the total SMS limit is 153 characters per ‘part’ as the 7 characters are used up by headers which denote which part of the message is being sent (e.g. Part 1 of 2).

SMS Encoding

There are 2 SMS encodings:

• GSM encoding - contains characters from the GSM Basic Character Set (see below)
• Unicode - If a message contains any characters that aren’t in the GSM 03.38 basic character set, the message will be send as Unicode. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38).

GSM Encoded SMS

1 – 160 characters = 1 Message
161 – 306 characters = 2 Messages
307 – 459 characters = 3 Messages
460 – 612 characters = 4 Messages
613 – 765 characters = 5 Messages
766 – 918 characters = 6 Messages
919 – 1071 characters = 7 Messages
1072 – 1224 characters = 8 Messages

Unicode Encoded SMS

1 – 70 characters = 1 Message
71 – 134 characters = 2 Messages
135 – 201 characters = 3 Messages
202 – 268 characters = 4 Messages
269 – 335 characters = 5 Messages
336 – 402 characters = 6 Messages
403 – 469 characters = 7 Messages
470 – 536 characters = 8 Messages

GSM Basic Character Set

Basic Character Set @ Δ SP 0 ¡ P ¿ p £ _ ! 1 A Q a q $ Φ " 2 B R b r ¥ Γ # 3 C S c s è Λ ¤ 4 D T d t é Ω % 5 E U e u ù Π & 6 F V f v ì Ψ ' 7 G W g w ò Σ ( 8 H X h x Ç Θ ) 9 I Y i y LF Ξ * : J Z j z Ø ESC + ; K Ä k ä ø Æ , < L Ö l ö CR æ - = M Ñ m ñ Å ß . > N Ü n ü å É / ? O § o à

Basic Character Set Extension         |                                                         ^                         €                                       {               }           FF                 SS2                   [         CR2     ~               ]             \

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38

Characters in green color count as 2.

Can I only use GSM encoding?

Yes, go to EasySMS > Send SMS and select the encoding of your message.