T-Mobile just announced the largest SMS carrier fee increase to date. Starting January 16, 2026, they’re raising US SMS carrier fees by 50% on Toll-Free and by 80% on Short Codes. For most DTC brands, that means a 10-15% jump in their overall SMS bill.
Here’s what you need to know — and how to neutralize the damage.
T-Mobile’s new US SMS fees:
- Toll-Free: $0.0030 → $0.0045
- Short Code: $0.0025 → $0.0045
MMS fees aren’t changing for now.
Since roughly 35% of the average DTC SMS list runs on T-Mobile, that chunk of your subscriber base becomes significantly more expensive overnight.
For brands sending millions of messages annually, this adds up fast. A 10-15% cost increase isn’t trivial, especially when margins are already tight.
Popularity of SMS Drives Costs Up
As SMS marketing gets more popular across every vertical, carriers see an opportunity: raise rates to manage volume, control spam, and generate more revenue in one move.
It’s working. T-Mobile isn’t alone – other carriers are following similar patterns. The days of cheap, optimized-out SMS blasts are ending.
The “send without optimization” era if officially over in SMS. Low-value messages won’t survive the economics anymore. Brands that keep firing off to every subscriber without thinking will not see great ROI on their campaigns. The ones that do, will optimize and segment their SMS marketing.
The Solution: Automatic List Cleaning
Optimization doesn’t mean sending less. It means sending smarter.
Recart’s automatic SMS list cleaning removes the dead weight dragging down your ROI. Unreachable numbers, deactivated lines, reassigned digits, landlines, and subscribers in unsupported locations – all gone.
Every day, your list gets cleaned automatically. For most brands, that yields 10-15% savings on annual SMS costs. One less thing to optimize manually. One less problem when the bills arrive.
Those 10-15% savings? It directly offsets the T-Mobile increase. You’re not just surviving the fee hike, you’re staying flat.
What This Means for Your Strategy
The carrier fee increases are a signal. SMS marketing is becoming valuable enough that carriers want a bigger piece. That’s actually good news, it means SMS still drives revenue.
But it also means the era of spray-and-pray SMS is officially over. If you’re still sending to every number on your list without filtering, you’re leaving money on the table.
The smartest brands accelerated list growth by combining advanced technology with UX best practices. They tested rigorously during slower seasons, achieved 3-5X higher conversion rates, and built a larger, cleaner audience for peak sales. That audience paid off when it mattered most.
List cleaning is part of that playbook. So is segmentation, behavioral automation, and timing. The brands that optimize these fundamentals will absorb the fee increase without flinching.
