If you've sent bulk SMS in the UK, the EU, India, the Gulf or most of Asia, you're used to texts arriving from "ACMEBANK" or "PIZZAHUT" instead of a phone number. You set a header, maybe registered it with a local authority, and the brand name showed up in the sender field. Then you try the same thing for US recipients and it doesn't work. The message either fails or arrives from a random number you never picked.
US carriers don't support alphanumeric sender IDs for business texting. A US text comes from a number, and you choose one of three kinds: a 10-digit long code registered under A2P 10DLC, a toll-free number, or a short code. There's also a fourth option that gets your business name and logo in front of iPhone users, which is the closest thing the US has to a branded header. This post explains each one, what it costs, and how to pick.
Why the US never adopted alphanumeric sender IDs
In the US, texting grew up as a two-way, phone-number-to-phone-number channel. Carriers built their filtering and their business rules around replyable numbers. An alphanumeric header can't receive a reply, so a recipient can't text STOP back to it. Two-way opt-out is central to how US carriers and the TCPA treat consent.
Brand identity doesn't come from a header in the US. It comes from registration. Instead of reserving "ACMEBANK" as a sender name, you register your business (the brand) and what you send (the campaign) with the carriers. That registration is tied to the numbers you send from. Carriers trust the number because they know who is behind it, not because of what the sender field says.
Two practical habits follow from that:
- Put your brand name in the message body. Start every text with "Acme Bank:" or end it with ": Acme Bank." Carriers expect it, and recipients need it because the sender field won't tell them.
- Expect replies. A US number is a conversation. People will text back questions, "wrong number" and STOP. Plan for an inbox, not a send-only pipe.
Canada follows broadly similar rules, and alphanumeric IDs aren't an option there either. If you're sending across North America and elsewhere, see 10DLC for Canada and Australia for where the rules diverge.
The four US sender types, side by side
| Sender type | What the recipient sees | Registration needed | Typical setup time | Throughput | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphanumeric ID | Not available for US SMS | n/a | n/a | n/a | Nothing in the US |
| 10DLC local number | A normal 10-digit local number | Brand + campaign (A2P 10DLC) | Most approvals take 2 to 7 days | About 1 to 4 segments/sec for a fresh standard campaign; tens for higher tiers | Most businesses: marketing, reminders, two-way conversations |
| Toll-free number | An 8XX number | Toll-free verification | Varies; plan for a review period | Moderate, set by verification status | National brands that want a non-local, recognizable number |
| Short code | A 5- or 6-digit number | Separate short code application and carrier approval | Typically months, not days | Highest of the three | Very high volume: national retail, banks, large 2FA traffic |
| Blue line (iMessage) | Business name and photo on iPhone; regular number on Android | No 10DLC registration for the blue line itself | Live once the line is set up | 50 new conversations per line per day; unlimited with existing conversations | Branded one-to-one outreach to iPhone users |
Throughput figures are approximations. Carriers don't publish an official rate card. For a longer comparison that includes RCS, see 10DLC vs toll-free vs long code vs RCS.
10DLC: the default for most senders
A 10DLC number is an ordinary local phone number that you've registered for application-to-person (A2P) traffic. Most US business texting runs on this setup, and it's what we built Ready around.
What registration involves
You register a brand (your legal business, EIN, website) and a campaign (the use case, sample messages, how people opt in). On Ready, all of that happens in the app or through the registration API. There's no setup fee. You pay the first month, $25, when you submit. After that it's $25/mo for registration + $2/mo per number. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days.
Unregistered traffic gets filtered by carriers. You can't skip registration and still expect delivery.
What it costs to send
Ready Standard is $0.0075/segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. The same rate applies to replies you receive. One flat rate, no tiers.
Example: you have 10,000 opted-in contacts and send a 140-character promo in plain GSM-7 text (no emoji).
- 140 characters fits in one segment (the limit is 160)
- 10,000 × 1 segment × $0.0075, plus 10,000 × $0.0045 in carrier fees
- This all-in figure excludes the compliance surcharge. TCPA/DNC scrubbing and landline validation are each $0.003 per segment when switched on, and both are off by default.
Now add one emoji to that same 140-character message. The segment limit drops to 70 characters (67 per part in a multipart message), so the text becomes 3 segments. The $0.0075 portion triples, and so do the carrier fees. If you're coming from a market that bills per message, this is the biggest billing surprise in the US: segments are metered, not messages.
The throughput catch
A fresh standard campaign sends roughly 1 to 4 segments per second. At an assumed 3 segments per second, 10,000 segments take about 56 minutes. That's fine for most campaigns.
T-Mobile also applies a daily brand cap based on trust score. The lowest tier is around 2,000 messages a day, and higher tiers go up to roughly 10,000, 40,000, 100,000 and 200,000. If your list is mostly T-Mobile subscribers and your trust score is low, a 10,000-message send may run over more than one day. Brand vetting ($79 Standard / $179 Enhanced, one-time) can raise your score. It only moves the daily cap if it pushes you across a tier, and it doesn't change the per-second rate. For whether it's worth it at your volume, see is 10DLC brand vetting worth $79?
Toll-free: national, but not branded
A toll-free number (800, 888, 877 and so on) looks national rather than local, and some recipients read it as "a company" rather than "a person." It still shows as digits, not a name. Toll-free numbers go through their own verification process instead of 10DLC registration.
Toll-free fits when you don't want a local area code and your volume is moderate. It doesn't give you a brand name in the sender field. Some recipients also have toll-free texts filtered on their phones.
We're upfront about this: Ready is built around registered 10DLC numbers and the blue line. If your plan specifically requires toll-free, use a provider that offers it.
Short codes: the closest thing to a premium header
A short code is a 5- or 6-digit number, like the ones national retailers and banks text from. Short codes have the highest throughput of any US sender type and are vetted individually, so carriers treat them as trusted.
The tradeoffs are cost and time. You lease the code and then go through a carrier approval process. The lease alone typically costs thousands of dollars a year, and approval is usually measured in months. For a full fee breakdown, see short code cost: what you actually pay.
Pick a short code when:
- You regularly send hundreds of thousands of messages in tight windows
- You run high-volume 2FA or alerts where speed matters
- Your brand is recognizable enough that a 5-digit number is easy to remember ("text JOIN to 12345")
If none of those apply, a short code costs a lot for throughput you won't use. Ready doesn't sell short codes today. Most businesses we see do fine on registered 10DLC numbers.
Blue line: your name and photo, on iPhones
If what you really miss is seeing your brand name in the sender field, this is the nearest US equivalent. A blue line sends your texts as iMessage. On iPhones they appear blue, with your business name and photo.
How it works on Ready:
- Price: $99 a month per line, plus 6 cents a segment for each text you send. Replies to a blue line are also 6 cents a segment. Reactions are free.
- No 10DLC registration for the blue line itself, so you can start texting once the line is set up.
- Android recipients get the text from your regular number, at the regular price if you already had a number; if the blue line came with its green number, your account's texts bill at 6 cents a segment once you register. A blue line comes with a green number if your account doesn't have one.
- Limits: unlimited texting with people you already talk to. Each line can start up to 50 new conversations a day. You can send up to 2 texts to someone before they reply, and photos only after they reply. To reach more new people a day, add lines; "Add lines automatically" can add one when the day's new conversations run out.
- Not for campaigns: bulk campaigns and drip campaigns send from regular numbers, not the blue line. The blue line is for branded one-to-one conversations.
It's also not Apple Messages for Business, where the customer has to start the chat. A blue line can text first. API details are in the blue line docs.
Local presence: making a number feel less random
Without a branded header, the number itself carries more weight. That's why Ready texts each contact from whichever of your numbers is closest to their area code, on every account by default. Over the API there is nothing to add to POST /v1/messages: leave from out and Ready picks the number. In GoHighLevel, use the #from:local# tag.
Every one of those numbers still sits on your registered 10DLC campaign. Local presence chooses among registered numbers; it doesn't get around registration.
How to choose
- Most businesses, any volume up to a few hundred thousand messages a month: register for 10DLC, put your brand name in every message, and add local numbers if you text across regions.
- You want your name visible on iPhones in one-to-one outreach: add a blue line next to your 10DLC numbers.
- You need a national number but not short code volume: toll-free, through a provider that supports it.
- You send very high volume in short windows and can wait months: a short code.
Whichever you pick, US compliance rules still apply. Honor STOP replies, respect quiet hours in the recipient's time zone, and keep your own record of how each contact opted in. Ready handles STOP automatically, holds campaigns, drip campaigns and automations up to 24 hours for quiet hours (a one-to-one or API text only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused), and logs your attestation for each bulk send and each API send that sets consent_attested. It doesn't store per-contact consent for you, and compliance is ultimately your responsibility as the sender. (A contact who signs up on a Ready-hosted opt-in page is the exception: Ready stores that sign-up, with the time, IP address and exact wording, and support@tryready.com can send you a copy.)
The short version
Alphanumeric sender IDs don't exist for US texting, so don't spend time trying to make "ACMEBANK" work. Register a brand and campaign, send from 10DLC numbers, sign every message with your name, and watch your segment counts. Use a blue line if you want your name and logo on iPhones, and save short codes for when your volume actually calls for one.
If you'd like to try it, you can sign up and send your first 20 one-to-one texts free before you register (a card on file is required). Then start your registration once you're ready to run campaigns. Pricing is at tryready.com/pricing.