LC Phone charges about $0.0083 per message, or roughly $0.0128 all-in once carrier fees are added, and that is the core of leadconnector sms pricing inside GoHighLevel. Carrier registration and phone numbers are billed on top of that, so each sub-account's real monthly cost is its message spend plus a fixed base.

This post breaks that cost into parts, works through a month of sends, and covers when an agency should stay on LC Phone and when an add-on provider is worth more per message. We make Ready, which installs into GoHighLevel as an LC Phone alternative. LC Phone costs less per message, and we say so throughout. Price is one factor, though, and the other factors are what this post covers.

What leadconnector sms pricing looks like per message

The LC Phone per-message rate is roughly $0.0083, and it comes to about $0.0128 per message once carrier fees are included. Plan your budget on the second figure. The carrier fee is real, and it shows up on every provider's bill under some name. If you want to know where that extra amount comes from and why some providers fold it into one price, see the carrier fee line item explained.

At the all-in figure, LC Phone message spend scales like this:

  • 1,000 messages a month: 1,000 × $0.0128 = $12.80
  • 5,000 messages a month: 5,000 × $0.0128 = $64.00
  • 20,000 messages a month: 20,000 × $0.0128 = $256
  • 100,000 messages a month: 100,000 × $0.0128 = $1,280

Segments affect every provider's bill

Carriers bill in segments, not in what you think of as a message. A plain-text SMS segment holds 160 GSM-7 characters. Longer texts split into 153-character pieces. A single emoji or other non-GSM character drops the limit to 70 characters per segment, or 67 when the message runs to several segments.

For example, a 175-character promo with one emoji is 3 segments. A 140-character text with one emoji is also 3 segments, even though it would fit in one segment without the emoji. Check how long and emoji-heavy texts appear in your LC Phone usage report before you assume the per-message figure covers them. The same check applies on every platform: the most common reason an SMS bill comes in high is a template full of emoji.

What sits outside the per-message rate

The per-message rate covers the send. Several other costs sit outside it.

A2P 10DLC registration

US carriers filter unregistered application-to-person traffic. Every sub-account that texts customers needs a registered brand and at least one registered campaign. The fees are $25 a month for registration. Those are the figures we charge. Check your GHL billing for LC Phone's exact line items, because how registration fees are passed through or marked up depends on the provider.

The fees are small, but they recur. Fifty sub-accounts with one brand and one campaign each is 50 × $25 = $1,250 a month in registration before anyone sends a text. Whether every sub-account needs its own registration is a separate question, covered in our GoHighLevel 10DLC registration guide.

Phone numbers

Each number has its own monthly fee. Agencies that give each sub-account several numbers, or rotate numbers across a client's service area, pay that fee once per number. Count your numbers before you compare totals.

Optional brand vetting

External brand vetting is a one-time upgrade that raises your trust score and can raise daily throughput limits. On Ready it costs $79 for Standard and $179 for Enhanced. Most senders don't need it. Standard registration is enough unless a sub-account is close to a carrier daily cap. T-Mobile's caps run from about 2,000 to about 200,000 messages a day depending on trust score.

A worked month for one sub-account on LC Phone

Here is an example with stated assumptions. A home services client sends 4,000 single-segment texts a month: appointment reminders, review requests and a monthly promo to opted-in customers. The client has one brand, one campaign and one number.

  • Message spend: 4,000 × $0.0128 = $51.20
  • Registration: one brand plus one campaign, at whatever your GHL billing shows (budget around $25 a month using the figures above)
  • Number: one monthly number fee

For this client, message spend is most of the bill. For a client sending 500 texts a month, fixed fees dominate instead: message spend is 500 × $0.0128 = $6.40, and registration plus the number makes up most of the bill. Cutting the per-message rate helps the high-volume client. It barely changes the low-volume client's bill.

When an agency should stay on LC Phone

Here is where we would tell you to stay put:

  1. Per-message cost is your main concern. If a client sends high-volume, low-margin texts and your rebill markup is thin, the lower rate wins and keeps winning as volume grows.
  2. Your sub-accounts are already registered and delivering. Moving a working setup costs time. If your messages arrive and your clients aren't complaining, there may be no problem to solve.
  3. You want one vendor and one invoice. LC Phone is billed inside GHL. An add-on means another account, another prepaid balance and another support contact.
  4. Your volume is low and your fixed costs are what hurt. As the worked example shows, at a few hundred texts a month the per-message rate is a small part of the bill. Switching providers won't change the total much.

If most of these describe you, keep LC Phone and spend your time on segment counts and template hygiene instead.

Where an add-on fits, and what Ready costs

Ready installs into GoHighLevel through OAuth, with two-way sync of inbound and outbound messages. Each connection is mapped per location, so every client's sub-account stays isolated. Ready isn't only a GHL tool. It's a messaging API for platforms, SaaS products and businesses that text. The GHL install is one way to use it.

Ready's pricing on its own terms

Ready charges $0.0075/segment on one Standard rate, plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. The carrier fee is itemized separately. Replies you receive are billed the same way as sent texts. The rate is the same at every volume. For very large senders, Enterprise pricing is custom, so talk to us.

The "all-in" figure (rate plus carrier fee) excludes the optional compliance surcharge. TCPA/DNC scrubbing and landline validation each add $0.003 per segment when you turn them on for an account. Both are off by default and don't run on every send unless you turn them on.

Here is a worked example. The same client sends 4,000 single-segment texts a month:

  • Message spend: 4,000 × $0.0075 = $30, plus the $0.0045 carrier fee on each of those 4,000 segments
  • Registration: no setup fee. The first month, $25, is charged when you submit. After that the monthly fee is $25 for registration and $2 per number, so $27 a month with one number.
  • Most approvals take 2 to 7 days. Until registration is approved, an account can send up to 500 texts a month at its normal rate. An account that buys a number before registering sends on Ready's shared registration while its own is in review.

Billing uses prepaid credits through Stripe, with carrier fees on their own line. That helps when you reconcile against what you rebill clients.

What the higher per-message price buys

  • Self-serve registration in the app. You submit the brand and campaign without a support ticket and track their status from the same place you send. Agencies registering many client brands feel the difference most.
  • Built-in compliance controls. Inbound STOP opt-outs carry across every campaign. Quiet hours hold sends until the recipient's local permitted hours. The send-time consent attestation records who sent, to how many contacts and when. This is an audit trail, not a per-contact consent record, so your client's opt-in form still needs to store that. These controls reduce risk. Compliance remains the sender's responsibility. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.
  • The DNC and litigator scrub as a switch. Turn it on for the accounts that need it, such as a client with an older list or a client in a vertical with heavy litigation. Leave it off everywhere else. The standalone scrub is $0.005 per contact if you'd rather check a list once.
  • Local presence. With local presence on, Ready sends from the number closest to the contact's area code. In GHL, the #from:local# tag picks it. It has a listed price of $0.0015 for each segment of a delivered text.
  • Blue line (iMessage). Texts show up blue on iPhones with the business's name and photo, and no 10DLC registration is needed. It costs $99 a month per line plus 6 cents a segment, with up to 50 new conversations per line per day. See the blue line docs.

For a full side-by-side on features, see our LC Phone alternative breakdown.

The rebilling math agencies actually care about

Most GHL agencies don't absorb SMS costs. They rebill clients at a markup. That changes how to read the rate.

Here is an LC Phone example with stated assumptions. You rebill a client at $0.03 per message, and the client sends 4,000 messages. Your cost is 4,000 × $0.0128 = $51.20 and your revenue is 4,000 × $0.03 = $120. The gap between the two is your margin on messages before registration and number fees, and it grows with every similar client.

The same exercise works for any provider. Take your rebill price, subtract the all-in cost per segment, and multiply by segments sent (not messages). Then subtract any fixed fees you don't pass through. Some agencies decide a higher per-segment cost is worth it because it saves staff hours on registration support and opt-out issues. Others decide the margin matters more. Both are reasonable choices. We cover the full model, including flat-fee alternatives, in how GHL agencies make margin reselling SMS.

The practical takeaway

LC Phone costs about $0.0083 per message, roughly $0.0128 all-in, and that's the lower per-message price. Your monthly bill also includes registration and numbers, and for low-volume clients those fixed costs are most of the bill. Before you compare providers, pull last month's usage and count segments, numbers and campaigns per sub-account.

If LC Phone delivers and the margin works, stay on it. If you spend real time on registration, opt-out handling or compliance questions, an add-on may be worth the extra per segment. Ready's first 20 texts are free one-to-one sends, so use them to test delivery before you register. To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it. You can create an account or check the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does LeadConnector charge per text message?

LC Phone charges about $0.0083 per message, or roughly $0.0128 per message once carrier fees are included. Use the all-in figure when you budget. Long texts and texts with emoji can count as several segments, so check your usage report.

Do I pay for A2P 10DLC registration on top of LC Phone texting?

Yes. Registration fees are separate from the per-message rate. Expect $25 a month for registration as a guide, and confirm the exact line items in your GHL billing, along with a monthly fee per phone number.

Is LC Phone cheaper than a third-party SMS provider in GoHighLevel?

Per message, usually yes, and that includes Ready. Add-on providers charge more per segment in exchange for things like in-app self-serve registration, compliance switches, local presence or iMessage. Whether that's worth it depends on your volume and how much time your team spends on support.

Can I use a different SMS provider inside GoHighLevel?

Yes. Ready installs natively through OAuth and syncs inbound and outbound messages in both directions, mapped per location so each sub-account stays isolated. Replies land in the GHL conversation the same way LC Phone replies do.

What does Ready charge per text for GoHighLevel users?

Ready charges $0.0075/segment on one Standard rate, plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. That all-in figure excludes the optional $0.003-per-segment scrubbing and landline validation surcharges, which are off by default. Registration is $25 at submit, then $25 for registration and $2 per number each month.