'Message and data rates may apply': what it means and when you need it

"Message and data rates may apply" (often shortened to "Msg & data rates may apply") tells a subscriber that their mobile carrier may charge them to receive your texts, depending on their plan. Carriers and 10DLC reviewers expect to see it on your opt-in form and in your first confirmation text, alongside your brand name, message frequency, HELP instructions and "Reply STOP to opt out." You don't need it on every message.

These lines look like boilerplate, and in a sense they are. They are also the first thing a campaign reviewer scans for. When they are missing or worded loosely, registrations get kicked back and approved traffic gets filtered. This post covers what each line means, where each one has to appear, wording that passes review, what the lines cost you in segments, and how we handle opt-out keywords in Ready.

What "message and data rates may apply" actually means

The phrase dates from a time when many US phone plans charged per text. Most plans now include unlimited SMS, but some prepaid, international-roaming and older plans still bill per message, and MMS (picture messages) can use data. You don't know your subscriber's plan, so the disclosure tells them: your carrier, not us, might charge you for this.

The wording comes from the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, the industry guidelines US carriers enforce through 10DLC registration. These guidelines are not a statute. They are the rulebook carriers use to decide whether your traffic gets delivered, and that makes them hard to ignore.

The disclosure does not mean you charge the subscriber anything. If your program has a premium charge, that's a different and much stricter category. For standard business texting, "data rates may apply" only refers to the subscriber's own plan.

What are message and data rates?

"Message and data rates may apply" means your mobile carrier, not the business texting you, might charge you for the messages, depending on your plan. "Calling and data rates may apply" is the same warning for phone calls, and "msg&data" is just the short form of the message version.

Message rates are the per-text charges some prepaid, roaming and older plans still apply. Data rates cover picture messages and links, which use mobile data. Most current plans include unlimited texting, so for many people the line costs nothing.

The four disclosures carriers expect

"Msg & data rates may apply" almost never appears alone. Reviewers look for a set of disclosures together:

Add your brand name so people know who is texting. Add a link to your terms and privacy policy on the opt-in page. If any of these are missing from your opt-in, the most common result is a rejection that names "call to action" or "opt-in" as the problem.

Where each line has to appear

The disclosures belong in different places, and each place has a different job.

1. The opt-in form or call to action

This is where reviewers look first. Your web form checkbox, keyword ad ("Text JOIN to..."), checkout page or paper sign-up sheet should show all of the following:

• Brand name and what kind of texts the person will get (reminders, order updates, promos)
• Message frequency
• "Msg & data rates may apply"
• "Reply STOP to opt out" and "Reply HELP for help"
• Links to terms and privacy policy
• A statement that consent isn't a condition of purchase (for marketing texts)

Don't pre-check the checkbox. Don't bury the disclosure in a footer three scrolls down from the phone field.

2. The confirmation (first) message

Send this right after someone opts in. It repeats the disclosure package in one text. Reviewers ask for this message's exact wording when you register a campaign, so write it before you start the form.

3. Ongoing messages

You don't need the full package in every text. In ongoing messages:

• Brand name: include it in essentially every message. Unidentified texts look like spam to people and to filters.
• Opt-out language: include it in the first message and then periodically. A common practice is to add it to marketing texts and to anything sent after a gap of a few weeks. Some senders add it to every promo, which is the safest option if segment count allows.
• Rates and HELP: once in the confirmation is the norm. You don't need to repeat them in each reminder.

4. The registration form itself

10DLC campaign registration asks for your opt-in description, sample messages, and your opt-out and help message wording. If your samples don't show a brand name and STOP language, expect a rejection. Our 10DLC rules and requirements breakdown goes through the whole reviewer checklist. If you've already been rejected, the sample-message rewrite guide shows how to fix it.

Exact wording that passes 10DLC review

These are working templates. Swap in your brand and program details. Keep the structure.

Web form checkbox (marketing):

By checking this box, I agree to receive recurring marketing texts from Brightside Dental at the number provided. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out. See our Terms and Privacy Policy.

Web form checkbox (reminders only):

I agree to receive appointment reminder texts from Brightside Dental. Up to 4 msgs/month. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out. Terms and Privacy Policy.

Confirmation message:

Brightside Dental: You're subscribed to appointment reminders. Up to 4 msgs/month. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out.

HELP response:

Brightside Dental: For help, call (555) 010-0100 or email help@brightsidedental.example. Reply STOP to opt out. Msg & data rates may apply.

STOP response:

Brightside Dental: You're unsubscribed and won't receive more messages. Reply START to resubscribe.

Ongoing promo:

Brightside Dental: Whitening is 20% off through Friday. Book at brightsidedental.example/book. Reply STOP to opt out.

A few wording details that trip people up:

• "Text STOP to cancel" works. "Reply UNSUB" alone is weaker, because STOP is the keyword people know.
• "Message and data rates may apply" and "Msg & data rates may apply" are both accepted. Don't invent variants like "Standard carrier charges might happen."
• The STOP confirmation should be the last message the person gets from that program. Don't follow it with a "sorry to see you go, here's 10% off."

What the disclosure costs you in segments

Disclosures take up characters, and characters become segments. A single SMS segment holds 160 GSM-7 characters. Longer messages split into 153-character segments. One emoji drops the limit to 70 characters (67 per part).

Worked example (assumptions stated): a 140-character promo with no emoji, sent to 5,000 opted-in contacts on Ready's Standard rate of $0.0075/segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment.

• Without a disclosure: 140 characters = 1 segment. 5,000 × 1 = 5,000 segments.
• With "Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out." (50 characters plus a space): 191 characters = 2 segments. 5,000 × 2 = 10,000 segments.
• The difference is 5,000 extra segments: 5,000 × $0.0075 = $38, plus 5,000 × $0.0045 in carrier fees.

Add one emoji to that 191-character message and it becomes 3 unicode segments, so the campaign is 15,000 segments.

Here's how to keep compliance from doubling the bill:

• Put the full rates/HELP/frequency package in the confirmation text, where it's expected. Keep ongoing messages to the brand name plus "Reply STOP to opt out" (22 characters).
• Trim the promo copy to make room, not the opt-out line.
• Skip emoji on messages that sit near a segment boundary.
• Ready swaps curly quotes, long dashes and ellipses for plain ones before sending, so text pasted from a doc won't silently jump you to unicode.

For more ways to cut segment counts, see our guide to reducing SMS costs.

How Ready handles STOP and opt-out keywords

Writing "Reply STOP to opt out" is the easy part. The part that creates legal exposure is what happens after someone replies STOP. Here is what Ready does:

• Inbound STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE are honored automatically. The opt-out applies across the account, so the contact can't be texted again from a different campaign or drip campaign.
• Sends to opted-out numbers are refused before they go out, and you aren't charged for them. Blocklisted numbers and known landlines are refused the same way.
• Quiet hours are enforced based on the recipient's area. A campaign text sent during the recipient's quiet hours is held, sent later, and charged only when it sends; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, and is otherwise refused and not charged.
• You can read opt-outs through the API, which matters if your own platform keeps a separate contact database:

GET https://api.tryready.com/v1/opt-outs/+12125550199
X-API-Key: <key>

Sending a single text looks like this. consent_attested is your statement that the recipient agreed to receive texts:

POST https://api.tryready.com/v1/messages
X-API-Key: <key>
Idempotency-Key: 3f2b9c1e-7a4d-4e8b-9c11-2d5f6a7b8c90

{"to": "+12125550199", "body": "Brightside Dental: Your cleaning is Thu at 2:30 PM. Reply C to confirm. Reply STOP to opt out.", "consent_attested": true}

The full request reference is in the messages API docs.

Ready also opts a contact out when they write it in their own words, such as "please stop texting me" or "remove me from your list." Read the inbox anyway: if a reply clearly asks you to stop and the contact is still open, opt them out by hand. A carrier complaint about a human-worded "stop" that you ignored counts the same as one about a keyword you ignored.

What these lines don't do

A disclosure is not consent. "Msg & data rates may apply" at the bottom of a text doesn't make an unsolicited text legal. Under the TCPA, exposure commonly runs $500 to $1,500 per text, and the disclosure gives you no protection on texts sent without consent.

Keep a few things separate:

• Consent records belong to you. Ready records the sender's opt-in attestation for each bulk send and each API send that sets consent_attested (who sent, to how many, when). That's an audit trail of your attestations, not a per-contact consent record. Your form or store should keep each contact's opt-in time, wording and page URL.
• Scrubbing reduces risk but doesn't remove it. Our standalone TCPA & DNC Litigator Scrub is $0.005 per contact. When scrubbing is switched on for an account, it adds a $0.003 per-segment surcharge to sends. It's off by default.
• Registration doesn't fix content. An approved campaign can still get filtered if messages look spammy. See why approved campaigns still get filtered.

Compliance stays the sender's responsibility. The tooling makes the right behavior the default, but it can't make the legal judgment for you.

The short version

Put the full package (brand, frequency, "Msg & data rates may apply", HELP, STOP, terms link) on your opt-in form and in your confirmation text. Keep ongoing messages lean: brand name and "Reply STOP to opt out." Make sure STOP actually works across every campaign you run. Then count your characters, because a 50-character disclosure can turn a 1-segment campaign into a 2-segment one.

If you want to test your confirmation and HELP wording on real phones, Ready's first 20 texts are free one-to-one sends. Use them before you register, because they end when a registration is paid for. 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 sign up here.

FAQ

What does "calling and data rates may apply" mean?

It tells the person that their own carrier may bill them for the call or for the data it uses, depending on their plan. The business isn't adding a charge.

What does "msg&data" mean?

It's shorthand for "message and data rates may apply," the carrier disclosure shown on opt-in forms and first texts. Carriers accept both forms.

Is "message and data rates may apply" legally required?

No US statute requires that exact phrase. It comes from CTIA guidelines that carriers enforce through 10DLC review. In practice, leaving it off your opt-in and confirmation message is a common reason campaigns get rejected, so treat it as required.

Do I need "Reply STOP to opt out" in every text?

Not in every one. It belongs in the confirmation message and should appear periodically after that. Many senders add it to every marketing text. Whatever your schedule, STOP must work on every message, whether or not that message mentions it.

What's the difference between "Msg & data rates may apply" and "Message and data rates may apply"?

There isn't one. Both are accepted. The abbreviated form saves 6 characters, which can matter near a segment boundary.

What should my HELP reply say?

Your brand name, a way to reach a person (phone or email), and the opt-out instruction. Keep it under 160 characters so it stays one segment.

Does Ready charge for texts to people who opted out?

No. Sends to opted-out numbers, numbers on your Ban list and known landlines are refused before they go out and aren't charged. Texts held for quiet hours are charged only when they actually send.