Understanding the Carrier and Registration Fees on Your Invoice

Last updated: May 29, 2026

When you send SMS or MMS through Volt, you'll see a few fees on your invoice that aren't part of Volt's platform pricing. These are pass-through charges from the carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular) and from The Campaign Registry (TCR), the organization that runs 10DLC brand and campaign registration in the US.

We forward these fees exactly as we're billed for them. This article walks through every category so you know what to expect and can spot anything unfamiliar on your bill.

Last reviewed: May 13, 2026.

1. One-Time Registration Fees

These are charged when you register a brand or campaign for the first time, or when something about your registration needs to be resubmitted.

Fee	Amount	When it applies
Brand Registration (standard entity types)	$4.50	Once per brand at registration
Brand Registration (Sole Proprietor)	$4.00	Once per brand at registration
Brand Identity Resubmit	$4.50	When key brand info (legal name, EIN, entity type) is changed and the brand must be re-verified
Brand Identity Appeal	$11.00	If you appeal an unverified brand result
CSP Migration	$0.50 per campaign	If a brand is migrated to or from another provider (Sole Proprietorships cannot be migrated)

2. Monthly Campaign Fees

Once a campaign is approved, TCR charges a recurring monthly fee per campaign based on the use case. We forward this charge each billing cycle for as long as the campaign stays active.

A few examples of what you'll see:

Use Case	Monthly Fee
Low Volume Mixed	$1.50
UCaaS Low Volume	$1.50
Sole Proprietor	$2.00
Charity	$3.00
Emergency	$5.00
2FA, Marketing, Customer Care, Account Notification, Mixed, Political, and most standard use cases	$10.00
Public Safety (Restricted), UCaaS High Volume	$10.00
Agents and Franchises	$30.00
Platform Free Trial	$0.00

For a complete list of use case pricing, see TCR's published fee guide.

3. Per-Message Carrier Fees

Every SMS and MMS segment delivered to a US mobile number incurs a small fee from the destination carrier (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular). These are passed through directly on your invoice.

A few things to know:

These fees are charged per message segment, not per message. A long SMS that splits into three segments gets billed three times.
Rates differ by carrier and message type. MMS typically costs more than SMS.
Rates can change at the source, and we update our pass-through rates whenever they do.
Your invoice breaks these out so you can see exactly how much went to each carrier.

For the current per-segment rates we pass through, see our companion article: Carrier Per-Message Pass-Through Rates.

4. Optional Vetting Fees

Vetting is not required for most use cases, but some customers choose it (or are required to choose it) to unlock higher throughput, special use cases like Political, or RCS messaging. These are one-time fees, charged only when requested.

Vetting Type	Fee	What it does
Standard Vet	$41.50	Automated review that can improve a brand's throughput tier
Enhanced Vet	$101.50	Deeper review with a downloadable report
Auth+ Vet	$12.50	Required for public for-profit brands to register campaigns
RCS Vet	$75.00	Required to send RCS campaigns
Political Vet	$66.00	Required for Political use case campaigns
Political Vet (Express PIN delivery)	$96.00	Faster PIN delivery option for Political Vet

Failed vets and vet appeals also carry their own smaller fees (typically $5 to $22). RCS Brand Asset verification for banners and logos is $50 to $75.

5. Other Pass-Through Charges You May See

Depending on your setup, you may also encounter:

Toll-free verification fees if you're using toll-free numbers for messaging.
Number provisioning fees charged by the underlying CPaaS provider when you acquire new phone numbers.
Short code fees if you lease a dedicated short code (these are typically billed by the short code registry on a monthly or quarterly basis).

These vary based on the provider and number type you're using. We'll always show them as separate line items on your invoice rather than rolling them into Volt's platform fees.

Why does Volt forward these fees?

Volt is a messaging operations platform, not a carrier or a registry. The carriers and TCR set their own fees and bill us for activity tied to your account. We pass those charges through directly so you only ever pay what they charge, with no surprise markup hidden in our pricing.

If something on your invoice isn't clear, email billing@textvolt.com and we'll walk through it with you.

Pricing referenced here reflects current TCR-published rates and is subject to change. Carrier per-message fees change periodically and are updated in our system as they change at the source.