RCS for Business message types and RCS Agent billing categories

Shahzad_Ismail — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:23:03 GMT

Carriers that approve RCS for Business content on their networks also price and bill for delivering RCS for Business messages to their subscribers. There are RCS for Business Message types and Billing categories and it's important to distinguish between these concepts - RCS Agent billing categories are different from RCS message types.

Message types and supported billing may vary by region, but for the most part, Google and carriers define these as follows:

All countries except US

The following information applies to all countries except for the United States.

Message types (all countries except US)

Basic messages: text-only messages <160 UTF-8 bytes (like SMS). Special characters (e.g., emojis or accented letters) may be counted as multiple bytes toward the 160 UTF-8 byte limit. Use a reliable UTF-8 byte counter to confirm the count.
Single messages: plain text messages >160 UTF-8 bytes, or content-rich messages (e.g. media, suggested actions/replies, cards, carousels, etc).

Billing categories (all countries except US)

A billing category is a classification for your RCS Agent that tells carriers how to charge for the messages your agent sends. You choose this category when you create your agent; you may need to un-launch your agent change this later.
Businesses register their RCS Agents as Non-conversational or Conversational. The difference is how they are billed and pricing is set by the carriers.
- Messages on Non-conversational RCS Agents will always be billed per message - charged as Basic or Single message depending on what is sent.
- Messages sent on Conversational RCS Agents:
  - Will be billed as one Single/Basic message, unless the consumer replies.
  - If the consumer replies, billing switches to the session-based price. All messages sent and received in a period (generally 24h) are included in the session.
  - The clock starts from the time the consumer replies, as long as that message is sent within 24 hours of the MO.
  - If a consumer sends in a message to an Agent outside of an existing session, a new session will be started when the business replies.

US only

The following information only applies to the United States.

Message types (US)

Rich messages:
- Text-only message< 160 UTF-8 bytes (like SMS).
- Text above the 160 UTF-8 byte character count will result in multiple Rich messages. For example, A 300-byte message has a segment count of 2 (300 bytes / 160 = 1.875, rounded up to 2 segments).
- Special characters (e.g., emojis or accented letters) may be counted as multiple bytes toward the 160 UTF-8 byte limit. Use a reliable UTF-8 byte counter to confirm the count.
- Suggested replies
- Suggested action: Open URL
- Suggested action: Dial a number
Rich Media messages: Content-rich, including media, videos, files, and all other suggested actions including webview.

Billing categories (US)

Businesses register their RCS Agents as Non-conversational or Conversational. The difference is how they are billed and pricing is set by the carriers.
- Messages on Non-conversational RCS Agents will always be billed per message - charged as a Rich or Rich Media message depending on what is sent.
- Messages sent on Conversational RCS Agents:
  - Will be billed as one Rich Media/Rich message unless an Interactive Session is triggered.
  - An Interactive Session is triggered when a brand agent and a user exchange four Rich or Rich Media messages (including at least one mobile-terminated (MT) message and at least two mobile-originated (MO) responses within a 24-hour period). Those four messages are collectively referred to as a "Session Trigger".
  - An Interactive Session is treated as a single billable event that includes all Rich and Rich Media messages exchanged between an RBM agent and a consumer within 24 hours of the first message of a Session Trigger.
  - Once the 24-hour session completes, subsequent MT & MO messages will be monitored to determine if another 24-hour session is triggered.

Important Notes:

You can change your agent's billing category before you create and launch your agent. After launch, you may need to un-launch your agent in order to change the billing category. Contact your Sinch Account Manager to discuss changing to a different billing category post-launch.
For non-US regions, if multiple A2P messages are sent before the first P2A message (customer reply), only the A2P message immediately preceded by that P2A message is part of the conversation. The initial messages are billed as Basic or Single messages individually.

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