Costs and delivery

Before you send, it helps to know how your messaging is measured, what makes a message cost more, and the checks Teamio runs so you’re not charged for messages that can’t arrive. It works the same way for texts and email — each has its own monthly included amount, and beyond that both draw from one small prepaid balance that tops itself up. The campaign composer shows all of this live as you write; this page explains what you’re looking at.

Jump to a section:

Text messages (SMS & MMS)
Email
If your balance runs low
AI features (coming soon)

Text messaging and email each have their own separate pool of included credits, so sending a lot of email never eats into your texting, and vice-versa.

Text messages (SMS & MMS)

Quick reference: what uses text credits

What happens	Credits used
You send a plain text of up to 160 characters	1 credit
You send a longer plain text	1 credit for each part of about 153 characters
You send a text with a special character or emoji (see below)	1 credit up to 70 characters; longer, 1 credit for each part of about 67 characters (most emoji count as 2 characters)
You send a picture message (MMS)	A flat 3 credits, however long the caption and however many images
You send a text to a Puerto Rico number (area code 787 or 939)	5 credits for each part (picture messages stay a flat 3)
You send a text to a Canadian number	The same as a US number — 1 credit for each part
A patient texts you (a reply)	1 credit for each part, counted the way the carrier delivered it — including replies from Puerto Rico numbers. A picture message a patient sends you is a flat 3 credits
Teamio refuses to send a text	0 credits

A text Teamio refuses to send never uses credits — for example, a text to a patient who replied STOP to opt out, a text too long for carriers to deliver, or a text that can’t go out because your balance couldn’t be topped up. WhatsApp messages have their own simple rule — see Message patients on WhatsApp.

How texting is measured: message credits

A text isn’t billed per message — it’s billed per message credit (the industry calls these “segments”):

A text up to 160 characters = 1 credit.
Longer texts are split into parts of about 153 characters, and each part is another credit. A 400-character message is 3 credits per recipient.
A picture message (a photo or image, sometimes called an “MMS”) is a flat 3 credits, no matter how long the caption is or how many images it includes.
A text to a Puerto Rico number (area code 787 or 939) uses 5 credits per part instead of 1, because those texts cost more to deliver. A short one-part text to Puerto Rico is 5 credits; picture messages to Puerto Rico stay a flat 3.

Texts to Canadian numbers cost exactly the same as texts to US numbers. Puerto Rico is the one destination that costs more.

Why credits are counted per part, not per message

A single text message can only hold about 160 characters. When you send something longer, the patient’s phone shows one message, but behind the scenes the carrier delivers it as several parts and joins them back together — and carriers charge for every part they deliver. Teamio passes that through simply: one credit per part. That’s why a long text uses more credits than a short one, and why trimming a message can lower its cost.

Everything your practice sends and receives by text draws from the same pool of text credits, so there’s just one number to watch.

What your text plan includes

Your plan includes 5,000 text message credits per calendar month. That pool covers all of your practice’s texting together — appointment reminders, confirmations, two-way conversations with patients, and campaigns, both the texts you send and the replies you receive. The 5,000 refresh at the start of each calendar month.

For most practices, 5,000 credits comfortably covers a normal month.

What happens when you need more than 5,000

Once you’ve used your included credits for the month, additional texting draws from a small prepaid credit balance, billed at $0.025 per credit. Two things make this painless:

It refills itself. When your prepaid balance runs low, Teamio automatically adds a set top-up of credits to your card on file — $25 by default, or whatever amount you set in your auto-reload settings — so your messaging never stops in the middle of a busy day. You’re topped up in one predictable step, not nickel-and-dimed with dozens of tiny charges.
Purchased credits roll over. Your 5,000 monthly credits refresh each month and don’t carry over — but credits you’ve paid for are yours until you use them, and they carry from month to month.

Everyday texting just keeps flowing. Appointment reminders, confirmations, and one-to-one replies draw from your credits automatically and top up quietly in the background — your team is never interrupted or asked to approve anything.

Large campaigns are the one exception. Because a single campaign can use a lot of credits at once (recipients × credits per text), if a campaign would need more credits than you have available, Teamio adds a credit top-up — the same set amount as auto-reload (by default $25) — and asks you to approve it before it sends. The campaign only uses the credits it needs; whatever’s left stays on your balance for next time. A big send is never a surprise, and you’re never charged a tiny per-campaign amount.

If a charge can’t go through — no card on file, or it’s declined — the affected texts simply aren’t sent, you aren’t charged, and Teamio lets your team know so you can update your card. Nothing is ever sent that you didn’t pay for, and nothing is charged that you didn’t get.

Worked examples

The same 190-character recall text — 2 credits per patient — shows how this plays out. The only things that change are how many patients you send to and how many credits you’d already used this month.

“Hi {FirstName}, it’s time for your 6-month cleaning at Bright Smiles Dental! Reply YES to book online, call us at (555) 123-4567, or text STOP to opt out. We look forward to seeing you soon!”

A typical month — nothing extra


Recipients	600 patients
× Credits per patient	2
= Credits for this campaign	1,200
+ Already used this month	3,200
= Total this month	4,400
Your plan includes	5,000

On screen: “Credits this campaign uses: 1,200 message credits — all within your monthly free credits. No cost.” There are still 600 credits of room left for the rest of the month.

Everyday texting tips you over — handled automatically

Your reminders and patient replies gradually use up the rest of your 5,000. When they run past it, your prepaid balance quietly covers the difference at $0.025/credit and refills $25 whenever it runs low. Your team never sees a prompt — messages keep going out, and any credits you didn’t use roll into next month.

A campaign would tip you over — you approve first


Recipients	400 patients
× Credits per patient	2
= Credits for this campaign	800
+ Already used this month	4,600
= Total this month	5,400
− Your free monthly credits	5,000
Beyond your free credits	400 credits
× $0.025 per credit	= $10.00

On screen: “You’re out of SMS credits. To send this campaign we’ll add $25.00 of SMS credits to your account. $10.00 covers this campaign; $15.00 stays on your balance for future messages.” You approve it before it sends — the campaign uses only the $10.00 it needs, and the remaining $15.00 stays on your balance. Nothing sends without that approval.

Special characters cost more than they look

One special character can more than double a text’s cost. A single ®, ™, emoji, “curly quote,” or long dash (—) switches the whole message to a format called Unicode, which cuts each credit from 153 characters down to just 67 (and a one-part text from 160 characters down to 70). Most emoji also count as two characters each. The same message suddenly needs more than twice as many credits.

Teamio automatically cleans up the common culprits on every text you send — ® becomes (R), curly quotes become straight quotes — so your patients read the exact same message and you pay the lower price. In the campaign composer you’ll see both options priced side by side and can choose to keep your exact formatting; everywhere else it happens quietly for you.

Emoji can’t be swapped for a plain-text equivalent the way ® or a curly quote can, so it’s always a tradeoff: keep it and pay for the extra credits, or remove it.

Picture messages (MMS)

You can include a photo or image in a text — an MMS. A picture message is a flat 3 credits, whether it carries one image or several and no matter how long the caption is. (Plain texts are billed by length; picture messages are billed per message, so the price doesn’t change with the caption.) Picture messages draw from the same credit balance as everything else — there’s nothing separate to track or pay.

The cost preview before you send

For SMS campaigns the composer shows a running summary:

Credits per text and the total across all recipients.
What your monthly plan covers, and any credits the campaign would draw from your prepaid balance beyond that.
Live “ways to lower this cost” suggestions with the amount each one saves.

Nothing is charged until you review this and choose to send. For a large campaign — or one that would go past your available credits — Teamio asks you to confirm in one more step before it sends, so a big send is never a surprise.

Disconnected numbers are skipped automatically

Some patient numbers no longer work — a phone that was disconnected, or a number that’s no longer a real mobile. Texting those wastes credits (carriers still charge for the attempt) and can hurt your practice’s standing with mobile carriers over time.

So Teamio watches delivery results. When a number repeatedly fails to receive texts and never successfully receives one, it’s left out of future campaigns automatically. A few important details:

Nothing is deleted. The patient and their number stay exactly as they are — the number is simply skipped in campaigns.
It’s forgiving. A single failed text never sidelines a number (phones get switched off, signals drop). It takes a repeated pattern of failure with no success.
It heals itself. The moment that number successfully receives any text again — or the patient updates their number — it’s included in campaigns automatically.
Only campaigns. Appointment reminders, confirmations, and one-to-one texts still always attempt every number.

After a campaign sends, the confirmation tells you how many disconnected numbers were skipped, so you know you weren’t charged for them.

Very long texts can’t be sent

Mobile carriers reject texts longer than 10 parts (roughly 1,500 plain characters, or about 670 with special characters or emoji) — they won’t deliver, but you’d still be billed for the attempt. So Teamio stops any text that long before it sends, without using any credits — in a campaign, in a conversation, or anywhere else — and asks you to shorten it (cleaning up special characters often brings it back under the limit on its own). This is a hard stop, not a warning, because there’s no way for those messages to reach anyone.

Email

Teamio also sends email on your behalf — appointment reminders and confirmations, recalls, review requests, and email campaigns. Email works like your text messaging, with its own separate pool of credits, and it’s much simpler to price: 1 email = 1 credit, no matter how long the email is.

What your email plan includes

Your plan includes 10,000 email credits per calendar month — a separate pool from your text credits, so email never eats into your texting. That covers all of your practice’s email together — reminders, confirmations, recalls, review requests, and campaigns — and it refreshes at the start of each calendar month.

Because one email is just one credit — there are no “segments,” special-character penalties, or picture surcharges the way texts have — 10,000 is a lot of email, comfortably more than nearly any practice sends in a month.

If you ever send more than 10,000

If you go past your included emails in a month, additional emails draw from the same prepaid balance your texting uses to top up — billed at a flat $0.005 per email (a half-cent). It refills itself the same way, so your reminders and campaigns keep going out, and any email credits you’ve purchased roll over month to month. For almost every practice this never comes up — 10,000 included emails is plenty.

Getting your emails delivered

Your emails send from your practice’s own verified email address, so patients recognize exactly who they’re from. And because email doesn’t have the carrier segment rules that texts do, a longer email never costs more than a short one — write the message your patients need.

If your balance runs low

Teamio also watches your balance for you — separately for text and email — and lets your practice know before anything is at risk of not sending.

Who gets notified, and when

If your SMS or email credits run low and you’re not protected by auto-reload — either auto-reload is turned off, or a recent auto-reload charge couldn’t go through — Teamio emails your practice’s Admin team right away, the moment the balance crosses that line. The email explains which channel is low, links back to this page, and takes you straight to Manage Credits to turn on auto-reload or add credits manually.

A practice with auto-reload on and a working card never gets these alerts — that’s the point of auto-reload.

The same signal shows up inside Teamio itself: when a channel is low and unprotected, anyone on your team with billing access sees a banner at the top of the app with a Manage Credits button and a link to this page. Dismiss it and it stays dismissed for that channel until the balance recovers — a fresh low-balance episode later shows it again.

It clears itself

Once you turn on auto-reload, add credits, or fix a declined card, the email alerts and the banner both clear on their own — nothing to acknowledge or reset by hand.

AI features (coming soon)

Teamio is building AI-powered calling and messaging to help answer your patients. When it launches, its usage will be measured here too — as its own kind of credits, alongside your text and email credits — and this page will be updated with the details before it’s available.