SMS API for Benin: bulk SMS to +229 numbers
Benin
Calling code +229
- Per SMS segment
- $0.01187
- Messages for $100
- 8,424
- Local language
- French
- Encoding
- GSM-7 or Unicode
What a bulk SMS send to Benin costs
| Messages | 1 segment | 2 segments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0.01187 | $0.02374 |
| 1,000 | $11.87 | $23.74 |
| 10,000 | $118.70 | $237.40 |
| 100,000 | $1,187.00 | $2,374.00 |
Number format in Benin
Mobile numbers in Benin have 10 digits after +229 and no trunk prefix, so the local form 01 95 12 34 56 becomes +229 01 95 12 34 56 in the to field.
Alphabet and segments
Texts in French fit 160 GSM-7 characters per segment until they use â, ê, î, ô, û, ç, ë and ï: those letters are outside GSM-7 and turn the message into Unicode at 70 characters per segment (67 per part). For short alerts, write them without those letters to keep one segment; for longer texts, the console names each letter that changed the encoding.
Time zone and timing
Benin keeps UTC+1 all year with no clock change, so 09:00 in Porto-Novo is always 08:00 UTC. send_at takes UTC or any ISO 8601 offset, and the console scheduler converts from your own time zone.
Send to Benin with one request
The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (BJ) and the price. A delivered or failed event follows on your webhook, and a failed message is refunded.
For a list, send the same text to up to 10,000 numbers with POST /v1/batches, or a personal text per number in messages.
curl https://bulksmsapi.cc/v1/messages \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKSMSAPI_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"to": "+2290195123456", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'const res = await fetch("https://bulksmsapi.cc/v1/messages", {
method: "POST",
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.BULKSMSAPI_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ to: "+2290195123456", text: "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes." }),
});
console.log(await res.json()); // price: "0.01187", country: "BJ"import json, os, urllib.request
req = urllib.request.Request(
"https://bulksmsapi.cc/v1/messages",
data=json.dumps({"to": "+2290195123456", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}).encode(),
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["BULKSMSAPI_KEY"], "Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "northwind-app/1.0"},
method="POST",
)
with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as res:
print(json.load(res)["price"]) # "0.01187"What developers send to Benin
Payment alerts
Mobile banking apps notify users in Cotonou about successful transactions or low account balances.
Delivery updates
E-commerce platforms send SMS to shoppers in Porto-Novo about the status of their orders.
Health reminders
Clinics in Parakou send SMS reminders to patients about upcoming vaccination campaigns for children.
Event notifications
Cultural festivals in Abomey notify attendees about schedule changes or ticket availability via SMS.
More countries in West and Central Africa
SMS to Benin: questions
More answers on accounts, payments and the API are in the FAQ.
How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to Benin?
How many SMS to Benin does a $100 top-up send?
How do I write Benin numbers for the API?
What language should SMS be sent in?
Are there seasonal peaks in SMS traffic?
Start sending to Benin
Create an account, top up from $40 and send to Benin at $0.01187 per segment, from the console or with one API call.