SMS API for China: bulk SMS to +86 numbers

China, the world's most populous country, has Beijing as its capital and Shanghai as its largest city, with a strong focus on technology and manufacturing. E-commerce platforms, ride-hailing apps, banks, and logistics companies send text messages from their systems. Messages notify users of order confirmations, ride details, payment alerts, and delivery updates. SMS is chosen because it reaches all phones instantly, even basic models, and is read quickly.

China

Calling code +86

Per SMS segment
$0.00587
Messages for $100
17,035
Local language
Mandarin Chinese
Encoding
Unicode (UCS-2)

What a bulk SMS send to China costs

Every message is priced at $0.00587 per segment to China. Texts over 160 GSM-7 or 70 Unicode characters are split into segments, so a two-segment text costs twice as much.
Messages1 segment2 segments
1$0.00587$0.01174
1,000$5.87$11.74
10,000$58.70$117.40
100,000$587.00$1,174.00

Number format in China

Mobile numbers in China have 11 digits after +86 and no trunk prefix, so the local form 131 2345 6789 becomes +86 131 2345 6789 in the to field.

Alphabet and segments

Text in Chinese characters is always Unicode, so a message to China written in Mandarin Chinese carries 70 characters in one segment and 67 in each part of a longer one. Codes and alerts written in English or plain Latin letters fit 160 characters, which halves the cost of a long notice.

Time zone and timing

China spans several time zones, from UTC+6 in Urumqi to UTC+8 in Shanghai (January offsets). A send_at of 01:00 UTC lands at 09:00 in Shanghai in January; for a nationwide reminder, split the list by region and give each batch its own send_at.

Send to China with one request

The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (CN) 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": "+8613123456789", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'

What developers send to China

Common integrations that call the SMS API for recipients in China.

Order confirmations

An e-commerce platform in Shanghai sends SMS confirmations for online purchases, ensuring customers know their order status.

Ride details

A ride-hailing app in Beijing sends SMS notifications with driver details and pickup locations.

Payment alerts

A bank in Guangzhou sends SMS alerts for successful payments and account updates.

Delivery updates

A logistics company in Shenzhen sends SMS notifications when a package is out for delivery or delayed.

SMS to China: questions

More answers on accounts, payments and the API are in the FAQ.

How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to China?

Each message segment to China costs $0.00587. A plain text of up to 160 characters is one segment, so 1,000 one-segment messages cost $5.87 and 10,000 cost $58.70. Failed messages are refunded to the balance.

How many SMS to China does a $100 top-up send?

$100 covers about 17,035 one-segment messages to China at $0.00587 each. The first top-up adds a bonus on top, which raises that number. The balance is shared by every country, so the same top-up also pays for messages anywhere else on the list.

How do I write China numbers for the API?

Send them in international format with the plus sign: +86 131 2345 6789 becomes "+8613123456789" in the to field. The API also accepts spaces, dashes and a 00 prefix and cleans them, and numbers that cannot be read are listed in set_aside instead of being charged.

Start sending to China

Create an account, top up from $40 and send to China at $0.00587 per segment, from the console or with one API call.

SMS API China: Bulk SMS to +86 From $0.00587 | BulkSMSAPI