SMS API for DR Congo: bulk SMS to +243 numbers

The Democratic Republic of Congo, located in Central Africa with its capital in Kinshasa, is known for its mining and agriculture sectors. Software products sending SMS include mobile money services, delivery apps, and healthcare providers. Messages are triggered by events like money transfers, package deliveries, and appointment reminders. SMS is chosen because it works on basic phones and reaches users in both urban and rural areas.

DR Congo

Calling code +243

Per SMS segment
$0.01387
Messages for $100
7,209
Local language
French
Encoding
GSM-7 or Unicode

What a bulk SMS send to the DR Congo costs

Every message is priced at $0.01387 per segment to the DR Congo. 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$0.01387$0.02774
1,000$13.87$27.74
10,000$138.70$277.40
100,000$1,387.00$2,774.00

Number format in DR Congo

Mobile numbers in the DR Congo have 9 digits after +243. Locally they are written with a leading 0 (0991 234 567); in the API that 0 is dropped, so the same number goes in the to field as +243 991 234 567.

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

The DR Congo spans several time zones, from UTC+1 in Kinshasa to UTC+2 in Lubumbashi (January offsets). A send_at of 08:00 UTC lands at 09:00 in Kinshasa in January; for a nationwide reminder, split the list by region and give each batch its own send_at.

Send to DR Congo with one request

The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (CD) 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": "+243991234567", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'

What developers send to the DR Congo

Common integrations that call the SMS API for recipients in the DR Congo.

Money alerts

Users in Lubumbashi receive SMS notifications confirming their mobile money transactions and balances.

Delivery updates

Customers in Goma get texts about the status of their online orders and delivery times.

Health reminders

Patients in Kisangani are notified by SMS about upcoming clinic visits and vaccination schedules.

Event notices

Residents in Bukavu receive SMS alerts about community events and meeting times.

SMS to DR Congo: questions

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

How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to the DR Congo?

Each message segment to the DR Congo costs $0.01387. A plain text of up to 160 characters is one segment, so 1,000 one-segment messages cost $13.87 and 10,000 cost $138.70. Failed messages are refunded to the balance.

How many SMS to the DR Congo does a $100 top-up send?

$100 covers about 7,209 one-segment messages to the DR Congo at $0.01387 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 DR Congo numbers for the API?

Send them in international format with the plus sign: +243 991 234 567 becomes "+243991234567" 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 The DR Congo

Create an account, top up from $40 and send to the DR Congo at $0.01387 per segment, from the console or with one API call.

SMS API DR Congo: Bulk SMS to +243 From $0.01387 | BulkSMSAPI