SMS API for Malawi: bulk SMS to +265 numbers

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, has Lilongwe as its capital and an economy centered on agriculture and services. Developers integrate SMS into systems like mobile banking apps, agricultural services, and healthcare platforms. Messages are sent for events such as payment confirmations, crop price updates, or appointment reminders. SMS is preferred because it reaches all phones, including basic models used by farmers and rural residents.

Malawi

Calling code +265

Per SMS segment
$0.04477
Messages for $100
2,233
Local language
English
Encoding
GSM-7

What a bulk SMS send to Malawi costs

Every message is priced at $0.04477 per segment to Malawi. 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$0.04477$0.08954
1,000$44.77$89.54
10,000$447.70$895.40
100,000$4,477.00$8,954.00

Number format in Malawi

Mobile numbers in Malawi have 9 digits after +265. Locally they are written with a leading 0 (0991 23 45 67); in the API that 0 is dropped, so the same number goes in the to field as +265 991 23 45 67.

Alphabet and segments

English text stays inside the GSM-7 alphabet, so one segment to Malawi holds 160 characters and each part of a longer text 153. Watch for curly quotes and emoji copied from other tools: one of them moves the whole text to Unicode at 70 characters per segment, and POST /v1/estimates shows the encoding before you send.

Time zone and timing

Malawi keeps UTC+2 all year with no clock change, so 09:00 in Blantyre is always 07:00 UTC. send_at takes UTC or any ISO 8601 offset, and the console scheduler converts from your own time zone.

Send to Malawi with one request

The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (MW) 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": "+265991234567", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'

What developers send to Malawi

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

Payment confirmations

A Lilongwe bank sends SMS confirmations for transactions, keeping customers in Blantyre and Mzuzu informed.

Crop updates

Agricultural services in Zomba send SMS alerts about market prices or weather forecasts to farmers in rural areas.

Appointment reminders

Clinics in Blantyre send SMS reminders for medical appointments to patients across Malawi.

Utility alerts

Utility companies in Lilongwe notify customers via SMS about service interruptions or billing updates.

SMS to Malawi: questions

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

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

Each message segment to Malawi costs $0.04477. A plain text of up to 160 characters is one segment, so 1,000 one-segment messages cost $44.77 and 10,000 cost $447.70. Failed messages are refunded to the balance.

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

$100 covers about 2,233 one-segment messages to Malawi at $0.04477 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 Malawi numbers for the API?

Send them in international format with the plus sign: +265 991 23 45 67 becomes "+265991234567" 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.

What language should SMS messages use?

English is widely understood and used in Malawi, making it suitable for most audiences. Chichewa can be added for local residents.

How do I reach rural areas?

SMS is ideal for reaching rural areas, as it works on basic phones and does not require internet access.

Start sending to Malawi

Create an account, top up from $40 and send to Malawi at $0.04477 per segment, from the console or with one API call.

SMS API Malawi: Bulk SMS to +265 From $0.04477 | BulkSMSAPI