SMS API for Sao Tome and Principe: bulk SMS to +239 numbers

São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, has São Tomé as its capital and an economy based on tourism, agriculture, and fishing. Messages are triggered by booking confirmations, payment reminders, and event notifications. SMS is chosen because it reaches all mobile users, including tourists and residents in remote areas like Príncipe Island.

Sao Tome and Principe

Calling code +239

Per SMS segment
$0.07097
Messages for $100
1,409
Local language
Portuguese
Encoding
GSM-7 or Unicode

What a bulk SMS send to Sao Tome and Principe costs

Every message is priced at $0.07097 per segment to Sao Tome and Principe. 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$0.07097$0.14194
1,000$70.97$141.94
10,000$709.70$1,419.40
100,000$7,097.00$14,194.00

Number format in Sao Tome and Principe

Mobile numbers in Sao Tome and Principe have 7 digits after +239 and no trunk prefix, so the local form 981 2345 becomes +239 981 2345 in the to field.

Alphabet and segments

Texts in Portuguese fit 160 GSM-7 characters per segment until they use á, â, ã, ç, ê, í, ó, ô, õ and ú: 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

Sao Tome and Principe keeps UTC+0 all year with no clock change, so 09:00 in Sao Tome is always 09:00 UTC. send_at takes UTC or any ISO 8601 offset, and the console scheduler converts from your own time zone.

Send to Sao Tome and Principe with one request

The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (ST) 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": "+2399812345", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'

What developers send to Sao Tome and Principe

Common integrations that call the SMS API for recipients in Sao Tome and Principe.

Booking confirmations

A hotel in São Tomé texts a guest to confirm their reservation for a beachfront room.

Payment reminders

A bank sends a text to a customer in Neves reminding them of an overdue loan payment.

Event alerts

A cultural festival organizer notifies attendees in Trindade of a schedule change via SMS.

SMS to Sao Tome and Principe: questions

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

How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to Sao Tome and Principe?

Each message segment to Sao Tome and Principe costs $0.07097. A plain text of up to 160 characters is one segment, so 1,000 one-segment messages cost $70.97 and 10,000 cost $709.70. Failed messages are refunded to the balance.

How many SMS to Sao Tome and Principe does a $100 top-up send?

$100 covers about 1,409 one-segment messages to Sao Tome and Principe at $0.07097 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 Sao Tome and Principe numbers for the API?

Send them in international format with the plus sign: +239 981 2345 becomes "+2399812345" 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.

Should SMS messages be in Portuguese or English?

Portuguese is the official language, but English is commonly used in the tourism sector. Use Portuguese for local audiences.

How does SMS perform on Príncipe Island?

SMS is reliable on Príncipe Island, where internet access may be limited but mobile networks cover most areas.

Start sending to Sao Tome and Principe

Create an account, top up from $40 and send to Sao Tome and Principe at $0.07097 per segment, from the console or with one API call.

SMS API Sao Tome and Principe: Bulk SMS to +239 From $0.07097 | BulkSMSAPI