SMS API for Somalia: bulk SMS to +252 numbers
Somalia
Calling code +252
- Per SMS segment
- $0.01277
- Messages for $100
- 7,830
- Local language
- Somali and Arabic
- Encoding
- GSM-7
What a bulk SMS send to Somalia costs
| Messages | 1 segment | 2 segments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0.01277 | $0.02554 |
| 1,000 | $12.77 | $25.54 |
| 10,000 | $127.70 | $255.40 |
| 100,000 | $1,277.00 | $2,554.00 |
Number format in Somalia
Mobile numbers in Somalia have 8 digits after +252 and no trunk prefix, so the local form 7 1123456 becomes +252 7 1123456 in the to field.
Alphabet and segments
Somali and Arabic text stays inside the GSM-7 alphabet, so one segment to Somalia 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
Somalia keeps UTC+3 all year with no clock change, so 09:00 in Mogadishu is always 06:00 UTC. send_at takes UTC or any ISO 8601 offset, and the console scheduler converts from your own time zone.
Send to Somalia with one request
The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (SO) 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": "+25271123456", "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: "+25271123456", text: "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes." }),
});
console.log(await res.json()); // price: "0.01277", country: "SO"import json, os, urllib.request
req = urllib.request.Request(
"https://bulksmsapi.cc/v1/messages",
data=json.dumps({"to": "+25271123456", "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"]) # "0.01277"What developers send to Somalia
Mobile money
A user in Mogadishu receives a text confirming a mobile money transfer to a family member in Hargeisa.
Delivery updates
A logistics company sends a text to a customer in Kismayo notifying them of their package's arrival.
Emergency alerts
A humanitarian organization sends a flood warning to residents in the Lower Shabelle region.
Appointment reminders
A clinic in Garowe texts a patient to confirm their vaccination appointment the next day.
More countries in East and Southern Africa
SMS to Somalia: questions
More answers on accounts, payments and the API are in the FAQ.
How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to Somalia?
How many SMS to Somalia does a $100 top-up send?
How do I write Somalia numbers for the API?
Which language should SMS messages be in?
How can SMS reach nomadic communities?
Start sending to Somalia
Create an account, top up from $40 and send to Somalia at $0.01277 per segment, from the console or with one API call.