SMS API for Sri Lanka: bulk SMS to +94 numbers

Sri Lanka is an island nation in South Asia with Colombo as its largest city, known for its tourism and tea exports. Software products like ride-hailing apps, e-commerce platforms, and banks send text messages to their users. Messages are triggered by events such as ride confirmations, order updates, or account alerts. Developers choose SMS because it reaches all mobile phones, including basic models, and is read quickly by recipients.

Sri Lanka

Calling code +94

Per SMS segment
$0.04257
Messages for $100
2,349
Local language
Sinhala, Tamil and English
Encoding
Unicode (UCS-2)

What a bulk SMS send to Sri Lanka costs

Every message is priced at $0.04257 per segment to Sri Lanka. 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$0.04257$0.08514
1,000$42.57$85.14
10,000$425.70$851.40
100,000$4,257.00$8,514.00

Number format in Sri Lanka

Mobile numbers in Sri Lanka have 9 digits after +94. Locally they are written with a leading 0 (071 234 5678); in the API that 0 is dropped, so the same number goes in the to field as +94 71 234 5678.

Alphabet and segments

Text in Sinhala and Tamil is always Unicode, so a message to Sri Lanka written in Sinhala 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

Sri Lanka keeps UTC+5:30 all year with no clock change, so 09:00 in Colombo is always 03:30 UTC. send_at takes UTC or any ISO 8601 offset, and the console scheduler converts from your own time zone.

Send to Sri Lanka with one request

The answer comes back at once with the message id, the country the number was matched to (LK) 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": "+94712345678", "text": "Your Northwind code is 482913. It expires in 10 minutes."}'

What developers send to Sri Lanka

Common integrations that call the SMS API for recipients in Sri Lanka.

Ride confirmations

Ride-hailing apps in Colombo send SMS confirmations to passengers with driver details and pickup times.

Order updates

E-commerce platforms notify customers in Kandy with SMS alerts when their orders are shipped.

Account alerts

Banks in Galle send SMS notifications to customers about account balances or transaction updates.

Appointment reminders

Clinics in Jaffna send SMS reminders to patients about their scheduled medical appointments.

SMS to Sri Lanka: questions

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

How much does it cost to send bulk SMS to Sri Lanka?

Each message segment to Sri Lanka costs $0.04257. A plain text of up to 160 characters is one segment, so 1,000 one-segment messages cost $42.57 and 10,000 cost $425.70. Failed messages are refunded to the balance.

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

$100 covers about 2,349 one-segment messages to Sri Lanka at $0.04257 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 Sri Lanka numbers for the API?

Send them in international format with the plus sign: +94 71 234 5678 becomes "+94712345678" 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 messages be in Sinhala or Tamil?

Use Sinhala for the majority audience and Tamil for Tamil-speaking regions. English works for mixed audiences.

How to reach tourists effectively?

Use SMS for time-sensitive updates, as tourists often rely on their phones for travel information and alerts.

Start sending to Sri Lanka

Create an account, top up from $40 and send to Sri Lanka at $0.04257 per segment, from the console or with one API call.

SMS API Sri Lanka: Bulk SMS to +94 From $0.04257 | BulkSMSAPI