Definition · Business Texting
10DLC
Also known as: 10DLC, 10-digit long code, A2P 10DLC
10DLC (10-digit long code) is the U.S. carrier-sanctioned system for sending application-to-person (A2P) text messages from a standard local 10-digit number. Businesses must register their brand and campaigns with The Campaign Registry; registration unlocks higher throughput and better deliverability but adds carrier vetting and per-campaign fees.
Before 10DLC, businesses blasted texts from ordinary local numbers with no registration, and carriers responded with heavy filtering. 10DLC is the framework that legitimized A2P traffic on local numbers: a business registers its brand (who it is) and its campaigns (what kind of messages it sends) with The Campaign Registry, and the mobile carriers then assign a trust score that governs throughput and deliverability.
For a buyer, 10DLC is a hidden cost and a compliance step, not just a technical detail. There are one-time and recurring registration fees — a brand registration fee plus a per-campaign monthly fee — and carriers levy per-message fees that vary by use case. Some texting platforms absorb or bundle these; others pass them through. Two platforms at the same headline price can differ once 10DLC pass-through is included.
The authoritative rules come from the carriers and CTIA (the wireless industry body), and registration runs through The Campaign Registry. Unregistered A2P traffic on a local number is increasingly blocked, so for any real business texting program 10DLC is effectively mandatory.