Definition · Business Texting
Message credit / allowance
Also known as: message credit, message allowance, included messages, texting credits
A message credit (or allowance) is the quantity of texts a plan includes before extra charges apply. One credit usually maps to one SMS segment, not one message, and MMS or Unicode texts consume several credits. Once the allowance is used up, the platform bills per-segment overage or requires a top-up.
Texting plans bundle an allowance — say "1,000 messages per month" — and bill per segment beyond it. The wording hides two things buyers should pull apart. First, a "message" credit is almost always a segment credit: a 170-character text spends two credits, and an emoji can switch the message to Unicode and double the count again (see SMS segment). Second, MMS typically draws several credits per message.
So the headline allowance overstates how many real messages you can send. A plan advertising 1,000 messages may cover far fewer 320-character, image-rich texts than the number implies. The honest comparison is the per-segment overage rate and how the allowance is counted, not the round number on the pricing page.
For a buyer, the message-credit questions are: does a credit equal a segment or a whole message, do unused credits roll over, what is the overage rate once the allowance is gone, and are MMS and Unicode messages counted at a higher rate.