Plivo is a cloud communications API for SMS and voice — a direct Twilio competitor with a simpler API surface (its 2026 SMS price hike closed most of the old price gap). You pay per message sent/received and per minute of voice, plus a small monthly rental for each phone number. Here's the pricing, the free trial, and how to start.
| Item | Price (US) |
|---|---|
| Outbound SMS | ~$0.0077 / msg |
| Inbound SMS | ~$0.0040 / msg |
| Local phone number | ~$0.80 / mo |
| Outbound voice | ~$0.0090 / min |
| Free trial free | trial credit |
Plivo gives free trial credit so you can send test SMS and place test calls before paying. The catch is the usual one for messaging APIs: during the trial you can only reach verified numbers, and to message the public you must add a payment method and buy a number. At ~$0.0077 per US SMS (raised from ~$0.0055 earlier in 2026) Plivo now sits almost exactly where Twilio does — compare the all-in cost including carrier fees, not just the platform rate. Model your monthly bill in the messaging cost calculator.
1. Sign up at console.plivo.com and verify your email + phone.
2. Your Auth ID and Auth Token are on the dashboard overview.
3. Buy a phone number under Phone Numbers → Buy.
4. Authenticate with Auth ID + Auth Token (HTTP basic auth).
Send one SMS:
The obvious comparison is Twilio — bigger ecosystem and docs, now priced within a fraction of a cent of Plivo per message. Vonage (Nexmo) and MessageBird (Bird) are the other two majors; pricing is close, so pick by the destination countries you need and which carrier relationships are strongest there. For one-off notifications inside an app you already run, a transactional email via Resend or SendGrid is far cheaper than SMS. Choose Plivo when you want low-cost programmable SMS/voice with a clean API and don't need Twilio's breadth.
Yes — new accounts get free trial credit for SMS and voice. During the trial you can only reach verified numbers; add a payment method and a number to message anyone.
Sign up at console.plivo.com; your Auth ID and Auth Token are on the dashboard. Use them as basic-auth username and password on each request.
Plivo raised its US SMS rate in 2026 from ~$0.0055 to ~$0.0077 — now within a fraction of a cent of Twilio's ~$0.0079, so price is no longer the reason to pick Plivo over Twilio. Twilio has more products and integrations; Plivo still competes on a simpler API surface.
US application-to-person (A2P) traffic carries mandatory carrier fees per message plus campaign registration, on top of Plivo's platform rate. Long messages also split into multiple segments, each billed. Always budget the all-in number.
Not affiliated with Plivo. Prices are reference estimates — always verify on the official pricing page.