Short answer: at Bloomwire, a transactional SMS costs LKR 0.50 and a promotional SMS costs LKR 0.70, inclusive of government taxes, with no setup fees, monthly charges or long-term contracts. What you actually spend depends on how many messages you send, whether they are transactional or promotional, and how many parts each message splits into, which is where Sinhala and Tamil text makes the biggest difference.
Updated 29 October 2026.
Bloomwire's published SMS prices
Our SMS pricing has two rates:
- Transactional SMS: LKR 0.50 per SMS. Order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders, account alerts and one-time passwords (OTPs are sent as transactional SMS).
- Promotional SMS: LKR 0.70 per SMS. Offers, campaigns, announcements and other marketing messages, sent through the web platform or API. See promotional messaging campaigns.
Both prices include government taxes. There are no setup fees, no monthly charges and no long-term contracts: you pay per use. For higher volumes we offer custom pricing.
What drives the cost of bulk SMS
The per-SMS rate is only one input. These are the factors that move your total:
- Message type and route. Transactional and promotional traffic are priced separately, and you should send each under the right category. Mobitel is reported to accept only OTP, OTT and transactional traffic from registered sender IDs.
- Sender ID registration. Unregistered alphanumeric sender IDs risk being blocked on the largest networks, so a registered ID protects the money you spend on sending. Bloomwire registers your sender ID and submits it for approval as part of setup, and there are no setup fees.
- Message length and encoding. You pay per SMS part, not per idea. Long messages and Unicode text use more parts (see the next section).
- Volume. The published rates apply from the first message. If you send at scale, ask us for a custom quotation.
- Delivery reports. Bloomwire includes real-time delivery reports. They don't lower the per-SMS price, but they show which numbers fail so you can stop paying to message them.
- Failed and invalid numbers. Old, mistyped or disconnected numbers waste budget on every campaign. Clean your list before large sends, and check your quotation for how undelivered messages are treated.
How length and Sinhala or Tamil text change the bill
An SMS written only in the standard GSM character set (plain English letters, numbers and common punctuation) fits 160 characters in a single SMS. As soon as a message contains Unicode, which includes all Sinhala and Tamil text, the limit drops to 70 characters for a single SMS, or 67 characters per part once the message has to be split.
Take a Sinhala promotional message of 150 characters. It is longer than 70, so it is split into 67-character parts: 67 + 67 + 16. That is 3 parts, so each recipient costs three SMS rather than one. Trimming the same message to 134 characters or fewer brings it down to 2 parts; getting it to 70 characters or fewer makes it a single SMS.
The same rule catches English messages too. One emoji or a character outside the GSM set switches the whole message to Unicode and the 70/67 limits. Preview the part count before you send, especially for large lists.
Worked examples using Bloomwire's published prices
The table below uses only our published rates and assumes each SMS part is counted as one SMS. Your quotation confirms how your traffic is billed.
| Scenario | Recipients | Parts per message | SMS billed | Rate (LKR) | Total (LKR, incl. taxes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional alerts, English, under 160 characters | 10,000 | 1 | 10,000 | 0.50 | 5,000 |
| Promotional campaign, English, under 160 characters | 20,000 | 1 | 20,000 | 0.70 | 14,000 |
| Promotional campaign, Sinhala, 71 to 134 characters | 20,000 | 2 | 40,000 | 0.70 | 28,000 |
| Promotional campaign, Sinhala, 150 characters | 20,000 | 3 | 60,000 | 0.70 | 42,000 |
The last two rows show why copy length is a budget decision: the same 20,000-person Sinhala campaign costs LKR 14,000 more at 150 characters than at 134. Writing tighter Sinhala or Tamil copy is often the cheapest saving available.
Taxes and levies
Bloomwire's published SMS prices already include government taxes, so the per-SMS rate above is the rate you pay. Government taxes and levies on telecommunication services are set by the Government of Sri Lanka and can change, so check the latest position with your finance team.
When you compare providers, check whether their quoted per-SMS rate includes taxes or has them added on top. Your finance team should compare like with like.
SMS or WhatsApp: a quick cost comparison
If you also use WhatsApp, the economics are different. Meta charges per delivered template message, and the indicative Sri Lanka rates (checked 20 October 2026) are about US$0.002 (about LKR 0.66) for a utility message and about US$0.073 (about LKR 24.25) for a marketing message. These fees are paid directly to Meta, on top of a Bloomwire WhatsApp plan, which starts at LKR 8,500 per month. See WhatsApp Business API pricing for details.
- For transactional updates, an English SMS at LKR 0.50 and a WhatsApp utility template at about LKR 0.66 are in a similar range.
- For marketing, a single-part promotional SMS at LKR 0.70 is far cheaper per message than a WhatsApp marketing template at about LKR 24.25, though WhatsApp allows richer content and two-way conversations.
You can use both: SMS for reach and short alerts, WhatsApp for conversations with customers who have opted in.
Frequently asked questions
How much does one bulk SMS cost in Sri Lanka with Bloomwire?
LKR 0.50 for a transactional SMS and LKR 0.70 for a promotional SMS, inclusive of government taxes, with no setup or monthly fees.
Are there setup fees or monthly charges?
No. There are no setup fees, no monthly charges and no long-term contracts. You pay per use, and higher volumes can get custom pricing.
Why does a Sinhala message cost more than an English one?
The rate per SMS is the same, but Sinhala and Tamil use Unicode, which fits 70 characters in one SMS and 67 per part when split. A 150-character Sinhala message needs 3 parts, while an English message of the same length fits in one.
Do your prices include taxes?
Yes. Bloomwire's published SMS prices include government taxes. Check your invoice for the breakdown.
Is SMS cheaper than WhatsApp for marketing?
Per message, yes. A single-part promotional SMS is LKR 0.70, while a WhatsApp marketing template is indicatively about LKR 24.25 in Meta fees, plus a WhatsApp plan.
Related reading
- Bulk SMS gateway and API pricing
- Promotional messaging campaigns
- WhatsApp Business API pricing
- Bulk SMS in Sri Lanka: the 2026 guide to sender IDs and rules
Want a figure for your own volumes and message mix? Request an SMS quotation and we'll work it out with you.
