How to calculate the cost of an RCS campaign
The calculation resembles the SMS one, with a difference that changes everything: two rates live inside the same campaign.
Cost = (contacts reachable over RCS x RCS price) + (fallback contacts x SMS price)
The fallback is not a penalty. A contact RCS cannot reach receives a plain SMS, billed at the SMS rate, which is lower. You never pay both for the same person.
A worked example
On a base of 800 contacts and 2 campaigns a month, so 1,600 messages, with a reachable base of 84 percent: 1,344 go out over RCS at 0.134 euro, and 256 go out as SMS at 0.100 euro. The month costs 231 euros.
The same message sent purely as SMS, if it runs past 160 characters, costs 285 euros, because it is then billed twice to the entire base. The channel with the higher unit price is not always the more expensive one overall.
What fits inside an RCS card
These are not recommendations but hard ceilings published by Google for RCS Business Messaging. Beyond them, the send is rejected.
| Element | Limit | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Card title | 200 characters | Only the start shows without expanding |
| Card body | 2,000 characters | Generous, but nobody reads 2,000 characters |
| Buttons | 4 maximum | Suggested replies and actions combined |
| Button label | 25 characters | The limit that actually bites in practice |
| Plain text message | 3,072 characters | No card, no image |
| Carousel | 2 to 10 cards | Below 2 it is no longer a carousel |
The generator applies these limits live and counts emoji for what they really weigh.
Does RCS cost more than SMS?
Per unit, yes. In total, it depends on the length of your message. Here is the line-by-line comparison, on a pack of 5,000.
| SMS | RCS | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit price | 0.089 € | 0.134 € |
| Usable length | 160 characters, 70 with an emoji | 2,000 characters |
| Long message | Billed in several parts | One message, whatever the length |
| Image, carousel, video | ||
| Action buttons | 4 buttons | |
| Business name and logo | Yes, with verified sender badge | |
| Unreachable contact | Not applicable | Automatic SMS fallback, at the SMS rate |
The threshold to beat
Since RCS costs more per unit on a short message, it has to earn more to be worth its price. The generator shows that exact threshold: how many extra customers RCS must bring back, for you, at your average basket.
It is a division, so it is a certain figure. Everything else about RCS is not.
To compare the two channels away from the numbers, read our RCS marketing campaign page, or use the SMS generator if your message fits in 160 characters.
Want to test RCS without moving your whole base?
Up Review sends your campaigns over RCS with automatic SMS fallback, from the same customer file and the same consent.
Who can actually receive RCS?
In France, 52 million handsets are RCS-compatible, or 84 percent of the installed base, according to the Business Messaging Barometer 2025 from af2m, published on 25 February 2026. RCS has been available on iPhone across the four French operators since the end of the first quarter of 2025.
But compatible does not mean reachable, and that is the nuance most commercial pages skip. A compatible handset may have RCS switched off, or may not be registered with the service. In practice, RCS accounted in 2025 for just 1.3 percent of real volumes in France: roughly 200 million RCS messages against 15.26 billion push SMS, same source.
That is a reason to try the channel. It is not a reason to move your whole base onto it.
What we cannot promise you
You will read everywhere that RCS multiplies read rates and engagement. No French market average is published for local retail.
af2m mentions a read rate "often reaching 80 percent", without publishing its method or its sample. The other figures available come from case studies chosen by the people selling the channel. They are not averages, they are shop windows.
That is why this generator shows no RCS uplift. It does the opposite: it calculates the uplift RCS would have to deliver to pay for itself in your business, and lets you judge whether that is reachable.
To go further, see how Up Review runs your RCS campaigns and the full pack price list.