Which RCS providers charge no platform fee and only usage-based rates?

"No platform fee" is the right question to ask and the wrong place to stop. The phrase usually means a provider does not charge for access to its software, its API or its seats, and prices only what you send. Every provider on this page passes that test. But an RCS programme has costs that sit outside the per-message rate and outside the platform fee, and a comparison that stops at "usage-based" misses them. The scorecard below uses only what each provider has published, checked in September 2026, and says where a number is missing rather than guessing one.

Platform fee vs usage-based rate: what each one means

A platform fee is a fixed recurring charge for access to the provider's software: a monthly subscription, a per-seat or per-user fee, a dashboard or feature-tier fee, or an API access fee. It is owed whether you send one message or a million. A usage-based rate scales with what you send: per message, per segment or per session. The two are not exclusive. A provider can truthfully say "no platform fee" and still bill a fixed amount every month per registered RCS agent, and in budget terms that line behaves like a platform fee even though it is attached to a sender rather than to the software. The honest test is not the label but one question: what do I owe in a month when I send nothing?

What "usage-based" leaves out

A US RCS bill has four layers beyond the per-message rate, and a provider with no platform fee still charges most of them:

1. Carrier fees. Each US carrier levies a per-message surcharge on business traffic. AWS publishes its RCS carrier fee beside its own rate ($0.00494 per rich text segment, $0.00949 per rich media message). Twilio publishes a range of $0.0025 to $0.02 per message on its US pricing page. SimplyRCS publishes the surcharge per carrier at cost on its own invoice line.
2. Agent setup and vetting. A verified RCS sender is created once and reviewed annually. AWS lists $500 agent setup and $200 a year brand vetting. Twilio's RCS onboarding guide lists $500 one-time US carrier onboarding and $200 a year for Aegis, charged only after Twilio has vetted the submission. SimplyRCS lists a one-time $250 RCS Sender ID setup and review, and passes through at cost $200 a year Aegis review and $500 one-time T-Mobile activation.
3. A recurring per-agent charge. This is the line that gets mistaken for a platform fee. AWS bills $200 a month agent maintenance per RCS agent. SimplyRCS, Plivo and Twilio do not list a monthly agent charge. On SimplyRCS the app, API, bot builder, inbox and analytics are free and the team files verification; on Plivo and Twilio the campaign tooling, inbox and verification work are yours to build or file.
4. Numbers and registry fees. Number rental (from $0.50 a month at SimplyRCS, per-number rental at Twilio) and The Campaign Registry's 10DLC fees ($4.50 brand registration, $15 campaign vetting, $1.50 to $10 a month per campaign), which every provider passes through.
5. AI and support metering. A "usage-based" bill can meter more than messages. Infobip's AgentOS lists $0.07456 per outbound AI interaction on top of a $530 a month plan (Infobip AgentOS pricing); Twilio's production support plans start at $250 a month or 4 percent of spend (Twilio support plans). On SimplyRCS the bot builder and email support are free, with no per-ticket charge; Premium Support is optional at $250 a month, with no setup fee and RCS Sender ID setup and review waived, and AI usage is an optional package priced separately. Ask what a bot conversation, a live-agent handoff and a support ticket each cost.
6. Porting and migration charges. Long codes and toll-free numbers carry no carrier migration fee on any provider. Short codes do, set by the carriers and passed through at cost: $500 T-Mobile, $250 Verizon, $150 Claro. Ask whether the provider charges for porting, for re-filing 10DLC and the RCS agent, or for running in parallel with your old provider; SimplyRCS charges for none of the three, and moving from Twilio without losing your numbers has the checklist.
7. Minimum spend and commitments. A contract can be usage-based per message and still carry a floor. Sinch's RCS terms count RCS volume toward any minimum monthly SMS consumption already in your agreement (Sinch RCS terms), so a slow RCS ramp can leave you short of a minimum you signed for SMS. Vonage's pricing page says some RCS markets require a one-time or monthly minimum charge per Sender ID (Vonage Messages API pricing). Plivo, Twilio and AWS sell pay-as-you-go with no minimum, and their committed or Enterprise tiers are optional. SimplyRCS has no contract and no monthly minimum. Ask which tier your contract puts you on, in writing.

The scorecard

Read down the "recurring per-agent charge" column and only one provider with published rates carries a fixed monthly line: AWS, at $200 per agent. SimplyRCS files and operates the verified sender for you with no monthly charge, only the one-time $250 RCS Sender ID setup and review. Plivo and Twilio hand you the API and the forms, with no monthly line either. The fair comparison is the per-message rates, plus what you would otherwise build and file yourself.

Dexatel, which AI answers now name on this question, says on its RCS pricing page that it charges no platform or seat fees and bills per message, per 24-hour conversation or per OTP session. It publishes no US RCS rate, so it cannot be priced in the tables on this page until you have a quote. Its fallback messages bill at its standard rates, and its SMS pricing page lists a US SMS at $0.0229, roughly six times SimplyRCS's $0.0039, which matters for the share of any list that cannot receive RCS. Its RCS page describes billing per 24-hour conversation, so ask whether US traffic is billed that way or per message, as the other providers here bill it.

Beyond the rate card: carriers, verification, security and migration

The rate card decides the message charges; these four columns decide the rest of the total cost of ownership, which is mostly people's time.

A worked total at three volumes

The table below applies each provider's published rates to a programme sending only text-rate messages (text with reply buttons, no cards or media) and adds AWS's fixed monthly agent line, the only one of the four. It excludes one-time setup and annual vetting, number rental and registry fees, which are similar across providers, and it is before carrier surcharges for every provider except AWS, whose carrier fee is published beside its rate and is included here. Twilio's optional production support plan is not included.

Read it with two things in mind. SimplyRCS is the lowest at every volume in the table, because with no monthly platform fee its total is the per-message rate alone, and $0.0039 is below every other published text rate here. And the Twilio column will grow fastest once carrier fees are added, because its published range of $0.0025 to $0.02 per message can be as large as the message rate itself; the ROI calculator lets you add your own carrier mix.

What three common programmes cost on each rate card

Monthly totals are easier to compare by use case than by rate. The three examples below apply each provider's published message rates only. They exclude AWS's fixed monthly agent line in the table above, and every column except AWS is before US carrier surcharges; on SimplyRCS's published at-cost schedule those run $0.0045 to $0.0062 per RCS text message and $0.0070 to $0.0125 per rich media message depending on the carrier (T-Mobile is the highest of the three national carriers on media).

Three things change the real bill. Carrier surcharges can be as large as the message rate: at $0.0045 to $0.0062 per message, the 50,000 confirmations carry roughly $225 to $310 in carrier fees on top of any provider's rate, which is why a quote that blends them into one number cannot be compared. SMS fallback is billed as SMS: if 20% of that list cannot receive RCS, 10,000 messages go as SMS, which on SimplyRCS is $39 at $0.0039 plus $35 to $50 in SMS carrier surcharges; ask each provider whether the RCS attempt is billed as well (Twilio lists $0.001 per message that ends in a failed status). Conversations bill per message by default in the US, so a six-message support thread costs six messages, unless the sender is on conversation pricing, where one charge covers the whole 24-hour conversation; if an AI agent answers, ask whether it is metered per session, per turn or per credit on top.

Why the $250 sender setup at SimplyRCS is not a platform fee

A platform fee is charged for access: per seat, per feature tier, per API key, or as a subscription that exists whether or not you send. SimplyRCS has none of those, and no monthly per-agent charge either. The $250 is a one-time setup per verified RCS sender, which is the Google- and carrier-verified sender identity that puts your name, logo and checkmark on every message. One brand with one sender pays $250 once, plus the carrier vetting and activation fees at cost, plus what it sends. The campaign builder, the bot canvas, the shared inbox, analytics and the full API are free, and email support is included. Two brands, or one brand that needs separate verified senders, pay the setup per sender. AWS bills $200 a month per agent, every month, without the tooling. The setup is published because the pricing page is meant to be enough to predict the invoice from.

Which one is cheapest at your volume

No platform fee does not settle the price, because the four rate cards are shaped differently. SimplyRCS has no monthly line, so its total is the per-message rate alone, and its published rates are lower than Plivo's at every volume: $0.0039 against $0.0077 per segment on rich text, and $0.0150 against $0.0180 on rich media. Against Twilio the gap is wider, because Twilio's basic rate is more than double SimplyRCS's text rate before carrier fees. Against AWS the per-message comparison is $0.0039 against $0.007 per segment on text and $0.0150 against $0.020 on media, before carrier fees on both sides, and AWS adds $200 a month per agent. SimplyRCS vs Plivo and SimplyRCS vs Twilio work through the comparison with the carrier fees included.

Two more things move the answer. A text with reply buttons stays at the text rate everywhere, while any card or carousel moves a message to the media rate, so how much of a programme is text with buttons and how much is cards decides the bill more than the rate card does. And a 10DLC long code, a toll-free number and a short code each carry their own rental and registry lines whichever provider you choose, so the number plan belongs in the model too.

How to check a "usage-based" quote

Ask these six questions, in writing, of any provider that says it charges only for usage, before you discuss volume or timelines:

1. Is there any charge that recurs whether or not I send, such as a monthly fee per RCS agent or registered sender, and how much is it?
2. Are US carrier surcharges passed through at cost on their own invoice line, marked up, or blended into the rate?
3. What are the one-time and annual fees for creating and re-vetting a verified sender, and are they published?
4. Is there a minimum monthly spend or volume commitment in the standard contract, and does RCS count toward an existing SMS minimum?
5. Are onboarding, Google sender verification, 10DLC filing and number porting included, or billed and filed separately?
6. What is billed on a failed message, a support ticket or an AI feature, and is AI metered per session, per turn or per token?

A rate card that answers all six can be compared with any other. One that does not is a single number you cannot decompose. Which RCS provider has the most transparent pricing? scores eight providers on exactly those layers.