Sender IDs

Per-country Sender ID fees, and listing and requesting sender IDs for your account.

Overview

A sender ID is the name (up to 11 characters) or number shown as the sender of your SMS. Registration rules and fees differ by country. For the product overview and how approval works, see the Sender IDs guide.

Method	Path	Description
`GET`	`/api/sender-ids/fees`	Sender ID fees for all 54 countries (public, no auth)
`GET`	`/api/sender-ids`	List your sender IDs
`POST`	`/api/sender-ids`	Request a sender ID

Get Sender ID fees

GET https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/sender-ids/fees

Public - no authentication. Cached for up to 5 minutes. Returns the Sender ID fee for every one of the 54 African countries, in USD.

Fees are charged from your wallet only when a request is approved - one fee per country in the request that has a fee. Nothing is charged on rejection.

Response

{
  "currency": "USD",
  "countries": [
    {
      "country_code": "GH",
      "country_name": "Ghana",
      "fee_usd": 150,
      "fee_type": "one_time",
      "covers": "all_networks",
      "fee_table": null,
      "note": null
    },
    {
      "country_code": "KE",
      "country_name": "Kenya",
      "fee_usd": null,
      "fee_type": "per_network",
      "covers": null,
      "fee_table": [
        ["Bundled Safaricom & Airtel", "KES 14,100", "None"],
        ["Safaricom only", "KES 8,700", "None"],
        ["Airtel only", "KES 8,700", "None"],
        ["Telkom", "KES 4,500", "None"],
        ["Equitel", "KES 9,000", "None"]
      ],
      "note": "One-off setup per network - no monthly maintenance."
    },
    {
      "country_code": "NG",
      "country_name": "Nigeria",
      "fee_usd": null,
      "fee_type": "on_request",
      "covers": null,
      "fee_table": null,
      "note": "Confirmed during onboarding"
    }
  ]
}

Field	Type	Description
`country_code`	string	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.
`country_name`	string	Display name.
`fee_usd`	number \| null	Flat fee in USD. `150` for flat-fee countries; `null` when the country uses a per-network fee table or the fee is confirmed at onboarding.
`fee_type`	string	`one_time` - a single flat fee for the country. `on_request` - fees are confirmed during onboarding. Countries with a `fee_table` may use another value, so check `fee_table` first.
`covers`	string \| null	`all_networks` when one fee registers the sender ID on every network in the country.
`fee_table`	array \| null	Per-network fees as rows of `[network, setup, recurring]`, in local currency. `null` when not applicable.
`note`	string \| null	Extra detail, for example `Confirmed during onboarding`.

Fees by country

Countries	Fee
Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Somalia, Tanzania	USD 150 one-time per country - covers registration on all networks
Kenya	Per-network table (one-off setup, no monthly maintenance) - see below
Uganda	Per-network table - see below
All other countries	Confirmed during onboarding

Kenya

Network	Setup	Recurring
Bundled Safaricom & Airtel	KES 14,100	None
Safaricom only	KES 8,700	None
Airtel only	KES 8,700	None
Telkom	KES 4,500	None
Equitel	KES 9,000	None

Uganda

Network	Setup	Recurring
MTN	None	UGX 250,000 / month
Airtel	UGX 250,000	None

The endpoint is the source of truth - read it for current fees.

Example

curl https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/sender-ids/fees

List your sender IDs

GET https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/sender-ids

Needs a signed-in session or an API key (Authorization: Bearer esms_live_your_api_key). Returns your sender IDs, newest first.

[
  {
    "id": 17,
    "name": "AcmeFoods",
    "countries": ["GH", "KE"],
    "use_case": "Order updates",
    "status": "approved",
    "rejection_reason": null,
    "fee_usd": 150,
    "fee_charged_at": "2026-10-08T09:30:00+00:00",
    "created_at": "2026-10-07T14:12:00+00:00"
  }
]

Field	Description
`status`	`pending`, `approved` or `rejected`.
`fee_usd`	The Sender ID fee charged for this request (`0` when no fee applied).
`fee_charged_at`	When the fee was charged (on approval), or `null`.

Request a sender ID

POST https://sms.esmsafrica.io/api/sender-ids

{
  "name": "AcmeFoods",
  "countries": ["GH", "KE"],
  "use_case": "Order updates"
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	Yes	1-11 characters.
`countries`	string[]	Yes	ISO country codes to register in.
`use_case`	string	No	What you will send. Helps the networks approve faster.

Response

{
  "id": 17,
  "name": "AcmeFoods",
  "status": "pending",
  "estimated_fee_usd": 150,
  "fee_countries": ["GH"]
}

estimated_fee_usd is the flat Sender ID fee that will be charged when the request is approved (one fee per country in fee_countries). Nothing is charged now, and nothing is charged if the request is rejected. Per-network fees (for example Kenya and Uganda) are confirmed by the team during onboarding.

Sender IDs guide

How sender IDs work, approval and pricing.

Pricing

Per-country SMS rates.

Sender IDs

Sender IDs guide

Pricing

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