# SMS campaign savings calculator: what checking numbers first saves > Estimate what an SMS campaign wastes on numbers that can't receive it and what checking the list first saves: net saving and break-even rate. Canonical: https://mobilevalidate.com/tools/sms-campaign-savings-calculator · Last updated: 2026-11-08 Enter how many numbers you will text, your own price per SMS, how many messages each number gets and your estimate of the share that can't receive them. The calculator shows the SMS spend you avoid by checking first, the check cost at our bulk price, the net saving and the dead share at which the check pays for itself. In a bulk job an HLR lookup costs $0.005 and a carrier lookup $0.0015 per number. Use the tool: https://mobilevalidate.com/tools/sms-campaign-savings-calculator (interactive; needs a browser with JavaScript). **Privacy:** Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type, paste or upload is sent to MobileValidate or anyone else, and nothing is stored. The page counts one anonymous "tool used" event per visit (no numbers, no text), and sends nothing at all when your browser asks not to be tracked. ## How it works **Spend avoided** = numbers in the list × your estimated dead share × messages per number × your SMS price. **Check cost** = numbers in the list × the bulk price of the check. **Net saving** is the difference; a negative number means the check costs more than it saves at that dead share. **Break-even** is the dead share at which both sides are equal: check price ÷ (messages per number × SMS price). With an SMS price of $0.04, two messages per number and an HLR lookup at $0.005, every number you don't text saves $0.08, and the check pays for itself once more than 6.25% of the list is dead. Check prices are our live bulk prices, read from our catalog when the page is built. HLR and carrier lookups have a real-time route, so a bulk job has no minimum charge per country. You pay only for conclusive answers. We don't publish SMS prices: enter the price per message (per segment) from your own invoice. The sums use whole micro-dollars (millionths of a dollar), so totals don't drift with rounding. It all runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere. ## Where numbers that can't receive SMS come from We don't quote an industry rate for dead numbers: it depends on how and when the list was collected. Measure it instead. Check a random sample of a few hundred numbers and use the share that comes back unreachable or not assigned. The usual sources are: - **Numbers given up.** People change number and the old one is disconnected, or kept by the network for a while before it is reassigned. - **Typos and fake entries.** A digit wrong at sign-up, or a made-up number to get past a form. - **Landlines and other lines in web forms.** They pass a format check but can't receive SMS: a [carrier lookup](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/carrier-lookup) finds the line type. - **Prepaid SIMs that ran out.** Numbers that haven't been topped up are switched off by the network after a time that differs by country. One case the calculator doesn't cover: a **recycled number** is live again and reaches someone else. A network check shows it as reachable. [Number recycling and list decay](https://mobilevalidate.com/blog/number-recycling-and-list-decay) explains how to catch it. ## Check the list before you pay for the campaign Upload the list as a bulk job: the estimate is free and shows the cost before anything runs. Then text only the numbers that are live. You pay only for conclusive answers. - [Start free (20 free real checks)](https://mobilevalidate.com/request-access?service=number.hlr) - [Bulk jobs (free estimate)](https://mobilevalidate.com/docs/bulk-jobs) - [About the HLR lookup](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/hlr-lookup) ## Related - [When does an HLR lookup pay for itself? Break-even math for SMS and OTP costs](https://mobilevalidate.com/blog/when-does-an-hlr-lookup-pay-for-itself.md) - [HLR lookup API: live mobile network status](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/hlr-lookup.md) - [How much does an HLR lookup cost? HLR lookup pricing explained (2026)](https://mobilevalidate.com/blog/hlr-lookup-cost.md) - [Phone carrier lookup by number: carrier and line type API](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/carrier-lookup.md) - [Number recycling and phone-list decay: how often to re-check your list](https://mobilevalidate.com/blog/number-recycling-and-list-decay.md) - [SMS character counter: GSM-7, Unicode and segments](https://mobilevalidate.com/tools/sms-character-counter.md) - [Pricing: pay per conclusive check](https://mobilevalidate.com/pricing.md) ## Frequently asked questions ### Is an HLR lookup worth it for an SMS campaign? When the share of numbers that can't receive the message, times what you pay to text each of them, is more than the price of the check. Expensive destinations, long messages and several sends per number make it pay off at a lower dead share. For a cheap domestic SMS sent once, it often doesn't. The calculator shows the break-even share for your numbers; [the full maths](https://mobilevalidate.com/blog/when-does-an-hlr-lookup-pay-for-itself) covers OTP resends too. ### Do I pay for SMS sent to dead numbers? Usually yes. Most providers bill each message submitted, whether or not it reaches a phone, and a long message is billed per segment. Check your contract: some bill only delivered messages, and then the saving is smaller. The [SMS character counter](https://mobilevalidate.com/tools/sms-character-counter) shows how many segments your text uses. ### What dead share should I enter? Measure it on a sample of your own list rather than guessing. A fresh opt-in list from last month and a list collected years ago behave very differently. Run a few hundred random numbers through an HLR lookup and enter the share that comes back unreachable or not assigned. ### Which check should I choose? The cheapest one that finds your waste. An [HLR lookup](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/hlr-lookup) finds numbers that are not assigned or not reachable now. A [carrier lookup](https://mobilevalidate.com/services/carrier-lookup) costs less and finds landlines and other lines that can't take SMS, which is the common waste in lists from web forms. ### Does the check cost include numbers you can't answer? Yes, to be safe: the calculator bills every number. In practice unknown answers, duplicates, badly formatted rows and repeated numbers within the freshness window are free, so your real check cost is the same or lower than shown. ### Where do the check prices come from? From our live catalog, at the bulk price per number. See [pricing](https://mobilevalidate.com/pricing) for real-time prices and volume tiers. The estimate of a bulk job, before it runs, is free and shows the exact cost for your file.