Key Takeaways
- Laravel SMS gateway pricing is still devices plus SMS send volume. Illuminate HTTP does not create a third meter.
- You bring the Android and operator airtime. Forge, Vapor, and Redis invoices are hosting — they are not carrier credit.
- Free is a lifetime SMS cap on one device. Developer caps yearly platform volume. Starter / Professional / Business uncap platform send volume and still meter devices.
- Starter, Professional, and Business list Unlimited SMS as platform send volume; that is not unmetered carrier SMS. Carrier fair-use and OEM rate ceilings still apply.
- Pause-on-exhaust is Free and Developer only. There is no silent $0.0x overage from us.
Teams search laravel sms gateway pricing model when finance asks whether a Laravel worker “includes SMS.” It does not. The worker posts JSON. The phone sends. This in-depth spoke stays on that split. Hub: Laravel SMS gateway. Catalog: device and SMS volume pricing.
Service pricing is based on device count and total SMS sent through the gateway. You need a working Android phone with a SIM and SMS credit from your mobile operator. Operator message costs are yours—we do not sell carrier SMS balance. Plans are billed as device + SMS volume tiers—not aggregator-style $0.0x-per-message platform charging. Starter, Professional, and Business include unlimited platform send volume; Developer and Free have published SMS caps. Operator airtime remains separate, and carrier fair-use still applies.
Devices · send volume
Two pans. Not per-message aggregator packs. Not Laravel hosting.
What Laravel apps actually pay
Three invoices, three owners. (1) Our plan: how many Androids are paired, how many SMS the gateway accepted. (2) The mobile operator: prepaid or postpaid airtime on the SIM. (3) Your Laravel host: Forge, Vapor, a VPS, Redis for Horizon. Mixing (3) into (1) is how RFPs invent “SMS included with the PHP cluster.”
There is no official Laravel SDK that resells credits. Illuminate HTTP is a client: PHP REST samples.
Forge invoices are not SMS bills. We meter devices and send volume; the operator meters airtime.
Plan meters
Numbers follow the live catalog. If this table and /pricing disagree, /pricing wins.
| Plan | Devices | Platform SMS | Notes for Laravel teams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 | 300 lifetime | Also 300 contacts. Staging canaries, not a campaign pack. |
| Developer | 1 | 25,000 SMS per year | $50/year. Sends pause when the allowance is exhausted. |
| Starter | 2 | Unlimited SMS (platform send volume on this plan) | $19/month. Devices still meter. Carrier fair-use still applies. |
| Professional | 5 | Unlimited SMS (platform send volume on this plan) | $39/month. Spare handset fits the device cap; dual SIM is not a second device. |
| Business | 15 | Unlimited SMS (platform send volume on this plan) | $77/month. Fleet still needs chargers, SIMs, and an on-call for the cabinet. |
On Free and Developer, sending pauses when you use the plan SMS allowance rather than silently billing aggregator-style overage. Upgrade or request a custom allowance to continue.
Forge is not the SMS bill
Horizon workers, Redis, and a queue supervisor are required so webhooks ACK fast. They cost compute. They do not buy GSM. A “we already pay for Laravel” argument does not refill prepaid. Ops: incident response for outage.
TCO vs an aggregator
Twilio-style paths rent numbers and bill per message plus compliance tooling. Android SIM paths bill our device/volume fee plus whatever the operator charges you. CPaaS wins when you refuse phone ops or need global sender IDs we do not sell. Honest comparison: Twilio vs Android SMS gateway.
Do not budget “unlimited carrier SMS” because a pricing card says unlimited platform volume. OEM rate ceilings and fair-use remain.
OTP and bulk on the same Laravel app
Same HTTP client, different money. OTP is low volume, high severity. Campaigns are the opposite. Isolate deviceIds and Horizon supervisors so a sale blast cannot starve login codes — and so finance sees two airtime lines. OTP: OTP verification. Bulk: CSV campaigns.
Lab sends still count. Prove the path on real handsets before you scale: test on real handsets.
Budget checklist
- Device cap matches paired Androids plus a charged spare.
- Operator top-up owner named; retries included in the airtime line.
- Free/Developer pause-on-exhaust understood; no invented overage rate.
- Hosting (Forge/Vapor/Redis) on a separate GL code from SMS.
- OTP and promo device pools split before the first campaign.
Next steps
Pick a device cap, fund a SIM, send a staff canary. Device setup · Android app · SMS API documentation. CTIA messaging practices (consent, not our catalog): CTIA.
Related product pages
Jump to the live product docs for this topic—not another long-form article.
- SMS API documentationLive endpoint reference
- PHP REST send samplesPHP code examples
- device and SMS volume pricingPlans and allowances
- Android SMS gateway product guideDefinition, product, and how to buy
