- Factor
- Channel
- What it changes
- SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and in-app chat have different unit economics; SMS is priced per segment and operator, WhatsApp per message by template category.
- Bring to the quote
- Which channels, and roughly what share of traffic each carries
Digital Connect
What decides business messaging pricing in Saudi Arabia
Interkey Digital Connect quotes rates per traffic mix rather than from a public price list, because twelve factors move the number and two of them — channel and traffic type — move it more than volume does. This guide sets out each factor and what to bring so a quote is accurate the first time.
Buyer guide Published 6 min read
01The short answer
Why there is no single per-message price
A business message in Saudi Arabia is priced by what it is, not only by how many are sent. An OTP over SMS to one operator, a marketing template on WhatsApp and a transactional alert in Arabic are three different products with three different cost structures, and a quote that ignores the difference is wrong in one direction or the other. The twelve factors below are what Interkey asks about before rates are given; the more of them you can answer, the closer the first quote is to the final one.
02The twelve factors
What moves the number, and what to bring
- Factor
- Operator
- What it changes
- SMS termination is priced by the receiving Saudi operator, and by international routes for numbers outside the Kingdom.
- Bring to the quote
- The split of recipients by operator and by country
- Factor
- Message segment count
- What it changes
- An SMS longer than one segment is billed per segment. A GSM-7 message holds 160 characters in one segment; concatenated messages hold fewer per segment.
- Bring to the quote
- Typical message length, with an example of each template
- Factor
- Arabic versus Latin encoding
- What it changes
- Arabic text uses UCS-2 encoding, which holds 70 characters per segment against 160 for GSM-7, so the same sentence can cost twice as many segments.
- Bring to the quote
- Whether templates are Arabic, English or both
- Factor
- Monthly volume
- What it changes
- Volume moves the per-unit rate, but less than channel and traffic type do; commitments matter more than peaks.
- Bring to the quote
- Expected monthly volume, and the peak the platform must absorb
- Factor
- OTP versus marketing traffic
- What it changes
- Authentication and transactional traffic is routed and priced differently from campaigns, and mixing them on one sender is usually the wrong design.
- Bring to the quote
- Which share is OTP and alerts, which is campaigns
- Factor
- WhatsApp template category
- What it changes
- Meta bills WhatsApp Business API messages per message by category — marketing, utility, authentication — so the category a template is approved under sets its cost.
- Bring to the quote
- A list of the templates you expect to run, by category
- Factor
- Sender-registration work
- What it changes
- Registering a sender ID with Saudi operators is work with a lead time, per sender name; several brands or use cases mean several registrations.
- Bring to the quote
- The sender names you need, and whether any are already registered
- Factor
- Integration scope
- What it changes
- REST, SMPP or SOAP integration, webhooks for delivery status, and CRM or ERP connection are scoped as engineering work rather than a message rate.
- Bring to the quote
- What the platform has to connect to, and who builds each side
- Factor
- Support requirements
- What it changes
- Business-hours support from Riyadh is standard; extended hours or a named engineer are scoped separately.
- Bring to the quote
- The hours and response you need
- Factor
- SLA requirements
- What it changes
- The platform’s first-party figures (99.9% uptime, OTP delivery under one second) are measured on the platform; a contractual commitment on your traffic is written in the agreement, not assumed.
- Bring to the quote
- The commitments your own customers require of you
- Factor
- Quote process
- What it changes
- Rates are quoted per traffic mix and revised when the mix changes; there is no public list price.
- Bring to the quote
- The answers above, in one message
03The biggest lever
OTP traffic and marketing traffic are different products
A one-time password has to arrive in seconds, every time, on a sender the recipient trusts. A campaign has to reach a list at an acceptable cost and respect opt-outs. Those are different routing decisions, different sender registrations and different rates, and the single most common quoting mistake is averaging them into one number.
Separate them before asking for rates: authentication and transactional traffic on one sender with the delivery guarantees it needs, campaigns on another with the volume economics they need. Digital Connect runs both; it prices them apart because they are apart.
04Three traffic profiles
Three traffic profiles, and how each is quoted
The same platform, three very different quotes. Recognising which profile is closest to yours is most of the way to an accurate first number.
01
An OTP-heavy bank or fintech
Authentication traffic dominates: short Latin-digit messages, one segment each, on a registered sender, with delivery time the figure that matters. Quoted on the OTP route and its delivery guarantees, with volume second.
02
A campaign-heavy retailer
Marketing traffic dominates: Arabic templates that run to two segments, WhatsApp marketing-category messages, and opt-out handling. Quoted on volume commitments and WhatsApp category pricing, with SMS segment count the quiet multiplier.
03
A government or utility notifier
Transactional traffic to the whole population: Arabic first, every operator, occasional peaks that dwarf the monthly average. Quoted on operator split, peak capacity and the utility-category WhatsApp templates that carry service updates.
05How the quote is produced
What happens between your message and the rates
The traffic mix is read against operator termination rates for SMS and Meta’s category pricing for WhatsApp, the sender-registration work is counted per sender name, and the integration and support scope is priced as engineering rather than folded into a per-message rate where it would be invisible. The result is a rate card for your mix, with vendor and operator components shown separately from Interkey’s own, so the number can be checked line by line and revised when the mix moves.
06For an accurate quote
What to send for rates that hold
One message with these answers is enough for a first quote that does not move much afterwards.
- Channels, and the share of traffic on each
- Monthly volume and the peak hour the platform must absorb
- The split between OTP, transactional and campaign traffic
- Template examples, with language and typical length
- Recipients by operator, and any international destinations
- Sender names needed, and which are already registered
- What the platform connects to: REST, SMPP, SOAP, webhooks, CRM or ERP
- Support hours and any SLA your own customers require of you
Rates are quoted, not listed
No per-message price appears here because none would be true for your traffic. Operator termination rates, WhatsApp category pricing and volume commitments all change the number, and a figure published for one mix misleads every other. Send the answers above and the quote comes back for your mix.
07Buyer questions
What buyers ask us
Direct answers to the questions that come up in real evaluations. Anything missing, ask us at the bottom of the page.
Why does the same message cost more in Arabic?
Arabic SMS uses UCS-2 encoding, which fits 70 characters in a segment, against 160 for a GSM-7 Latin message. A sentence that is one segment in English is often two in Arabic, and SMS is billed per segment.
Is WhatsApp cheaper than SMS?
It depends on the template category. Meta bills WhatsApp Business API messages per message by category, and an authentication or utility template is priced differently from a marketing one; SMS is priced per segment by operator. For OTP the right comparison is delivery and trust as much as unit cost.
Does sender ID registration change the price?
It is work rather than a rate: each sender name is registered with the Saudi operators separately, with a lead time, and several brands or use cases mean several registrations. It is scoped once, before traffic starts, and it is why the checklist asks which names are already registered.
Can we get a price list?
Rates are quoted per traffic mix. Send the channels, volumes, traffic split and sender needs in the checklist above and the quote is built for that mix, then revised when the mix changes.
From the insights library
Continue with Digital Connect
Next step
Request rates for your traffic mix
Send the channels, volumes and the OTP-versus-campaign split, and the rates come back for that mix rather than for an average.
Or directly
+966-11-2180999 [email protected]Tawuniya Towers, North Tower, 7th Floor, King Fahad Highway, Olaya, P.O. Box 56835, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia