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Twilio Account & Costs

Click on any of the following questions to jump to the answer:

  1. How much does Twilio cost?

  2. How do I create a Twilio account?

  3. How do I pay Twilio?

Questions & Answers

How much does Twilio cost?

The cost varies by location. For North America, SMS text messages cost $0.0075 (less than a penny). Outbound voice minutes cost $0.026/minute (less than 3 cents/min) to make a call from a phone to a phone, and $0.017/min (less than 2 cents/min) to make a call from your PC or Mac (softphone) to a phone. turboDial allows you to use either approach.

See Twilio pricing examples for more information.

More Details

Please note that Twilio charges for calls based on connections to and from Twilio and every call has 2 legs, therefore 2 connections.

If you make a call from your turboDial softphone (“This PC”) to a phone number using turboDial, you will have two legs for the call — one for the PC connection in to Twilio, and one from Twilio out to the number you are calling. If you place your call from a Calling Device other than “This PC” (that is, place your call from a Phone) then both legs of the call are charged as calls out from Twilio.

(Twilio charges in U.S. dollars)

For all locations globally, Twilio charges $0.0025/min for any call leg that connects to your softphone (“This PC”).

PC softphone call legs are billed at a fraction of the rate compared to calls made from a phone, so for example in North America using your PC and a headset to place your outbound calls will save $0.0125/min, or about 42%.

See Twilio pricing examples for more information.

How do I create a Twilio account?

If you want to create a Twilio account separately from the turboDial signup process then please follow these steps:
      1. Go to www.Twilio.com in your browser
      2. Press the “Sign Up” button
      3. Fill your details into the form, choose a password and press the “Get Started” button.
      4. Follow the instructions to verify your identity.
      5. Don’t choose a phone number if they ask you to. You won’t need it for turboDial.
      6. Upgrade the account from free to paid by adding a credit card as a Payment Method on the Billing page. (Access the Billing page from the menu on the top-right of the Twilio page).

How do I pay Twilio?

You will need to give Twilio a credit card after you get an account with them. But you won’t need to buy a phone number from them. They will charge your card $20 and then deduct your voice and SMS spending from that balance. If you don’t re-charge your balance then your account is suspended when it reaches zero. If you stop using turboDial you can get a refund of the balance left in your Twilio account.