How Much Do SMS Appointment Reminders Cost? Prices by Country

SMS reminders are one of the cheapest ways to protect your calendar from no-shows. A text message the day before an appointment is hard to miss, and clients read it within minutes. But "cheap" depends on where your clients live: the same message can cost less than one cent in one country and more than ten cents in another. This guide shows what one SMS reminder costs in each European country in 2026, how to estimate your monthly bill, and how to keep it low.

What one SMS reminder costs, by country

The table below shows the price of one SMS to a mobile number in each country, as charged by timedule. You pay per message from a prepaid SMS balance, with no monthly SMS fee and no minimum. Prices are in euros and were checked in October 2026.

The price depends on the country of the client's phone number, not on where your business is. If you run a salon in Tallinn and a client has a Finnish number, that reminder is charged at the Finnish price.

Why SMS prices differ so much between countries

Every SMS passes through the client's mobile operator, and each operator charges a fee to deliver messages to its customers. Some countries have strong competition and low delivery fees, while in others a few operators set high prices. Rules on sender names and extra registration requirements in some countries add to the cost as well. That is why a message to Croatia or Ukraine costs several times more than a message to Poland or Portugal, even though it looks exactly the same on the client's phone.

How to estimate your monthly SMS bill

The calculation is simple: number of appointments per month × messages per appointment × price per message.

For example, a salon in Estonia with 300 appointments a month that sends one reminder per appointment pays 300 × €0.051 = €15.30 a month. If the salon also sends an SMS booking confirmation, that doubles to €30.60.

A few things change the number:

• Message length. One SMS holds 160 characters of plain Latin text. Longer messages are split into two or more parts, and each part is charged. Letters such as õ, ä, š or Cyrillic switch the message to a different encoding where one SMS holds only 70 characters.
• Confirmations and reminders. Sending both doubles the number of messages. Many businesses send the confirmation by email and only the reminder by SMS.
• Clients' countries. If many clients have foreign numbers, use the price for their country.

Is it worth it? Compare it with the cost of a no-show

A single missed appointment usually costs far more than a month of reminders. If a 60-minute treatment costs €50 and an SMS reminder prevents just one no-show a month, it has already paid for more than 900 reminders in Estonia. Use our no-show calculator to see what missed appointments cost your business and what reminders would cost to prevent them.

How to keep SMS costs low

• Keep messages under 160 characters. Mention the service, day, time and place, and leave out long greetings.
• Avoid special characters if you can. In languages that use letters outside the basic Latin alphabet, a shorter text keeps the message in one part.
• Use free email for everything else. In timedule, email reminders are free, so use them for confirmations and save SMS for the reminder that matters most.
• Send one reminder at the right time. One SMS 24 hours before the appointment is enough for most clients and gives them time to cancel or reschedule.
• Let clients cancel from the message. A cancellation link means a client who can't come frees the slot instead of simply not showing up.

How SMS reminders work in timedule

In timedule you turn on SMS reminders in the dashboard settings and edit the text of the message. Reminders are sent automatically 24 hours before each appointment, and you can also send SMS booking confirmations. Set your own sender name of up to 11 characters, such as your salon's name, so clients recognise who the message is from. Messages are paid per SMS from your balance, which you top up when needed, and email reminders are always free. See timedule pricing for plan prices.