SMS Character Limits in Sri Lanka: How Sinhala, Tamil and English Messages Are Counted

If you’ve ever sent a bulk SMS campaign in Sri Lanka and found it used twice the credits you expected, the reason is almost always message length. An SMS isn’t counted the way you count words. It’s counted in characters, and the limit changes depending on whether you write in English, Sinhala or Tamil, and even on which punctuation you use.

This guide explains how SMS length works, why Sinhala and Tamil messages fill up faster than they look, and how to write campaigns that stay inside one SMS without losing the message.

The short answer: 160 or 70 characters

One standard SMS holds:

• 160 characters when the message uses only the basic Latin character set (called GSM-7). That covers English letters, numbers and common punctuation.
• 70 characters when the message contains any character outside that set. This is called Unicode (UCS-2) encoding, and it’s what every Sinhala and Tamil message uses.

So the same offer written in English might fit in one SMS, while the Sinhala or Tamil version needs two or three.

What happens when a message is longer

You can still send a long message. Your phone, or your SMS platform, splits it into parts and the customer’s phone joins them back together so it reads as one message. Each part is called a segment.

The catch is that joining parts needs a little space in every segment for the “this is part 2 of 3” information. That means the limit per part drops:

Message type	Single SMS	Each part of a longer SMS
English (GSM-7)	160 characters	153 characters
Sinhala, Tamil or any Unicode	70 characters	67 characters

A 161-character English message isn’t “one SMS and one character”. It’s two segments of up to 153 characters each. In Sinhala or Tamil, a 71-character message also becomes two segments.

Most SMS providers bill per segment, not per message. A campaign of 5,000 messages that runs to two segments each is 10,000 SMS credits, so length has a direct effect on your cost.

Why Sinhala and Tamil messages fill up faster than they look

This part surprises most people. In Unicode, what you see as one letter is often stored as two, three or more characters.

Sinhala and Tamil letters are built from a base consonant plus vowel signs and other marks, and each of those marks is counted as its own character. A few real examples:

• ශ්‍රී ලංකා (Sri Lanka in Sinhala) looks like five or six letters, but it counts as 10 characters. “ශ්‍රී” alone is a consonant, the al-lakuna sign, an invisible joining character, another consonant and a vowel sign.
• கொழும்பு (Colombo in Tamil) reads as four syllables but counts as 8 characters.
• Colombo in English counts as 7.

So a Sinhala or Tamil message that looks short on screen can easily pass 70 characters. Always check the character count in your SMS platform rather than estimating by eye.

The hidden characters that switch English to Unicode

An English message only gets the 160-character limit if every single character is in the basic set. One character outside it, and the whole message switches to the 70-character Unicode limit. The usual culprits are:

• Curly quotes and apostrophes ( ’ “ ” ) copied from Word, Google Docs or a design file. Straight quotes ( ‘ ” ) are fine.
• Emoji. Any emoji switches the message to Unicode, and many emoji count as two characters on their own.
• Long dashes and special symbols like the en dash, the ellipsis character (…) or a bullet point (•).
• One Sinhala or Tamil word dropped into an English message.

A few basic-set symbols are allowed but count as two characters each, including € [ ] { } \ ~ ^ and |. They don’t switch the encoding, but they do eat into your 160.

Some SMS platforms quietly replace curly quotes with straight ones, and some don’t. Paste your text into a plain-text editor, or type it directly into the platform, before you send.

How to write SMS campaigns that fit in one message

Short messages also tend to perform better, because the customer sees the whole offer at once. These habits help:

1. Lead with the offer. “20% off all school shoes this week” says more than a greeting and the shop’s history.
2. Cut filler words. “We are pleased to inform you that” can almost always go.
3. Use your sender ID as your name. If your messages already show your business name as the sender, you don’t need to repeat it in the text.
4. Use one short link. A long website address can take up a third of an English SMS. A short tracked link also shows you who clicked.
5. Write dates and times simply. “14 Dec, 9am to 6pm” is clearer and shorter than a full sentence.
6. Keep the opt-out line short. “Reply STOP to opt out” is enough.
7. Check the counter before every send. Most platforms show the character count and the number of segments as you type.

Here’s an English example that fits in one SMS at 121 characters:

Avurudu sale! 20% off all shoes at our Colombo store until 14 April. Show this SMS at the counter. Reply STOP to opt out.

The Sinhala or Tamil version of the same message will almost certainly run to two segments. That’s fine, as long as you know it and plan your credits around it.

Should you send in Sinhala, Tamil or English?

Send in the language your customers use with you. A message in the customer’s own language is more likely to be read and trusted, even if it costs a segment more. Many Sri Lankan businesses use a simple rule:

• Short transactional messages like order confirmations, delivery updates and appointment reminders go in the customer’s preferred language, because they need to be understood clearly.
• Promotions to a mixed audience are split by language, so each group gets one clean message instead of a long bilingual SMS.
• Avoid sending Sinhala or Tamil in English letters (often called Singlish or Tanglish) unless you know your customers prefer it. It saves characters, but it can look informal for a bank, clinic or school.

If you keep customer records, store each customer’s preferred language. It makes splitting campaigns by language quick.

Quick checklist before you hit send

• Is the message in plain text, with no curly quotes, emoji or special symbols you didn’t intend?
• Does the platform show one segment, or the number you budgeted for?
• Have you sent a test to your own phone to see how Sinhala or Tamil text displays?
• Is the opt-out line included?
• Does the link work on mobile?

How Digital Urgency can help

Digital Urgency SMS helps Sri Lankan businesses send bulk and transactional SMS in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Before a campaign goes live, we help you check how your text displays on a phone and how many segments each message uses.

Packages come in Standard, Premium and Enterprise tiers, and the features included in each are confirmed with you in writing before you start. Request a quote and tell us roughly how many messages you send each month and in which languages.

If you’re just getting started with campaigns, our guide to SMS marketing for small business in Sri Lanka covers planning, timing and measuring results. And if many of your customers are on WhatsApp, see how WhatsApp broadcasts compare.

Frequently asked questions

How many characters are in one SMS?
One SMS holds 160 characters in English and standard Latin text, or 70 characters when the message includes Sinhala, Tamil, emoji or other Unicode characters. Longer messages are split into parts of 153 or 67 characters.

Why is my Sinhala SMS being split into two messages?
Sinhala uses Unicode, which allows only 70 characters per SMS. Vowel signs and joining marks each count as a character, so a Sinhala word often uses more characters than it appears to.

Do emoji make an SMS more expensive?
Often, yes. One emoji switches the whole message to the 70-character Unicode limit, so a message that would have fit in one English SMS may need two or three segments.

Am I charged for each part of a long SMS?
Most providers bill per segment. Check your provider’s terms, and check the segment count in your platform before sending a large campaign.