# SMS Credits In order to send SMS messages using the Rule Engine, you need SMS credits. You can buy prepaid bundles of SMS credits directly inside of the platform, on the Billing section. If you send an SMS message, the credit will decrease accordingly. ## Topup SMS credits To see your current SMS credits or to add credits to your workspace, go to "Billing".
Check if you have set up a billing method. If not, go to "Manage Billing" follow the instructions or simply continue with "Topup Credits".
If you do not have valid billing methods, you can now put in everything necessary. Billing has been set up, simply chose the amount of credits and click "Buy".
## Manage SMS Credits among the workspaces in your Organization You can now decide if you want to "Share credits between all workspaces" in your Organization, or "Assign Credits to Workspaces Manually". #### Share credits between all workspaces This option allows you as before to share credits within all of your workspaces. Meaning, you only need to Top Up Credits once. All of them will be available for all of your workspaces. {% hint style="success" %} If you are going from "Assign Credits to Workspace Manually" to "Share credits between all workspaces", all of the current individual workspace quotas will be automatically transferred back to the organization and will be shared within all workspaces. {% endhint %} #### Automatic SMS Credit Top-Up Enabling **Automatic Top-Up** allows you to automatically purchase SMS credits when your balance drops below a defined threshold, ensuring uninterrupted message delivery. You can configure this under **Workspace → Administration → Billing → SMS Credits**.
**Configuration options:** * **Package** – Select how many credits are purchased per top-up: * 100 credits – €12 * 200 credits – €22 * 500 credits – €48 * 1000 credits – €84 * **Top-up threshold** – Define the balance level that triggers a purchase * **Monthly limit (optional)** – Set a maximum monthly spend for auto top-ups Once enabled, Datacake continuously monitors your SMS credit balance and automatically purchases the selected package when the threshold is reached. This helps prevent failed notifications due to insufficient credits and reduces the need for manual top-ups. Please note, automatic top-up can only be enabled if valid **billing information and address** are provided {% hint style="warning" %} Automatic SMS Top-Up is **only** available when credits are shared across all workspaces - it cannot be utilised if credits are assigned manually. {% endhint %} #### Assign Credits to Workspaces Manually When selecting this option, you will be provided with a tool to assign SMS credits to each of the workspaces belonging to your Organization. You will need to Top Up Credits to your Organization's quota and then manually assign it, so please be careful to always assign it, if the limits have been reached. A table showing all of your workspaces, with the SMS credits used last month, this month and the current SMS quota is shown. That way, you are able to control the amount of SMS credits used in each of your workspaces. You can multi-select workspaces to perform different actions: * Set Total Credits: It resets what is currently assigned and sets the new credits. * Add Additional Credits: Option to add new additional credits to the current credit amount. * Remove Credits: Option to remove all current assigned SMS credits. {% embed url="" %} {% hint style="success" %} If you are going from "Share credits between all workspaces" to "Assign Credits to Workspace Manually", all of your workspaces will start with 0 credits, so you must assign SMS quota immediately. Otherwise, no SMS can be sent until credits are distributed. {% endhint %} ## SMS Log & Configuration To consult your SMS Log, visit the "Workspace" section in your sidebar. Click on the "SMS" tab (between "General" and "Products").
In here you find the settings for truncation mode and replace non-GSM7 characters, as shown on the screenshot above. ## Long SMS Mode {% hint style="success" %} The following configurations you will find under the option "Workspace". {% endhint %} When you send an SMS message over 160 characters, the message will be split and result in multiple messages. You can choose if you want to truncate the message to 160 characters to make sure only at max one credit is deducted per message from your balance or if you always want to receive the full message which can result in multiple message credits being deducted. The SMS standard says that large messages are segmented into 153 character segments and sent individually then rebuilt on the recipients device. This means that a 161 character message would result in two segments being deducted. If you include non-GSM characters in your message, those messages have to be sent using the so-called UCS-2 encoding. Messages containing any non-GSM-character are limited to 70 characters. See a list of all GSM characters here: {% hint style="warning" %} Unfortunately, our beloved emojis are not part of the GSM character set. Messages containing emojis are thus limited to 70 characters 😭 {% endhint %} ## Replace non-GSM7-characters The SMS Character Replacement feature automatically substitutes special characters, symbols, and accents with their standard alternatives to optimise your message delivery. ### How It Works When enabled, this feature replaces non-standard characters (such as emojis, accented letters, and special symbols) with their closest standard equivalents that conform to the GSM7 character set.

Character replace mode toggle

### Benefits * **Reduced Costs**: Messages containing non-standard characters require more segments to send, increasing costs. By replacing these characters, your messages use fewer segments. * **More Efficient Delivery**: Standard GSM7 characters are more reliably delivered across all mobile networks. * **Predictable Billing**: Avoid unexpected increases in SMS segments due to special characters. ### Examples of Character Replacement | Original character | Replaced with | | ------------------ | ------------- | | ê, ë, ĕ | e | | ħ | h | | ™ | (tm) | ### When to Use This Feature Enable this option if: * You want to minimize SMS costs * Your messages frequently contain non-Latin characters, emojis, or special symbols * You prioritize delivery efficiency over exact character preservation Leave it disabled if: * Exact character preservation is critical to your communication * Your brand identity requires specific symbols or characters * You communicate primarily in languages requiring non-GSM7 characters ## SMS Log You can see a list of the last 100 SMS messages including their segment count. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.datacake.de/portal/billing/sms-credits.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.