The short answer
GoHighLevel LC Phone pricing in the US: a local number is $1.15 a month ($2.15 toll-free), texts are $0.00747 per segment sent or received plus a carrier fee of $0.0025 to $0.01, and calls are $0.0166 a minute outbound and $0.01165 inbound, billed in full minutes rounded up. Texting also needs A2P 10DLC registration: $22.50 or $64 once, then $1.50 to $10.50 a month per campaign. Our sample small-business client comes to about $28.39 a month.
What LC Phone is
LC Phone, short for LeadConnector Phone, is HighLevel's built-in phone service. HighLevel's help center now calls it the Phone System, and uses both names in the same article. It gives each sub-account phone numbers, texting, MMS and calling inside HighLevel, so you do not need your own Twilio account. It works on every plan, from Starter up, and Voice AI agents can run on it.
Billing is pure usage. There is no phone subscription: HighLevel deducts each number, text and minute from your agency wallet, which refills from your card when it drops below the minimum you set. HighLevel states that its pricing "matches Twilio's rates", and applies a 10% discount to the US list price on numbers, texts and calls.
Numbers, texts and MMS
| Item (US and Canada) | Outbound | Inbound |
|---|---|---|
| Local number, per month | $1.15 | |
| Toll-free number, per month | $2.15 | |
| SMS, per segment | $0.00747 | $0.00747 |
| MMS, per message | $0.022 | $0.0165 local, $0.02 toll-free |
Two things surprise new users. Inbound texts cost the same as outbound, so a chatty client pays for both sides of the conversation. And HighLevel charges every text where a delivery attempt was made, including ones that fail, with no refunds for undelivered messages. Rates for other countries are in country price sheets attached to HighLevel's guide.
Carrier fees by carrier
US carriers charge their own fee on every text, and HighLevel passes it through at cost on top of the $0.00747 segment price. The fee depends on the recipient's carrier and the direction of the message.
| Carrier | SMS out | SMS in | MMS out | MMS in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T | $0.0035 | $0.0035 | $0.009 | $0.009 |
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 | $0.0025 | $0.01 | $0.01 |
| Verizon | $0.005 (was $0.0045) | $0.007 | $0.007 | Not listed |
| US Cellular | $0.005 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.01 |
| All other carriers | $0.0042 (was $0.004) | $0.01 | $0.01 | Not listed |
October 1, 2026 change. HighLevel raised the outbound SMS carrier fee on Verizon from $0.0045 to $0.005, and on carriers in its "other" group from $0.004 to $0.0042. Pages still quoting the old rates understate the cost. The changelog lists no change to inbound fees.
How segments set the cost per text
HighLevel bills texts per segment, not per message, and multiplies the carrier fee by the number of segments too. A standard text uses GSM-7 encoding, which fits 160 characters in one segment. A longer message is split into parts of 153 characters each, because each part carries a small header. Any emoji, curly quote or character outside the GSM-7 set switches the whole message to UCS-2 encoding, which fits 70 characters in one segment or 67 per part.
| Message length | Segments, plain text | Segments, with an emoji | Cost per 1,000, plain | Cost per 1,000, with emoji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 characters | 1 | 1 | $11.67 | $11.67 |
| 120 characters | 1 | 2 | $11.67 | $23.34 |
| 160 characters | 1 | 3 | $11.67 | $35.01 |
| 200 characters | 2 | 3 | $23.34 | $35.01 |
| 300 characters | 2 | 5 | $23.34 | $58.35 |
Worked example. A 120-character appointment reminder in plain text is 1 segment. Sent to 1,000 patients a month it costs about $11.67. Add one smiley and it becomes 2 segments, and the same 1,000 reminders cost $23.34. Text copied from Word or a web page can do the same thing: HighLevel's own help article shows a two-word message that pasted in as 4 segments because of hidden characters. Paste as plain text and check long templates with a segment counter before a campaign goes out.
HighLevel's help article rounds multi-part texts to 160-character blocks. The 153 and 67 figures come from Twilio's segment guide, which HighLevel links to, so budget on those.
Call pricing
| Call type (US and Canada) | Per minute | How it is made up |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound | $0.0166 | $0.0126 carrier plus $0.004 client minutes |
| Inbound, answered in the web app, mobile app or desk phone | $0.01165 | $0.00765 incoming plus $0.004 client minutes |
| Inbound, forwarded to a US number | $0.02 | $0.00765 incoming plus $0.0126 for the forwarded leg |
| Inbound to a toll-free number | $0.0198 | Toll-free inbound rate |
| Forwarded to an international number | Varies | Twilio's international rate for the second leg |
Every call is billed in full minutes, and any partial minute rounds up. A 20-second call costs a full minute and a 2 minute 5 second call costs three, so rounding matters most on businesses with many short calls. Forwarding calls to a cell phone costs 72% more per minute than answering them in the HighLevel app, because the forwarded leg bills at the $0.0126 carrier rate instead of the $0.004 client-minute rate. The same inbound rate applies under Voice AI calls, on top of the AI charges covered in our Voice AI pricing guide.
Recording and other extras
| Extra | Price |
|---|---|
| Call recording | $0.0025/min |
| Recording storage | $0.0005/min per month |
| Call transcription | $0.024/min |
| Answering machine detection | $0.0075/call |
| Voicemail drops | $0.018/min |
| Conference calls (US) | $0.0018/min per participant |
| Number validation before a text | $0.005/check |
| Spam detection on inbound calls | $0.005/test |
| Caller name lookup | $0.01/lookup |
| Amazon Polly text-to-speech | $0.00084 per 100 characters |
Two of these catch agencies out. Recording storage is billed daily per sub-account for every stored recording, including old ones, until you set recordings to auto-delete. And HighLevel's FAQ says every outgoing call is set up as a conference call, so conference charges appear on outbound calls even when nobody is transferred.
A2P 10DLC fees
Business texting from US 10-digit numbers goes through A2P 10DLC registration, which HighLevel handles in its Trust Center. The fees depend on the campaign type:
| Registration type | Daily limit | Monthly campaign fee | One-time fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole proprietor | 3,000 segments | up to $2.10 | $22.50 |
| Low volume | 6,000 segments | $1.50 to $10.50 | $22.50 |
| High volume | 600,000 segments | $10.50 | $64.00 |
Submitting a campaign starts both the one-time fee and the monthly fee, whatever the review outcome, and the monthly fee runs until you delete the campaign. The good news: since February 1, 2026, resubmitting a rejected campaign is free (it used to cost $15).
Rebilling and the 5% pass-through
HighLevel always charges your agency wallet first. What you can pass on depends on the plan: Starter cannot rebill, Unlimited can pass phone costs to clients at cost, and Agency Pro can add your own markup.
One detail most guides miss: when rebilling is on, HighLevel adds a fixed 5% at the sub-account level to pass-through charges. That covers A2P registration and monthly campaign fees, SMS and MMS carrier fees, Verified Caller ID and RCS carrier fees, but not the base text or minute price. HighLevel's own example takes a $10.00 carrier fee to $10.50, and with a 2x agency markup the client pays $21.00. Our SaaS Mode guide covers setting markups on Agency Pro.
A sample monthly phone bill
Here is one client, a small local business, priced line by line. The volumes are our assumptions: 600 outbound and 200 inbound text segments, 120 outbound and 200 inbound calls averaging 2.5 minutes, every call recorded, rebilling off.
| Line | Basis | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Local number | 1 number | $1.15 |
| A2P campaign fee | Low volume, lowest monthly fee | $1.50 |
| Outbound texts | 600 segments at $0.00747 | $4.48 |
| Carrier fees, outbound | 600 segments at $0.0042 | $2.52 |
| Inbound texts | 200 segments at $0.00747 | $1.49 |
| Carrier fees, inbound | 200 segments at Verizon's $0.007 | $1.40 |
| Outbound calls | 120 calls of 2.5 min, billed as 360 min | $5.98 |
| Inbound calls to the app | 200 calls of 2.5 min, billed as 600 min | $6.99 |
| Call recording | 960 min at $0.0025 | $2.40 |
| Recording storage | First month; grows while recordings are kept | $0.48 |
| Total for the month | Before tax | $28.39 |
Three things stand out. Minute rounding adds $2.16 to the call lines, about 20% more than exact minutes would cost. The first month also carries the $22.50 A2P registration. And with rebilling on, the 5% pass-through adds about $0.27 to the client's side. To run this for your whole client list, use the GoHighLevel cost calculator, which rounds minutes per call. Healthcare clients such as dental offices have other costs on top, covered in their own guide.
LC Phone vs your own Twilio
HighLevel says LC Phone pricing matches Twilio's, and its guide lists the US rates as 10% off Twilio's list prices, for example $0.00747 per text against $0.0083. So price is rarely the reason to choose one over the other. The practical differences:
- LC Phone is bought, billed and rebilled inside HighLevel from one wallet, and A2P registration runs in HighLevel's Trust Center. With your own Twilio, registration happens in the Twilio console.
- Voice AI works with either an LC Phone or a Twilio number.
- The 5% pass-through applies to LC Phone fees when rebilling is on.
- You can move from Twilio to LC Phone at any time through HighLevel support, and HighLevel publishes a guide for moving US numbers across.
For most agencies the convenience of one bill wins. Compare the full platform cost, plan included, on our GoHighLevel pricing page.
Cost my clients' phone usage Try HighLevel
Questions
What is LC Phone in GoHighLevel?
LC Phone (LeadConnector Phone) is HighLevel's built-in phone service. It lets each sub-account buy local or toll-free numbers, send and receive texts and MMS, and make and take calls inside HighLevel without a separate Twilio account. It is available on every plan, and usage is paid from the agency wallet.
Is LC Phone the same as the GoHighLevel Phone System?
Yes. HighLevel's help center now titles its rate card "Phone System Pricing & Billing Guide" and uses the names Phone System and LC Phone System for the same service. Prices, numbers and A2P registration are the same whichever name you see.
How much does GoHighLevel LC Phone cost per month?
There is no LC Phone subscription. You pay $1.15 a month per local number ($2.15 toll-free), an A2P campaign fee from $1.50 a month if you text, and usage. Our sample small-business client with 800 text segments and 320 calls a month comes to about $28.39.
How much does GoHighLevel charge per text?
$0.00747 per segment, sent or received, plus the recipient carrier's fee: $0.0035 to $0.005 per outbound segment. A short text to a carrier in HighLevel's "other" group costs about $0.01167. A text with an emoji holds only 70 characters per segment, so the same message can cost two or three times as much.
Does LC Phone cost more than Twilio?
No, by HighLevel's own statement. Its rate card says pricing matches Twilio's rates, and US numbers, texts and calls carry a 10% discount on the list price, for example $0.00747 per text against the $0.0083 list rate. Call prices include a $0.004 client-minute charge for the app leg. The one extra is the fixed 5% HighLevel adds to carrier and A2P fees at the sub-account level when rebilling is on.
Are unanswered calls charged on LC Phone?
Generally no. HighLevel's pricing guide says that if you call someone who does not pick up and you do not leave a voicemail, you are generally not charged, with some exceptions depending on the call type and outcome. Texts are different: every text where a delivery attempt is made is charged, even if it is never delivered.
Sources
- HighLevel Phone System pricing and billing guide
- What is the HighLevel native Phone System (LC Phone)?
- How to calculate SMS and MMS costs (HighLevel help center)
- What the heck is a segment? (Twilio, linked from HighLevel help)
- Carrier fee update, October 1, 2026 (changelog)
- HighLevel pricing guide (help center)
- Rebilling, reselling and wallets explained