# Usage

> Check your SMS usage and credits, and learn how SMS credits are calculated.

Source: https://support.amazeful.com/reports/usage
Documentation index: https://support.amazeful.com/llms.txt

To check your current and historical SMS text message usage, please navigate to **Reports -> Usage**.

The usage report will show the SMS messages you've sent and the corresponding number of credits used in each billing cycle.

<figure><img src="https://support.amazeful.com/files/Fnt3rcO6v7t0PwZzGAK9.webp" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### **How SMS Credits Are Calculated**

**Overview**

SMS comes in 2 types of encoding formats: **`Text`** & **`Unicode`**.

The encoding format used is dependent on the content of the SMS message.

If all characters used belong to the **`Text`** format, the message will be sent using **`Text`**. If a single character falls outside the **`Text`** range, the whole message will be sent as **`Unicode`**.

***

**Text encoding**

A **`Text`** encoded SMS has 160 characters available. Some symbols count as 2 characters.

**1 character symbols**

```
! " # $ % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ _ ¡ £ ¥ § ¿ & ¤
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Ä Å Æ Ç É Ñ Ø ø Ü ß Ö à ä å æ è é ì ñ ò ö ù ü Δ Φ Γ Λ Ω Π Ψ Σ Θ Ξ
```

**2 character symbols**

```
| ^ € { } [ ] ~ \
```

***

**Unicode encoding**

A **`Unicode`** encoded SMS has 70 characters available. Some symbols count as 2 characters.

Emojis & languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Cyrillic alphabet languages require Unicode characters.

**1 character symbols**

```
The first 65,536 in the unicode standard
```

**2 character symbols**

```
Various historic scripts, musical and mathematical symbols, and some newer or more complex emoji, including many emoji with modifiers for skin tone or gender.
```

***

**Message Credits**

If a text message surpasses this maximum character limit, typically around 160 characters (**`Text`** encoding) for standard SMS messages will be divided into multiple parts or segments.

These segments are then sent as separate SMS messages but are intelligently reassembled by the recipient's device to form a coherent and complete message.

Each segment uses an SMS credit.

**For example**

If one SMS requires three SMS segments to be sent, you will be charged 3 credits.

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