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A2P 10DLC Registration: The Ultimate Developer's Guide (2026)

February 6, 2026

A practical guide to A2P 10DLC for developers at SaaS or startup companies wanting to send SMS notifications. Step-by-step instructions and Twilio setup included.

A2P 10DLC Registration: The Ultimate Developer's Guide (2026)

Introduction

If you’re a developer trying to send SMS messages from your application to US numbers, you’ve likely encountered “A2P 10DLC Registration” in errors and documentation.

A2P 10DLC registration is a critical compliance requirement for sending Automated SMS messages to phone numbers in the US. All US carriers block messages from local 10-digit numbers without proper A2P 10DLC registration.

The Quickest Way

You can bypass the complexity of A2P 10DLC registration and start sending SMS right now using Pingram. The Pingram software and team handle your A2P 10DLC registration and maintenance immediately so you can focus on your project.

Pingram offers:

Key Terms

Please learn the vocabulary now to read this guide easily:

How can A2P 10DLC impact my company?

Getting this wrong can lead to:

Frequently Asked Questions

Before diving into the technical details, here are quick answers to the most common questions developers have about A2P 10DLC:

How long does registration take?

Without Pingram: 1-4 weeks, depending on rejections and resubmissions

With Pingram: Start testing immediately, complete registration in less than 3 days

Do I need business registration? Where?

Yes, you need a registered business with a valid EIN (US), Tax ID (Canada), or equivalent in your country.

Your business registration must match public records (address, name, etc.) that the reviewers can find and verify.

Do I need A2P 10DLC for testing or internal use-cases?

Yes, but Pingram provides a flexible sandbox for testing so your developers can start immediately while we register your A2P 10DLC.

Do I need separate registration for tenants (e.g., restaurants, merchants)?

It depends on the consent mechanism. Pingram can help with multi-tenant A2P 10DLC registration. You can also book a consultation call with our team to discuss your specific use case.

How does Pingram do A2P 10DLC exactly?

Pingram doesn’t skip A2P 10DLC, but through automations and our team of experts we handle the entire process faster and better than anyone else can.

Registration Process Overview

If you’re not using Pingram and decide to do this yourself, here’s the essential roadmap:

  1. Create a Customer Profile (Immediate)

    • Simple company and contact information

  2. Brand Registration (3-7 business days)

    • Submit your business information
    • Receive brand verification and Trust Score / Throughput

  3. Campaign Registration (1-2 business days)

    • Submit your SMS use case details
    • Receive campaign approval

  4. Phone Number and Service (Immediately)

    • Register 10-digit phone numbers
    • Create a “Service” to link the phone numbers and campaigns together
    • Begin sending messages

Important Tips

Twilio Setup

We advise setting up two Twilio sub-accounts (staging and production) in your Twilio account. This allows you to go through your Staging brand/campaign registration and use your trust score and approvals as feedback on what you could do better in production.

The structure:

Step 0: Preparation

Step 1: Customer Profile

This is a simple step that requires some of your information.

  1. This step should be done in your main parent account
  2. Start the A2P process from various places in your account
  3. Create a customer profile by filling the form
  4. When asked about “Primary” vs. “Non-Primary,” pick “Primary”

Step 2: Brand Registration

This step is to submit your organization/business information to TCR, which reviews and cross-examines your company to make sure it is legitimate.

  1. Start the brand registration process.
  2. When asked about brand type, “Low-volume standard” is fine for staging. The Low-volume standard is approved easily but has lower thresholds. For Production, if your company is established and has a strong online presence (news, funding announcements, strong LinkedIn), definitely pick the Standard.
  3. Fill out the rest of the form. This will submit your information to TCR for review.

Step 2.1: After Brand Review

Understanding Trust Scores

In the previous step, you pick the type of brand you register. This impacts your Trust Score and SMS limits:

Factors Affecting Trust Scores

Make sure your business information online and in the brand registration, such as operating business name and address, matches as much as possible - e.g. can the reviewer easily find your LinkedIn based on your company name?

Step 3: Campaign Registration

This part is about communicating what you use the notifications for, explaining your opt-in and opt-out process, and providing sample SMS messages.

  1. Start the process

  2. Select the right campaign use case based on your needs

    • Sole Proprietor Brands have only one generic campaign use case to choose from
    • The Low Volume Brands have many use cases available, but the “Low Volumed Mixed” or “Account Notification” probably best suits you since it allows you to do a variety of things.
    • You can start with a mix campaign type if you are a standard brand. Later, you can separate your usage into different campaigns if necessary. You can also perform more campaign/brand registrations later.

  3. As part of the campaign registration, you can also create a service which makes things easier in the next step.

  4. Answering “Campaign description”

    • Ensure you describe the context (business/app, end-users)
    • Describe the workflow of how users receive SMS from the very beginning, e.g. how users are signed up to your service, how they provide their phone number, when and why they would receive SMS, how they can opt-out, etc.
    • Describe the expected volume, ensuring it falls within your brand SMS limit.

  5. How to answer “How do end-users consent to receive messages?”

    • This step is the most important step. Ensure to include:

    • Describe how users provide “explicit” consent to receive SMS communication. Examples:

      • This could be in your privacy policy wording that users agree to by checking the “I Agree” box during sign-up.
      • A separate checkbox is included in your signup or inside your application to opt in to receive SMS messages.

    • Provide screenshots or copies of the opt-in texts even if your application is not live. The Twilio team carefully reviews this material to ensure you have explicit consent from the user to contact them.

    • Describe how users provide their phone numbers.

    • Describe how users can opt-out. It’s also best to include your opt-out process in your privacy policy.

After your campaign is reviewed and verified, you can move to the next and final step.

If your campaign is not verified, there are usually very useful comments accompanied to help you address the gap and resubmit.

Step 4: Phone Numbers and Services

  1. If you haven’t already, buy a phone number under Twilio’s “Phone Numbers” product
  2. Go to Messaging / Services and select your newly created service from the previous step.
  3. “Add Sender” and connect your phone number to this service
Congrats… you can now send SMS!

Common Issues and Reddit Questions

Based on discussions from developer communities, here are additional pain points and their solutions:

“My messages are getting filtered even after registration”

This usually happens because:

Solution: Ensure your messages include opt-out instructions, avoid URL shorteners, and stay within your daily limits.

”Registration keeps getting rejected”

Common rejection reasons:

Solution: Double-check all information against your official company registration documents. Add clear privacy policy and terms of service to your website.

”Do I need to re-register for each phone number?”

No. Phone numbers are linked to Campaigns through Services. Once your Brand and Campaign are approved, you can add multiple phone numbers to the same Service.

”What about toll-free numbers?”

Toll-free numbers (1-800, 1-888, etc.) have a separate verification process that’s generally faster and simpler than 10DLC. However, they come with different pricing and capabilities. Pingram can help you choose the right approach for your use case.

”Can I use the same registration for SMS and MMS?”

Yes, A2P 10DLC registration covers both SMS and MMS messaging under the same Brand and Campaign.

Troubleshooting

Even if you are not a current customer, reach out to us to ask questions. Our staff are experts in A2P 10DLC registration since we handle the registration for all of our customers at Pingram.

Key Takeaways

  1. You can skip all this and use Pingram - we handle A2P 10DLC automatically
  2. Most companies get one or more rejections. So, start the process as early as possible (or let us handle it).
  3. Maintain compliance to avoid registration being revoked.
  4. Monitor your SMS usage to avoid reaching the limit.
  5. For multi-tenant platforms, Pingram’s Auto A2P feature scales with your business.
  6. Be a good internet citizen and don’t spam.