Telnyx vs Twilio
Compare Telnyx and Twilio based on observed SMS API performance, features, and pricing
Live performance comparison
Real-world performance data from messages sent through Knock
| Provider | Message volume | Growth | Status page updates (30d) | Status page updates (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1M | 3rd of 7 ↑ | 69 | 183 |
| 25M–100M | 1st of 7 ↓ | 25 | 25 |
From July 25th to October 23rd, Knock routed <1M messages through Telnyx and 25M–100M through Twilio. Telnyx reported 183 status page updates over the last 90 days, while Twilio reported 25.
Response time
Response time measures how long each provider takes to accept an SMS API request from Knock, including connection overhead and any automatic retries. Lower values mean faster message hand-off.
The chart above shows each provider's daily median response time (p50) from July 25th to October 23rd. The top-line number is an average of these daily values: Telnyx averaged 463ms compared to 118ms for Twilio. Telnyx's highest daily p50 was 704ms This peak coincided with a major incident reported on Telnyx's status page (Edge Compute StatefulActor deploys and invocations degraded).; Twilio's was 127ms. Twilio is 345ms faster at the median, which can add up at high volumes.
The 90th percentile (p90) captures the slowest 10% of requests, revealing how each provider handles moderate stress. Averaged across all days, Telnyx has a p90 of 788ms compared to 142ms for Twilio. The highest daily p90 was 1038ms for Telnyx and 151ms for Twilio. Twilio handles these slower requests 646ms faster, suggesting more consistent performance across the board.
The 99th percentile (p99) represents the long tail — the slowest 1% of requests. Averaged across all days, Telnyx reached 1128ms at p99 while Twilio reached 179ms. The highest daily p99 was 3509ms for Telnyx and 271ms for Twilio, indicating the worst-case response time during spikes or provider-side congestion. Twilio shows a tighter tail, which may matter for time-sensitive SMS notifications like one-time passwords or real-time alerts where even rare delays can impact user experience.
Error rate
Error rate tracks the ratio of 5xx responses and timeouts to total SMS API requests. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
| Provider | Avg. daily error rate | Highest daily rate | Peak error date | Zero-error days | Days above 0.01% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.02% | 0.55% | Aug 10 | 76 | 15 |
| 0.00% | 0.31% | Sep 1 | 90 | 1 |
Averaged across the date range, Telnyx shows a 0.02% daily error rate compared to 0.00% for Twilio. The highest single-day error rate was 0.55% for Telnyx and 0.31% for Twilio. Both providers show similar reliability levels, with error rates well within acceptable thresholds. Knock automatically retries failed requests to both providers, minimizing the impact of transient errors on end-user delivery.
About these metrics: Data represents messages sent through Knock during the specified period. Response time measures time from Knock to provider acceptance. Error rate includes only provider 5xx responses and timeouts.
Recent Telnyx incidents
Recent status page incidents for Telnyx
Started Oct 23, 2026 — Resolved Oct 23, 2026
Status: Resolved This issue has been resolved. AT&T provisioning is now flowing normally. Affected components NORAM (Operational)
Started Oct 23, 2026 — Resolved Oct 23, 2026
Status: Resolved This issue was mitigated 10/22 at 3:16 PM EDT
Started Oct 23, 2026 — Resolved Oct 23, 2026
Status: Complete Maintenance has completed Affected components Australia (Operational)
Ongoing since Oct 23, 2026
Status: Scheduled The Wireless team will upgrade the software on our roaming gateways in our Australian core site to improve stability. The gateways will be upgraded one at a time. Devices whose data session is on a gateway being upgraded may briefly lose their connection and reconnect automatically; any disruption is not expected to last more than 5 minutes. Affected users are in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Affected components Programmable Wireless (Under maint
Ongoing since Oct 23, 2026
Status: Scheduled Our Telephony Engineers will be performing an update on our Voice Services servers across all regions Impact: This update is not expected to disrupt service. Action Required: If you experience any audio issues or dropped calls during this maintenance window, please report them immediately to Telnyx Support Affected components Montreal, Canada (Under maintenance) San Jose, CA (Under maintenance) Amsterdam, Netherlands (Under maintenance) Frankfurt, Germa
Recent Twilio incidents
Recent status page incidents for Twilio
Ongoing since Nov 24, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 23, 20:00 PST - Nov 24, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:20 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 23 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 24 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Nov 19, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 18, 21:00 PST - Nov 19, 03:00 PST Sep 30, 16:04 PDT Scheduled - Our SMS carrier partner in the United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 18 November 2026 at 21:00 PST until 19 November 2026 at 03:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from United States handsets via subset of United States long codes.
Ongoing since Nov 19, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 18, 20:00 PST - Nov 19, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:19 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 18 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 19 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Nov 17, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 16, 21:00 PST - Nov 17, 03:00 PST Sep 30, 13:34 PDT Scheduled - Our SMS carrier partner in the United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 16 November 2026 at 21:00 PST until 17 November 2026 at 03:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from United States handsets via subset of United States long codes.
Ongoing since Nov 12, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 11, 20:00 PST - Nov 12, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:19 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 11 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 12 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Pricing comparison
| Provider | Plan | Per message | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telnyx | Pay-as-you-go | $0.004 | $400 |
| Twilio | Pay-as-you-go | $0.0083 | $830 |
Telnyx
No free tier. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.004 per message. Inbound messages are $0.004 each. Phone numbers start at $1.00/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges are passed through at cost with no markup.
Twilio
Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate.
US carrier surcharges
All US A2P SMS sent via 10DLC incurs mandatory carrier fees on top of the provider base rate. Most providers pass these through at cost.
| Carrier | Outbound SMS | Inbound SMS | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 | $0.0025 | |
| AT&T | $0.003 | $0.003 | |
| Verizon | $0.004 | $0.00 | Increased May 1, 2026 |
| US Cellular | $0.005 | $0.00 | Increased Jan 19, 2026 |
Pros and cons
Telnyx
Twilio
Pros
- Among the lowest per-message rates for US domestic SMS
- Private IP network provides lower latency than providers using the public internet
- Transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing with no monthly minimums
- Strong developer experience with well-documented APIs and SDKs
Pros
- Largest ecosystem of SDKs, tutorials, and community resources for SMS
- Trusted by Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix for mission-critical messaging
- Comprehensive compliance tooling with opt-out management and content filtering
- Supports SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and voice in a single platform
Cons
- Smaller community and ecosystem compared to Twilio
- No free trial credits for new accounts
- Feature set is narrower than full-suite platforms like Twilio
Cons
- Per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts
- Phone number provisioning and compliance setup can be complex for new users
- Support response times vary by plan tier
Frequently asked questions
Telnyx is a developer-first communications platform with competitive pricing and a private IP network for reliable SMS delivery. Twilio is the most widely adopted cloud communications platform, offering SMS, MMS, voice, and WhatsApp through a unified API. Telnyx is best suited for cost-effective developer sms, while Twilio is geared toward full-featured sms at scale.
No free tier. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.004 per message. Inbound messages are $0.004 each. Phone numbers start at $1.00/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges are passed through at cost with no markup. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate. The best value depends on your sending volume and destination countries.
Based on real-world data from Knock, Telnyx has a median SMS API response time (p50) of 463ms compared to 118ms for Twilio.
From July 25th to October 23rd, Telnyx showed an error rate of 0.02% while Twilio showed 0.00%. Both rates are within acceptable thresholds for production SMS delivery, and Knock automatically retries failed requests to minimize the impact of transient errors.
On the Knock platform, Telnyx handled <1M messages from July 25th to October 23rd compared to 25M–100M for Twilio. Telnyx is currently trending upward in adoption, while Twilio is seeing declining volume.
Yes. Knock enables you to integrate multiple SMS providers into a single notification workflow. You can use Telnyx and Twilio side by side, route traffic between them, or migrate from one to the other without changing your application code.
Telnyx strengths include among the lowest per-message rates for us domestic sms and private ip network provides lower latency than providers using the public internet. Twilio strengths include largest ecosystem of sdks, tutorials, and community resources for sms and trusted by airbnb, uber, and netflix for mission-critical messaging. On the other hand, Telnyx drawbacks include smaller community and ecosystem compared to twilio, while Twilio drawbacks include per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts.
Use either provider with Knock
Knock enables you to integrate Telnyx, Twilio, or any combination of SMS providers into a single notification workflow. Manage templates, orchestrate cross-channel delivery, and switch providers without changing your code.