Short Codes
The premium tier: 5–6 digit dedicated numbers with the highest carrier trust, least filtering, and strongest brand recognition — leased, never owned.
A Short Code is a 5- or 6-digit number used for high-volume A2P messaging. It is the premium tier of US texting: the highest carrier trust and deliverability, the least content filtering, and the strongest brand association. It is also the slowest and most expensive to set up — provisioning runs 8–12 weeks and the lease costs hundreds to over a thousand dollars a month.
Dedicated only — shared codes are banned
Shared short codes — one code used by many brands — were banned June 1, 2021. The reason was attribution: when abuse came from a multi-brand code, carriers couldn’t tie it to a single sender, so they couldn’t enforce. Only dedicated short codes remain, either:
- Random — system-assigned, cheaper.
- Vanity — self-selected and memorable (e.g., a code that spells your brand), more expensive.
You don’t buy a short code; you lease it. Codes are leased through the Somos U.S. Short Code Registry at usshortcodes.com. Somos is the neutral administrator that manages short-code availability and leasing (the same body behind toll-free administration).
The throughput correction
Even at ~100 MPS, a short code is the highest-throughput option — well above 10DLC’s Trust-Score-tiered rates and toll-free’s 3 MPS default (or ~150 MPS high-throughput ceiling).
Where short codes fit
Short codes are built for enterprise / high-volume senders: large-scale marketing, 2FA at scale, and time-critical alerts where deliverability and brand recognition justify the cost and the 8–12 week lead time. For smaller or faster launches, a verified toll-free number or 10DLC registration is usually the better trade.
Start here
- Leasing guide — the lease → program brief → carrier provisioning flow, the 8–12 week timeline, and registry vs reseller pricing.
To weigh short codes against the other two number types, see the decision matrix.