Send SMS from a computer

Three ways to text from a computer

Sending SMS from a computer is a choice of three methods, and each method suits a different person in the business.

The web app. You log in through any current browser, with nothing to install. Upload a list or type numbers, then send now or schedule.

Email to SMS. You write an email in Outlook or Gmail, addressed to the recipient's mobile number at the provider's domain, and the provider sends it as a text. The email to SMS page on this site compares how each provider's version works.

Your own software. A CRM, booking or practice system sends texts through a built-in integration or through the provider's SMS API. This way suits the person who works in that system all day.

Whichever way you send, the next question is what each text costs.

What 1,000 texts from a computer cost

At 1,000 texts a month the bill runs from $35 at Mobile Message, the cheapest among providers billing in Australian dollars, to $140 at Telstra and Bulk SMS Australia, with $70 at the median. Clickatell bills in US dollars and costs less at landed cost. Every rate in the table above excludes GST, as the providers' pricing pages state.

The rate stays the same across all three methods. Each provider's pricing page charges one rate whether a text goes from the web app, by email or through the API.

On top of the per-message bill, most providers charge a monthly fee for a dedicated reply number. 2 of the 21 providers in the table above include the first dedicated number free. Budget for the fee at the others.

That number matters for more than the bill, because it is also where the answers come back.

Seeing replies on the computer

A sender ID cannot receive replies, ACMA says, so every reply needs a number to land on.

Each provider's help page tells you where its replies land. SMS Broadcast shows replies in its web inbox and in the inbox of the email that sent the text. Cellcast and ClickSend return a reply to the email inbox that sent it. Textmagic shows replies in its Messenger and delivers them as emails.

Decide who in your business reads replies before the first send.

One group of senders has extra reason to settle this now, and it is the group still on Telstra Desktop Messaging.

If you used Telstra Desktop Messaging

Telstra's customer terms record that Telstra Desktop Messaging, which sends SMS and MMS from a PC, is not available to new customers from 30 June 2025. Existing customers may continue on existing terms until further notice, the same terms say.

A replacement needs a web app or the email method, replies that land on the computer, and a number or a registered sender name. Since 1 July 2026, a sender ID not registered on the SMS Sender ID Register shows "Unverified" in place of the name, ACMA says. The message is still delivered, and registration goes through each telco or message provider you send with.

Whatever replaces it will be a business service, and a business service is not a copy of your phone on a bigger screen.

A business service, not your phone

Apps that mirror a personal phone's texts on a computer send from that phone's own number and plan. A business SMS service sends from the business's own number or sender name, keeps a record of every message, and handles opt-outs.

The Spam Act 2003 requires consent and a working unsubscribe for every marketing text, whichever tool sends it, and ACMA says the duty sits with your business.