Country code +27

Sending SMS to South Africa

South Africa pairs a mature mobile market with POPIA, which took full effect recently and reshaped how marketing lists are handled. Direct marketing to someone who is not an existing customer generally requires prior consent, and the regulator has been willing to act.

Traffic

What businesses send in South Africa

Banking and insurance alerts

Sent the instant the triggering event happens — trusted for anything time-sensitive tied to money.

Retail promotions

Needs clear consent and a working opt-out — the requirements above apply directly to this traffic.

Utility and municipal notices

Typically exempt from marketing consent rules, but still expected to identify the sender clearly.

Dialling

How to dial South Africa

Every part of the number, laid out separately, then the same thing written the way an API expects it.

+Exit

27Country code

6X/7X/8X XXX XXXXNational number

+27 — +27 6X/7X/8X XXX XXXX — mobile numbers drop the leading 0 in E.164.

From abroad, replace your exit code with +, then 27, then the national number — dropping the national trunk prefix if the country uses one (a leading 0 in most, though not in the +1 numbering plan). Store numbers in E.164 (+27…) and they work from any country and any API.

At a glance

South Africa by the numbers

The figures below come from public country data and set the context for how much SMS traffic South Africa actually carries.

+27

South Africa country code

ISOZA / ZAF

49,000,000

People

1,219,912

Area km²

353.9 Billion

GDP (USD)

Sender ID

How your name appears in South Africa

What shows up in the recipient’s inbox, and what has to be true before it can.

9:41

SMSLOCAL

Text Message

Your verification code is 4172. Valid for 10 minutes.

now

Delivered on +27

Sender ID rules for +27

Alphanumeric sender IDs are supported and widely used.

Number format+27 6X/7X/8X XXX XXXX — mobile numbers drop the leading 0 in E.164.

Delivers across every major network in South Africa: Vodacom, MTN South Africa, Cell C, Telkom Mobile.

What people send most: Banking and insurance alerts · Retail promotions · Utility and municipal notices.

Message length: under the standard SMS encoding, a segment typically holds 160 GSM-7 characters, or 70 once a message uses Unicode — Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, emoji. Longer messages split into several segments automatically and are billed per segment; exact limits are confirmed for South Africa as part of onboarding.

Before you send