Amazon SNS SMS 通知到世界其他地区（非美国）计费的可变定价

Question

As per AWS SNS documentation SMS text Transaction messages cost is in following link

• https://aws.amazon.com/sns/faqs/#SMS_pricing
• https://aws.amazon.com/sns/sms-pricing/

Now when i can see my bill found SMS cost is very high on AWS found AWS has "Variable Pricing for Amazon SNS SMS Notifications to Rest Of World (non-US)"

• https://www.devconinc.com/pricing/GSA-IT-Schedule-70/cloud/US-AmazonSNS.htm

When this cost will be applicable and how to avoid this "Variable Pricing for Amazon SNS SMS Notifications to Rest Of World (non-US)" ?

Answer 1

These pricing is only indicative. https://aws.amazon.com/sns/sms-pricing/

The prices below are provided for guidance only, and change frequently .

Why is the price not fixed?

AWS has to contract this service to a telecom service provider. The pricing of which is based on agreements between international companies (ie the telecom giants). You see for example, in my country, the telecom provider makes promotions and discounts. There are promotions that run for a short period (ie a day), and a long period (ie years or since their inception!). As per their T&C, they can change the price with a short notice or even without notice.

When will this cost apply?

If you send a SMS massage, you are charged SMS fees. On top of that, you are charged Amazon SNS fees (if you are outside the free tier)

How to embrace SMS charges?

The way you did it was correct... send a message, wait 24 hours, check your usage... then plan accordingly

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sms_stats_usage.html

It takes 24 hours for the SMS usage report to be available in the S3 bucket.

If you decided to use this service, keep monitoring for price change regularly.... so you adapt your plan

What are other options?

SMS is only one option in SNS. SMS can only be sent through telecom companies (both sending and receiving). It is very costly to run a telecom company for the compliance and regulatory matters they have to deal with. Tell me how much it costs to run a webserver, in contrary. Emails and mobile-app-push are sent through servers... virtually there is no regulatory body.

I suggest you communicate with your users through the means that are inline with your/their expectations. If you decide so, then someone has to pay for SMS. No wonder, emails and mobile-app-push became more common!