Why a Short Urdu SMS Becomes Two Messages, and How to Keep It to One

Published by Shoaib Ahmed · November 2026

A shopkeeper types a 36-character order update in Urdu and it goes out as one SMS. A school types a 106-character notice in Urdu and it goes out as two. The same notice in Roman Urdu would have been one. The difference is not how long the message is, but which alphabet it is written in. This guide shows the rule, real examples counted by our counter, and ways to keep an Urdu message to a single SMS.

The rule in two lines

Encoding	One SMS holds	Each part when a message is split	Used when
GSM	160	153	every character is in the standard GSM set: plain English letters, digits and common signs
Unicode	70	67	any character outside that set, including every Urdu letter

The choice is made for the whole message. One character outside the GSM set switches all of it to Unicode. The parts of a long message carry a small header so that the network can join them again, which is why each part holds a little less than a single message.

Real examples

Message	Text	Characters	Encoding	SMS
Urdu order update	آپ کا آرڈر کل تک پہنچ جائے گا۔ شکریہ	36	Unicode	1
Same in English	Your order will reach you tomorrow. Thank you.	46	GSM	1
Same in Roman Urdu	Aap ka order kal tak pohanch jayega. Shukriya.	46	GSM	1
School notice in Urdu	محترم والدین! کل اسکول میں والدین اور اساتذہ کی ملاقات صبح دس بجے ہو گی۔ براہِ مہربانی وقت پر تشریف لائیں۔	106	Unicode	2
Same notice in Roman Urdu	Mohtaram walidain! Kal school mein walidain aur asatiza ki mulaqat subah das bajay hogi. Barah-e-meharbani waqt par tashreef layen.	131	GSM	1
English parent message	Dear parent, school will remain closed tomorrow due to heavy rain. Classes will resume on Monday as usual.	106	GSM	1
The same, plus one Urdu word (شکریہ)	Dear parent, school will remain closed tomorrow due to heavy rain. Classes will resume on Monday as usual. شکریہ	112	Unicode	2

Two things stand out. A message that fits in one SMS in English needs 2 after a single Urdu word is added, because the whole message becomes Unicode. And the school notice costs one SMS in Roman Urdu but two in Urdu script.

Hidden switches to Unicode

Some characters switch a message to Unicode without looking like “foreign” letters:

Curly quotes and dashes. Word and many phone keyboards turn a straight apostrophe into a curly one. “Don’t forget: fees are due on Friday.” is GSM with a straight apostrophe and Unicode with a curly one, so its limit falls from 160 to 70. The same happens with an en dash: Open 9-5 is GSM, Open 9–5 is Unicode.
Urdu punctuation. The Urdu comma ، and the marks ۔ and ؟ are outside the GSM set, even in an otherwise English message.
Emoji. An emoji switches the message to Unicode and uses two units of the 70.
A few GSM characters count double. [ ] { } \ ^ ~ | and € stay in GSM but use two units each. “Items [3] {ready}” is 17 characters but 21 units.

How to keep an Urdu message to one SMS

Count before you send. Paste the message into the counter and open SMS length. It shows the encoding and the number of parts.
Cut what the reader does not need. The 106-character school notice becomes کل صبح دس بجے اسکول میں والدین اور اساتذہ کی ملاقات ہے۔ وقت پر آئیں۔ (68 characters, 1 SMS) by dropping the greeting and the long courtesy phrase. Keep the facts: when, where and what to do.
Keep one script in one message. Do not add a single Urdu word, even a “شکریہ”, to an English message: it switches the whole message to Unicode and cuts its limit from 160 to 70.
If it really needs two, plan the split. Two separate Unicode messages hold up to 140 characters (70 each), while one long message split into parts holds 134 (67 each). Ending the first message at a full stop also means each one makes sense on its own.
Choose Roman Urdu only where it is acceptable. It is usually the cheapest way to send Urdu words, as the school example shows, but it is harder for some readers. It suits a quick reminder to staff better than a formal notice to parents. That is a judgment, not a rule.

What it costs

Many providers bill each part separately, so a message of two parts is charged as two. Some gateways count a little differently from the standard, so test with your provider and read its price list. The limits in this article apply to SMS only: WhatsApp has no such limit.

Questions people ask

Does an Urdu SMS always cost double?

No. An Urdu message of up to 70 characters is one SMS. The cost grows once it passes that limit, because the next limit is 134 for two parts.

Why is the limit 67 and not 70 for long messages?

Each part of a long message carries a header that tells the phone how to put the parts together. The header uses part of the space, so each part holds 67 characters instead of 70.