Africa's Talking
performance benchmarks
Browse Africa's Talking's observed SMS API response time, error rates, and incident history over the last 90 days.
Live performance metrics
Real-world performance data from messages sent through Knock
| Message volume | Growth | Status page updates (30d) | Status page updates (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|
<1M | 6th of 7 ↓ | 0 | 0 |
From January 2nd to April 2nd, Knock routed <1M messages through Africa's Talking. For adoption, Africa's Talking ranks 6th of 7 providers based on new channel connections, with adoption slowing over the period. Africa's Talking reported no status page incidents over the last 90 days.
Response time
Response time measures how long Africa's Talking takes to accept an SMS API request from Knock, including connection overhead and any automatic retries. Lower values mean faster message hand-off.
| Median (p50) | p90 | p95 | p99 |
|---|---|---|---|
320ms | 361ms | 396ms | 528ms |
From January 2nd to April 2nd, Africa's Talking averaged a daily median response time (p50) of 320ms across all days in the range, meaning half of all SMS API requests on a typical day complete in under 320ms. The 99th percentile averaged 528ms, with a peak daily p99 of 31903ms. This is slightly higher than some providers, which may reflect additional processing Africa's Talking performs on message acceptance.
Error rate
Error rate tracks the ratio of 5xx responses and timeouts to total SMS API requests. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
| Avg. daily error rate | Highest daily rate | Peak error date | Zero-error days | Days above 0.01% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
0.16% | 20.37% | Jan 14 | 89 | 2 |
From January 2nd to April 2nd, Africa's Talking averaged a 0.16% daily error rate for 5xx responses and timeouts, with the highest single-day error rate reaching 20.37%. This is slightly above average compared to other providers on Knock, though still within acceptable thresholds for production SMS delivery. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
About these metrics: Data represents messages sent through Knock to Africa's Talking during the specified period. Response time measures time from Knock to provider acceptance. Error rate includes only provider 5xx responses and timeouts.
Recent Africa's Talking incidents
Recent status page incidents for Africa's Talking
No incidents reported in the last 90 days
Pricing calculator
| Plan | Per message | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | $0.03 | $2,960 |
Free sandbox for testing. Production SMS pricing varies by country. US outbound messages cost approximately $0.0296 per message. African destinations range from $0.001 to $0.05 per message depending on the country.
US carrier surcharges
All US A2P SMS sent via 10DLC incurs mandatory carrier fees on top of the provider base rate. Most providers pass these through at cost.
| Carrier | Outbound SMS | Inbound SMS |
|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 | $0.0025 |
| AT&T | $0.003 | $0.003 |
| Verizon | $0.004 | $0.00 |
| US Cellular | $0.005 | $0.00 |
Compare Africa's Talking with other providers
About Africa's Talking
Africa's Talking is a Pan-African communications platform with deep carrier integrations across the continent.
Pros
- Best-in-class coverage across African countries with local carrier relationships
- Competitive per-message pricing for African destinations
- Free sandbox environment for development and testing
- Supports USSD, voice, and airtime in addition to SMS
Cons
- Limited coverage outside of Africa
- Smaller developer ecosystem and fewer SDKs than global providers
- US messaging rates are higher than domestic-focused providers
Frequently asked questions
What is Africa's Talking?
Africa's Talking is an SMS provider commonly used for sms notifications for african markets, two-factor authentication across africa, bulk messaging campaigns. Africa's Talking is a Pan-African communications platform with deep carrier integrations across the continent.
How much does Africa's Talking cost?
Free sandbox for testing. Production SMS pricing varies by country. US outbound messages cost approximately $0.0296 per message. African destinations range from $0.001 to $0.05 per message depending on the country. Africa's Talking does not offer a permanent free tier.
How fast is Africa's Talking?
Based on real-world data from messages sent through Knock, Africa's Talking accepts SMS API requests with a median response time of 320ms (p50) and 528ms at the 99th percentile.
How reliable is Africa's Talking?
From January 2nd to April 2nd, Africa's Talking showed an error rate of 0.16% for 5xx responses and timeouts across <1M messages sent through Knock. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
What are the pros and cons of Africa's Talking?
Key strengths include best-in-class coverage across african countries with local carrier relationships and competitive per-message pricing for african destinations. On the other hand, limited coverage outside of africa and smaller developer ecosystem and fewer sdks than global providers.
Does Africa's Talking work with Knock?
Yes. Knock has a native Africa's Talking integration that enables you to send SMS notifications through Africa's Talking as part of a cross-channel workflow. You can combine Africa's Talking with other channels like in-app feeds, push, email, and Slack from a single API call.
Use Africa's Talking with Knock
Knock enables you to integrate Africa's Talking alongside other notification channels, manage templates, and orchestrate cross-channel workflows from a single platform.