Telnyx vs Twilio
Compare Telnyx and Twilio based on observed SMS API performance, features, and pricing
Live performance comparison
Real-world performance data from messages sent through Knock
| Provider | Message volume | Growth | Status page updates (30d) | Status page updates (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1M–10M | 3rd of 7 ↑ | 60 | 157 |
| 100M–500M | 1st of 7 → | 25 | 25 |
From April 17th to July 16th, Knock routed 1M–10M messages through Telnyx and 100M–500M through Twilio. Telnyx reported 157 status page updates over the last 90 days, while Twilio reported 25.
Response time
Response time measures how long each provider takes to accept an SMS API request from Knock, including connection overhead and any automatic retries. Lower values mean faster message hand-off.
The chart above shows each provider's daily median response time (p50) from April 17th to July 16th. The top-line number is an average of these daily values: Telnyx averaged 280ms compared to 56ms for Twilio. Telnyx's highest daily p50 was 743ms; Twilio's was 76ms. Twilio is 224ms faster at the median, which can add up at high volumes.
The 90th percentile (p90) captures the slowest 10% of requests, revealing how each provider handles moderate stress. Averaged across all days, Telnyx has a p90 of 483ms compared to 120ms for Twilio. The highest daily p90 was 2245ms for Telnyx and 126ms for Twilio. Twilio handles these slower requests 363ms faster, suggesting more consistent performance across the board.
The 99th percentile (p99) represents the long tail — the slowest 1% of requests. Averaged across all days, Telnyx reached 1027ms at p99 while Twilio reached 159ms. The highest daily p99 was 5216ms for Telnyx and 252ms for Twilio, indicating the worst-case response time during spikes or provider-side congestion. Twilio shows a tighter tail, which may matter for time-sensitive SMS notifications like one-time passwords or real-time alerts where even rare delays can impact user experience.
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.
| Provider | Avg. daily error rate | Highest daily rate | Peak error date | Zero-error days | Days above 0.01% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.03% | 0.32% | May 28 | 31 | 33 |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | Apr 17 | 91 | 0 |
Averaged across the date range, Telnyx shows a 0.03% daily error rate compared to 0.00% for Twilio. The highest single-day error rate was 0.32% for Telnyx and 0.00% for Twilio. Both providers show similar reliability levels, with error rates well within acceptable thresholds. Knock automatically retries failed requests to both providers, minimizing the impact of transient errors on end-user delivery.
About these metrics: Data represents messages sent through Knock during the specified period. Response time measures time from Knock to provider acceptance. Error rate includes only provider 5xx responses and timeouts.
Recent Telnyx incidents
Recent status page incidents for Telnyx
Started Jul 16, 2026 — Resolved Jul 16, 2026
Status: Complete Maintenance has completed Affected components Programmable Wireless (Under maintenance)
Ongoing since Jul 16, 2026
Status: Monitoring There is a delay in processing of billing records. Affected components Programmable Wireless (Degraded performance)
Started Jul 16, 2026 — Resolved Jul 16, 2026
Status: Complete Maintenance has completed Affected components Dubai, UAE (Under maintenance) Toronto, Canada (Under maintenance) Chicago, IL (Under maintenance) London, UK (Under maintenance) Amsterdam, Netherlands (Under maintenance) Chennai, India (Under maintenance) Frankfurt, Germany (Under maintenance) Sydney, Australia (Under maintenance) San Jose, CA (Under maintenance) Ashburn, VA (Under maintenance)
Started Jul 15, 2026 — Resolved Jul 15, 2026
Status: Resolved Service restored Affected components Programmable Wireless (Operational)
Started Jul 15, 2026 — Resolved Jul 15, 2026
Status: Monitoring Our engineers have implemented a fix that seems to have resolved the issues. We're currently monitoring our services. Affected components US East Region (Operational) US Central Region (Operational) API Gateway (Operational) US West Region (Operational) MiniMax-M2.7 (Operational) GLM-5.1 (Operational) API V2 (Operational) API V1 (Operational) Usage Reports (Operational) Mission Control Portal UI (Operational) Kimi-K2.6 (Operational) Telnyx Storage (Opera
Recent Twilio incidents
Recent status page incidents for Twilio
Ongoing since Aug 27, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Aug 26, 20:00 PDT - Aug 27, 00:00 PDT Jul 6, 19:26 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 26 August 2026 at 20:00 PDT until 27 August 2026 at 00:00 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes and short codes.
Ongoing since Aug 22, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Aug 22, 14:00 - 21:00 PDT Jul 14, 19:15 PDT Scheduled - Twilio will conduct planned infrastructure maintenance on the London (IE1) PoP from August 22, 2026, at 14:00 PDT until August 22, 2026, at 21:00 PDT. Overall service impact is expected to be minimal; however, Authentication Services (Verify and/or Lookup) through the IE1/London edge location may experience a brief interruption or intermittent impact of up to 90 seconds during traffic reconvergence. Customers w
Ongoing since Aug 22, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Aug 22, 14:00 - 21:00 PDT Jul 14, 19:09 PDT Scheduled - Twilio will conduct planned infrastructure maintenance on the London (IE1) PoP from August 22, 2026, at 14:00 PDT until August 22, 2026, at 21:00 PDT. Overall service impact is expected to be minimal; however, Interconnect Services through the IE1/London edge location may experience a brief interruption or intermittent impact of up to 90 seconds during traffic reconvergence. Customers with redundant connections
Ongoing since Aug 22, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Aug 22, 14:00 - 21:00 PDT Jul 14, 05:43 PDT Scheduled - Twilio will conduct infrastructure maintenance on the London (IE1) PoP from August 22, 2026, at 14:00 PDT until August 22, 2026, at 21:00 PDT. Overall service impact is expected to be minimal. However, there could be intermittent message delivery failures and delivery delays of up to 90 seconds during traffic reconvergence for traffic routing to and from Twilio’s IE1/London edge location. Customers with redunda
Ongoing since Aug 22, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Aug 22, 14:00 - 21:00 PDT Jul 14, 05:38 PDT Scheduled - Twilio will conduct planned infrastructure maintenance on the London (IE1) PoP from August 22, 2026, at 14:00 PDT until August 22, 2026, at 21:00 PDT. Overall service impact is expected to be minimal; however, Voice traffic routing through the IE1/London edge location may experience a brief interruption or intermittent impact of up to 90 seconds during traffic reconvergence. Customers with redundant connections
Pricing comparison
| Provider | Plan | Per message | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telnyx | Pay-as-you-go | $0.004 | $400 |
| Twilio | Pay-as-you-go | $0.0083 | $830 |
Telnyx
No free tier. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.004 per message. Inbound messages are $0.004 each. Phone numbers start at $1.00/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges are passed through at cost with no markup.
Twilio
Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate.
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 |
Pros and cons
Telnyx
Twilio
Pros
- Among the lowest per-message rates for US domestic SMS
- Private IP network provides lower latency than providers using the public internet
- Transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing with no monthly minimums
- Strong developer experience with well-documented APIs and SDKs
Pros
- Largest ecosystem of SDKs, tutorials, and community resources for SMS
- Trusted by Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix for mission-critical messaging
- Comprehensive compliance tooling with opt-out management and content filtering
- Supports SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and voice in a single platform
Cons
- Smaller community and ecosystem compared to Twilio
- No free trial credits for new accounts
- Feature set is narrower than full-suite platforms like Twilio
Cons
- Per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts
- Phone number provisioning and compliance setup can be complex for new users
- Support response times vary by plan tier
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Telnyx and Twilio?
Telnyx is a developer-first communications platform with competitive pricing and a private IP network for reliable SMS delivery. Twilio is the most widely adopted cloud communications platform, offering SMS, MMS, voice, and WhatsApp through a unified API. Telnyx is best suited for cost-effective developer sms, while Twilio is geared toward full-featured sms at scale.
Which is cheaper, Telnyx or Twilio?
No free tier. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.004 per message. Inbound messages are $0.004 each. Phone numbers start at $1.00/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges are passed through at cost with no markup. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate. The best value depends on your sending volume and destination countries.
Which is faster, Telnyx or Twilio?
Based on real-world data from Knock, Telnyx has a median SMS API response time (p50) of 280ms compared to 56ms for Twilio.
Which is more reliable, Telnyx or Twilio?
From April 17th to July 16th, Telnyx showed an error rate of 0.03% while Twilio showed 0.00%. Both rates are within acceptable thresholds for production SMS delivery, and Knock automatically retries failed requests to minimize the impact of transient errors.
Which is more popular, Telnyx or Twilio?
On the Knock platform, Telnyx handled 1M–10M messages from April 17th to July 16th compared to 100M–500M for Twilio. Telnyx is currently trending upward in adoption, while Twilio volume has remained stable.
Can I use both Telnyx and Twilio together?
Yes. Knock enables you to integrate multiple SMS providers into a single notification workflow. You can use Telnyx and Twilio side by side, route traffic between them, or migrate from one to the other without changing your application code.
What are the main pros and cons of Telnyx vs Twilio?
Telnyx strengths include among the lowest per-message rates for us domestic sms and private ip network provides lower latency than providers using the public internet. Twilio strengths include largest ecosystem of sdks, tutorials, and community resources for sms and trusted by airbnb, uber, and netflix for mission-critical messaging. On the other hand, Telnyx drawbacks include smaller community and ecosystem compared to twilio, while Twilio drawbacks include per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts.
Use either provider with Knock
Knock enables you to integrate Telnyx, Twilio, or any combination of SMS providers into a single notification workflow. Manage templates, orchestrate cross-channel delivery, and switch providers without changing your code.