Comparisons
Twilio pricing in Kenya: voice, SMS and what to use instead
10 November 2026 · 8 min read
The short answer
On 10 November 2026, Twilio’s Kenya pages list $0.3933 (KES 51.10) a minute to call a mobile, $0.0239 (KES 3.11) a minute to receive a call, $0.3134 (KES 40.72) per SMS segment and $16 (KES 2,079) a month for a local number. SautiDesk charges KES 3.00 a minute outgoing, nothing incoming and KES 500 a month per number.
Twilio prices voice and SMS to Kenya in US dollars by usage, and everything an agent sees is code your developer writes. For one Kenyan number with 1,000 minutes called out and 1,000 minutes received in a month, Twilio’s pages add up to $433.20, about KES 56,286, before any agent screen. The same number and calls on SautiDesk or Sautikit are KES 3,500, and five people on SautiDesk Basic with the finished desk are KES 8,500.
What Twilio charges for Kenyan voice and SMS
Twilio publishes a Kenya page for voice and another for SMS, both marked as current as of October 2026 and read on 10 November 2026. Prices are in US dollars. The shilling figures use KES 129.93 to the dollar, so they move with the exchange rate.
| Line | Twilio | SautiDesk and Sautikit |
|---|---|---|
| Call a Kenyan mobile number | $0.3933 (KES 51.10) a minute | KES 3.00 a minute (KES 0.05 per second) |
| Call a Kenyan local number | $0.3779 (KES 49.10) a minute | KES 3.00 a minute (KES 0.05 per second) |
| Receive a call on a local number | $0.0239 (KES 3.11) a minute | Free |
| Local number, each month | $16.00 (KES 2,079) | KES 500 |
| Send an SMS to Kenya | $0.3134 (KES 40.72) per segment | KES 0.30 an SMS from your own sender ID (SautiDesk) |
Twilio’s voice page quotes per-minute rates and states no billing increment, so check how a short call is rounded before you budget. SautiDesk bills each second after the call is answered: a 25-second call is KES 1.25.
Twilio’s SMS page adds that text messages are charged per segment, that additional carrier fees may apply, and that a message ending in a failed status carries a processing fee of $0.001 (KES 0.13). A long message is several segments, so the per-segment price is multiplied for it.
A worked month on one Kenyan number
Take one customer line with 1,000 minutes of outgoing calls to Kenyan mobile numbers and 1,000 minutes of incoming calls in a month. On SautiDesk and Sautikit 1,000 outgoing minutes are 60,000 seconds at KES 0.05, which is KES 3,000.
| Line | Twilio | SautiDesk and Sautikit |
|---|---|---|
| Number | $16.00 (KES 2,079) | KES 500 |
| 1,000 minutes out to mobiles | 1,000 × $0.3933 = $393.30 (KES 51,101) | 60,000 seconds × KES 0.05 = KES 3,000 |
| 1,000 minutes in | 1,000 × $0.0239 = $23.90 (KES 3,105) | KES 0 |
| Total for the month | $433.20 (about KES 56,286) | KES 3,500 |
The Twilio total is the number and the calls only. It does not include an agent screen, a list of open customers or a rule for who answers next, which are covered further down.
Twilio support is a separate charge
Twilio’s support plans page lists paid plans that are priced as a share of what you spend with Twilio, with a minimum.
| Plan | Price | Guaranteed first response, business-critical issue |
|---|---|---|
| Production | Greater of $250 (KES 32,483) or 4% of monthly spend | 3 business hours |
| Business | Greater of $1,500 (KES 194,895) or 6% of monthly spend | 1 hour, 24/7 |
SautiDesk’s pricing page lists plans, numbers and usage rates and no support charge. Training and set-up help is KES 2,500 an hour.
Kenyan numbers and sender names
Twilio’s Kenya voice page lists local numbers. Its Kenya SMS page lists one phone number type, International Numbers, described as numbers that send and receive SMS from outside the country. A Kenyan business that wants customers to see its own name on an SMS has to look at that page and confirm how it works before it builds on it.
On SautiDesk you pick a Kenyan business number inside the product at KES 500 a month. SMS go out under your business name for KES 0.30 each once you have a sender ID, which is KES 15,000 once for Safaricom and Airtel together. Notification SMS under the shared sender name are free, and so are messages your customers send in on the two-way shortcode.
What a team builds on top of Twilio
The Kenya page is for Programmable Voice, which is an API. The table sets what a support team needs next to where it comes from.
| The team needs | On Twilio, a developer builds | In SautiDesk |
|---|---|---|
| Agents answer calls | A softphone for the browser or an app | Agents answer in the browser with a headset |
| One history per customer | A database that matches calls, SMS and chats to a person | One ticket per customer across every channel |
| Callers wait for a free agent | Queue and routing logic | Call queues: 1 on Basic, as many as you need on Pro |
| A missed call gets a callback | Missed-call detection and an owner field | A missed call opens a ticket with an owner |
| WhatsApp and web chat | Two more integrations and an inbox for them | A shared WhatsApp inbox and web chat on both plans |
| Supervisor reports | Queries and dashboards | Reports by agent, channel and disposition on Pro |
A worked month for five people on SautiDesk Basic
Take five people answering one number, with the same 1,000 minutes of outgoing calls. Incoming calls cost nothing.
| Line | SautiDesk Basic |
|---|---|
| Five people | 5 × KES 1,000 = KES 5,000 |
| One phone number | KES 500 |
| 1,000 outgoing minutes | 60,000 seconds × KES 0.05 = KES 3,000 |
| Incoming calls | KES 0 |
| Total for the month | KES 8,500 |
That is the number, the calls and the finished desk for five people, with calls, WhatsApp, SMS, email and web chat on one ticket per customer. The price calculator works out the total for your own team.
Developers: use Sautikit for the voice API
If your developer wants a voice API and not a finished desk, Sautikit is the Kenyan voice API that SautiDesk runs on. A number is KES 500 a month with no set-up fee, incoming calls are free, outgoing calls are KES 3.00 a minute billed per second, and AI voice agents are KES 4.00 a minute on top of the call rate. See Sautikit pricing.
Start on SautiDesk
- Pick Basic at KES 1,000 per person a month, or Pro at KES 3,000 if you want reports, the live floor view and campaigns.
- Add your people. Each person is one seat, billed by the month.
- Choose a Kenyan number for calls and SMS at KES 500 a month.
- Connect your WhatsApp Business number and your support email address.
- Top up your balance by M-Pesa or card, then answer your first call in the browser.
See the full list of plans and usage rates on the pricing page. For what the other desks cost, read Zendesk vs Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk vs SautiDesk and Africa’s Talking vs SautiDesk.
Exchange rate used on this page, as of 10 November 2026: 1 US dollar = KES 129.93. Twilio bills in dollars, so the shilling figures move with the rate.