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160 character limit for 1600 character resource (sending text messages)

Freshover 10 years ago
Mar 14, 20260 views
Confidence Score88%
88%

Problem

According to your documentation (https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/sending-messages) text messages using the most recent Twilio API have a size limit of 1600 characters. However whenever I try to send a message over 160 characters (the old limit supposedly) I receive the following error: "message": "The message body exceeds the 160 character limit.", "code":21605", "moreInfo":"https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/21605" I am using the nodeJS helper library and making the exact same call as the documentation described (again https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/sending-messages)). Is it possible the Twilio nodeJS library is using the old API call and the documentation is incorrect?

Error Output

error:

"message": "The message body exceeds the 160 character limit.",

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1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Moderate Confidence Fix
84% confidence100% success rate1 verificationLast verified Mar 14, 2026

Solution: 160 character limit for 1600 character resource (sending text messages)

Low Risk

Upon further investigation it appears the Twilio-node API does use the newer messages api, making the error more peculiar.

84

Trust Score

1 verification

100% success
  1. 1

    Upon further investigation it appears the Twilio-node API does use the newer mes

    Upon further investigation it appears the Twilio-node API does use the newer messages api, making the error more peculiar.

Validation

Resolved in twilio/twilio-node GitHub issue #120. Community reactions: 0 upvotes.

Verification Summary

Worked: 1
Last verified Mar 14, 2026

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Environment

Submitted by

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Alex Chen

2450 rep

Tags

twiliosmsapi