Registration gets your campaign approved. Throughput determines whether your messages actually arrive when they’re supposed to — and it’s where messaging programs quietly break at scale. A campaign can be perfectly compliant and still fail its users because it hit a limit no one planned for.
Two different limits: TPS and daily caps
Throughput is governed by two separate constraints, and confusing them is a common mistake. TPS — messages per second, also called your velocity limit — is a rate limit that caps how fast you can send to a given carrier. Daily brand caps, most visibly T-Mobile’s, limit how many messages a brand can send in a day regardless of speed — and here’s the part that catches people: T-Mobile enforces that cap at the brand level, across every provider carrying your traffic. What you send through Tychron and what you send through any other messaging partner both count against one shared daily number, so splitting volume between providers doesn’t create two allowances — it draws down the same one. You can sit under your per-second rate all day and still hit the brand’s daily ceiling.
What happens when you exceed a limit
Cross a carrier’s throughput limit and messages don’t simply wait politely. Depending on the network you see rate-limit errors, queuing, delivery delays, and — for traffic that keeps pushing — filtering. The damage lands hardest exactly where it hurts most: login-time two-factor codes, real-time alerts, and other bursty, time-sensitive traffic that can’t absorb a delay.
How your ceiling is set
Per-carrier throughput comes from your brand’s trust score and your declared use case, established at registration. A higher trust score and a well-matched use case raise the ceiling; a mismatched or under-declared use case caps it early. If you need more headroom, that’s where the work starts.
Dynamic carrier throughput
Here’s where the provider you choose actually matters. Tychron has run dynamic carrier throughput since 2021: our platform automatically sends your messages to each US carrier and known Canadian carrier based on the throughput approved for your campaign, so you never exceed your velocity limits. You hand us the burst, and we pace it to exactly what each network will accept — you get delivery instead of a wall of rejection errors, and it’s included, not a premium add-on. We announced this publicly in October 2021 — on LinkedIn and Facebook — and detailed the mechanics in Simplifying Messaging: Rate Limits, well before the approach became fashionable. Plenty of providers still do the opposite: they pass carrier throttling straight back to you as errors and leave you to build the pacing logic yourself.
Designing for throughput
- Spread predictable bursts where you can, instead of firing everything at the top of the hour.
- Prioritize time-sensitive traffic like one-time passcodes over bulk sends.
- Right-size your use case so your ceiling matches your real volume.
- Watch delivery per carrier, not just in aggregate — limits are network-specific.
Frequently asked questions
How do I raise my TPS?
Improve your brand trust score, make sure your use case matches your traffic, and build a clean sending history. For a real step up, go through external third-party brand vetting and then apply the new limits to your campaign, so the higher throughput actually takes effect. Throughput rises as carriers see consistent, compliant volume — and a stronger vetting score lifts the ceiling directly.
Does throughput pacing delay urgent messages?
Pacing applies when you’re sending faster than a carrier will accept — and time-sensitive traffic can be prioritized within it, so one-time passcodes aren’t stuck behind a bulk campaign. The alternative, sending over the limit, is what actually delays them, as rejections and retries.
Is dynamic carrier throughput an extra charge?
No — it’s included. Pacing your traffic to each carrier’s real limits is part of how delivery is supposed to work, not a feature to upsell.
Does throughput affect what I pay?
Throughput itself isn’t a line item, but the surcharges on the messages you send do vary by carrier and message type — so how and where your volume lands still shows up on the invoice.
Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Carrier rules, CTIA guidelines, and 10DLC and toll-free requirements change often and are enforced at the discretion of the carriers and their vetting partners. Tychron makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness and accepts no liability for actions taken in reliance on it — confirm current requirements with the relevant authorities and your own counsel before acting.