How to give your AI agent a number that can send texts
An AI agent can send and receive SMS once it has a dedicated US number. Bland's Agent Phone Plan adds one, with no per-text charge up to the plan's caps.
Your AI agent can send and receive texts once it has a phone number to text from. Here, AI agent means an assistant such as Claude that carries out tasks for you.
Bland supplies the number used for texts you request through our service. Our Agent Phone Plan gives your agent its own US number for calls and texts. It costs $9.99 for the first month, once per account owner, then $19.99 a month.
How do you set it up?#
You connect your agent to Bland once. In the Claude app, for example, you open Settings, choose Connectors, add Bland as a custom connector, which is how Claude reaches an outside service, and sign in to Bland. Then you start the plan from your Bland account, where you manage your account, and your agent gets its number. The steps for other agents are on the AI phone number plan page.
How does your agent send a text?#
Your agent hands Bland the recipient's number, the first message and what you want from the exchange, which we call the goal. Bland sends the text from your agent's number.
Bland also answers the replies. It runs its own texting AI on your agent's number, and that AI keeps the conversation going toward your goal while you get on with your day. If you'd rather a person picked it up partway through, Bland can pass the conversation to one. The texting page, AI phone number to text, covers how you read a conversation back and how you change the number's own texting instructions.
A goal is optional, though we'd always send one. Without a goal, Bland follows the number's saved texting instructions. A new number starts with generic instructions, so include the appointment request as the goal for that conversation.
For developers: the API request behind a text#
An API is a programming interface that software uses to send requests to Bland. Your API key is the credential that authorizes those requests. With the plan active, the request below sends a text, and its objective field supplies the goal.
curl -X POST https://api.bland.ai/v1/sms/send \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BLAND_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"user_number": "+14155550188",
"agent_number": "+12765550123",
"agent_message": "Hi, do you have an opening next Tuesday afternoon?",
"objective": "Confirm a Tuesday afternoon appointment and the price, then end the conversation."
}'- user_number: What it holds: The number you're texting
- agent_number: What it holds: Your agent's Bland number
- agent_message: What it holds: The first message Bland sends
- objective: What it holds: The goal Bland works toward when the person replies
Without an objective, Bland replies from the number's texting prompt. The hand_off_sms_conversation tool passes a conversation to a person.
Who should your agent text?#
Text people who have agreed to hear from you, one conversation at a time.
How many texts does the plan include?#
Up to 20 texts an hour and 100 a day leave your agent's number, and Bland's automatic replies count toward both. A text that comes in after you hit a cap still arrives. Bland just won't reply until the count resets, at the top of the hour for the hourly cap and at midnight UTC, the international time standard, for the daily one.
How does our plan compare with AgentLine's?#
Plan price and allowances#
AgentLine is another company that gives AI agents phone numbers for calls and texts. Its entry-level Individual plan is $20 a month for one US or Canada number, 100 minutes of calls and 400 texts sent and received in total, then $0.02 for each extra text and $0.12 for each extra minute.
For a new subscription, both plans cost $19.99 a month after Bland's first month if use stays under 400 texts and 100 minutes a month. Above either AgentLine allowance, it adds usage charges. Bland stays at $19.99 while your agent remains within our separate hourly and daily limits. Texts go to US and Canada numbers only.
Dividing the plan price by the text allowance#
Dividing AgentLine's whole $20 plan price by its 400-text allowance gives $0.05 a text before extras. That calculation assigns no value to the included 100 call minutes.
Bland has no per-text charge. At 100 sent texts a day, counting automatic replies, a 30-day month allows up to 3,000 outgoing texts. If you used all of them, allocating the whole $19.99 monthly plan fee to those texts gives about two-thirds of a cent each. This assigns no value to the included calls and is not a per-text charge.
What does a texting errand look like?#
Lena, the groomer and both numbers are made up. The groomer has agreed to receive booking texts. Lena's agent asks Bland to text the groomer at 555-0188 from her agent's number, 555-0144, with the message "Hi, could you fit my dog in next Tuesday at 2pm?" and the goal "confirm a Tuesday 2pm grooming slot." The groomer accepts Tuesday at 2pm, and Bland texts back to confirm.
That example assumes the groomer agrees to the requested time. The text conversation can ask for an appointment; availability remains the groomer's decision.
Where can I read about calling from the same number?#
Your agent's number makes and takes calls too. For calling, see what people mean by a ChatGPT phone number and does Claude have a phone number?. For calls coming in, see can your AI agent answer its own phone.
FAQ#
Can my AI agent send SMS?#
Yes. SMS is the ordinary text message, and on Bland's Agent Phone Plan your agent sends them from its own US number while Bland's texting AI answers the replies.
Does trying it for free include texting?#
You can try it for free. That try covers outbound calls only, from a shared Bland number: no dedicated number, no texting, no incoming calls.
How many texts can the plan send?#
It sends up to 20 an hour and 100 a day, counting Bland's replies, and the rest of the texting rules are on AI phone number to text.
What does sending a text require?#
You need an active plan, a connected AI agent, the recipient's number and a first message. Add a goal to tell Bland how to answer replies. The developer dropdown above shows the request fields.
Can I use this to send marketing texts to a list?#
No. The plan is for one-to-one conversations with people who have agreed to hear from you.
Is AgentLine cheaper than Bland for texting?#
Not on plan price. For a new subscription, after Bland's $9.99 first month (once per account owner) both plans are $19.99 a month, and AgentLine's covers 400 texts sent and received in total. Above that, AgentLine charges for each extra text, while Bland's flat $19.99 a month costs less per text, up to the plan's caps of 100 texts a day.
Related reading#
Guides for specific AI assistants#
- Ways to put Grok Bot on the phone
- What Grok Bot can do with a dedicated phone number
- How Grok Bot signs up for its own Bland number
- What people mean by a ChatGPT phone number
- What ChatGPT can do once it's connected to Bland
- Does Claude have a phone number?
- A Meta Muse errand, from prompt to result
Signup, incoming calls and plan limits#
- How an AI agent signs itself up for a phone number
- Inbound options compared for agent phone plans
- Agent phone number pricing compared: 2026 providers
- What unlimited means on agent phone plans