Can Claude send text messages? Yes, here's how

Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, can send texts once it has a phone number to send them from. We're Bland. We build AI that makes calls and sends texts. Our Agent Phone Plan gives an AI like Claude one US local number of its own.

Claude and Bland split the work. Claude sends the first text. After that, Bland's texting agent (the AI on our side that answers texts to your number) picks up the replies. Bland answers automatically toward the goal Claude passes with your first message.

Connect Claude to your Bland account before the first text:

1. Sign up for Bland and start the Agent Phone Plan, which gives you your Bland number.
2. In the Claude app, open Settings, then Connectors, and add a custom connector pointing to https://api.bland.ai/v1/mcp, Bland's server address. Claude Code (Anthropic's coding tool) and Claude Desktop have their own connection steps in the guide below.
3. Sign in with your Bland account.

The setup steps for each Claude app are on the Claude phone calls page, which covers texting as well. Your Claude subscription is separate from our plan.

What should you tell Claude when you ask for a text?#

Tell it the goal of the conversation as well as the opening line. Bland's texting agent answers every reply without checking with you; the goal is what it works toward.

Leave the goal out and the texting agent falls back on your number's default texting instructions, which start out generic and may be less specific than your request. The AI phone number to text page explains those defaults. Your first message to Claude determines whether Bland has a goal for that conversation.

For developers: how does Claude send a text?#

MCP, short for Model Context Protocol, is a standard way for an AI app to use outside tools, such as one that sends a text. Bland's connector is Bland's MCP server. Claude uses it to send the first text from your Bland number, and Bland's texting agent takes the replies from there. A sign-in connection cannot buy the plan; you approve and purchase it on Bland's website.

Send a text from Claude#

After connecting Bland, paste this into Claude:

Text [phone number] and ask [question]. Reply toward this goal: [goal]. Don't agree to anything for me.

Replace [phone number] with the recipient's number, [question] with the opening question, and [goal] with what you want the conversation to achieve. The bracketed words are fields for you to replace. Arrange any consent needed before sending the message.

Claude sends the first text from your Bland number and passes the goal to Bland. When someone replies, Bland's texting agent answers toward that goal automatically. It does not ask you to approve each reply, so make instructions and limits clear before the first text goes out.

To check the conversation, ask Claude:

What did they say?

Claude can read the replies and report back in the chat. Ask it to send another message when you want to continue. Bland still answers automatically; instructions to leave decisions with you do not create an approval prompt.

The figure uses a placeholder for the summary of your actual conversation.

Can you take over a text conversation yourself?#

Yes, Bland can hand a text conversation to a person, so you can carry it on yourself. The AI phone number to text page explains how.

How many texts can you send?#

Texting needs the Agent Phone Plan. You can try Bland for free, but the free try covers outgoing calls only from a shared Bland number, so it cannot text.

On the plan, your number can send 20 texts an hour and 100 a day, and the texting agent's replies count toward those caps. Hit a cap and texts to you still arrive, but replies stop until it resets, on the hour for the hourly cap and at midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) for the daily one. Texts go to US and Canada numbers only.

The first month is $9.99 (once per account owner) and every month after is $19.99. The full plan details are on the AI phone number page.