If your agency texts clients or leads from a regular local number through any kind of software, US carriers require A2P 10DLC registration. Skip it and your texts get blocked, not just filtered. Here is the whole process in plain English: what to submit, what it costs in 2026, how long it really takes, and the mistakes that get insurance agencies rejected.
A2P stands for application to person. 10DLC stands for 10 digit long code, a normal local phone number. Put together, A2P 10DLC is the carrier framework for business texting sent through software from local numbers. Any text that leaves a CRM, an agency management system, a rater follow up tool, or a texting platform counts as A2P, even if a human typed it. The carriers built a central database called The Campaign Registry, or TCR, so they know who is sending what. You register once through your messaging provider, and AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all read from the same record.
Registered senders get higher throughput and far less spam filtering. Carriers know who you are and what you send, so your renewal reminders actually arrive.
Major US carriers now block unregistered A2P traffic on local numbers outright. This stopped being a warning-and-fees situation a while ago. No registration, no delivery.
You register a brand, which is your agency, and then at least one campaign, which is a messaging use case. We break down the difference in our brand vs campaign guide.
The brand is your legal business entity. Your messaging provider submits it to TCR, and TCR checks it against government records. This step is mostly automated, so it usually clears in minutes to a couple of days. Gather these four things before you start and it goes smoothly.
The legal name must match what the IRS has on file for your EIN, character for character. Copy it from your EIN letter, not from memory or your storefront sign.
A real address and a working website on your own domain. A parked domain or a Facebook page in place of a site will cause problems later at campaign review.
Insurance is its own vertical category. Pick it. Also select the correct entity type, such as LLC or corporation, matching your state registration.
A business email on your domain and a phone number someone actually answers. Free email addresses lower your trust score with vetting providers.
The campaign describes a specific use case, like customer care or marketing, and this is where the manual review happens. A human at a vetting provider reads your submission and can reject it. Your provider will ask for a use case description, sample messages, and a description of how people opt in. Treat each field as evidence. The reviewer wants to see that a real business collects real consent and sends what it says it sends. Your sample messages should look like your actual texts, include your agency name, and include opt out wording. Your opt in description should say exactly where consent is collected, usually a quote form on your website, and that page needs the consent language live before you submit. We are not lawyers, so have your attorney sign off on your final consent wording.
Fees vary a little by messaging provider and CRM platform, and some platforms bundle the one time charges into a single fee of roughly $25 to $75. These are the typical line items behind those bundles.
| Item | Typical Fee | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Brand registration | $4.50 | One time (raised from $4 in August 2025) |
| Brand vetting | $41.50 (many providers now include it) | One time |
| Campaign vetting | $15 per campaign | One time |
| Standard use case campaign | $10 per month | Monthly per campaign |
| Low volume mixed campaign | $1.50 to $2 per month | Monthly per campaign |
| Sole proprietor campaign | About $2 per month | Monthly per campaign |
| Carrier pass through fees | About $0.003 per SMS segment on the big three carriers, more for MMS | Per message |
Plan for about two weeks end to end and be pleasantly surprised if it is faster. The single biggest factor is whether your first submission is clean, because every rejection restarts the clock.
Mostly automated. Delays here almost always trace back to an EIN and legal name mismatch or a typo in the address.
Clean submissions often clear carrier review in 24 to 72 hours. Vetting is manual, so 3 to 5 business days is still normal even when nothing is wrong.
A rejected campaign has to be corrected and resubmitted to the back of the queue. Two or three rejection cycles can stretch the whole process past a month.
Insurance sits close to lead generation in the eyes of reviewers, so agency submissions get read carefully. These are the rejection reasons we see most.
Reviewers visit your website and look for TCPA consent wording next to your quote form. If it is missing, you get rejected. Fix the form first, then submit.
"Hi, this is your agent with an update" tells the reviewer nothing. Write samples that match your use case: renewal reminders, quote follow ups, claim check ins, with your agency name in them.
Opt out support has to show up in your opt in language and in at least one sample message. Reply STOP to opt out, reply HELP for help.
Language about buying leads, contacting prospects on behalf of partners, or third party consent raises flags fast. Describe consent your agency collects directly.
Links like bit.ly in sample messages are associated with spam and get campaigns declined. Use your own domain in every link.
A site that is down, under construction, or missing a privacy policy fails review. Since June 30, 2026, new campaign registrations also require both a privacy policy URL and a terms and conditions URL, and both must be live public pages. The site needs to clearly belong to the brand you registered.
Do not text from the unregistered number while you wait. It will not deliver reliably, and it can hurt the number's reputation before you even start. Use the review window to get the rest of your follow up in order. Put the consent language on every lead form, not just the one you referenced in the submission. Clean your contact list and separate people who gave written consent from people who did not, because only the first group should get marketing texts. Work your leads by phone and email in the meantime, since neither channel needs 10DLC. And draft your first templates now, with your agency name and opt out wording built in, so you can start the day you are approved. If you get approved and messages still fail, the problem is usually content or list quality, and we cover that in why your agency texts are not delivering.
10DLC gets your texts delivered. It does not fix missed calls, slow lead response, or renewals nobody works. Our AI Revenue Leak Audit maps exactly where your agency loses money and hands you a prioritized fix list. $1,500, currently $750 at the introductory rate.