Chile SMS Guide: Senders & Opt-Out Rules

At a glance

A quick operational read on Chile. Anything marked route-dependent is set by the supplier and operator path your traffic uses, and is confirmed during route assessment.

SMS to mobile: Supported
Sender presentation: Rewritten to a numeric / local longcode on common international A2P routes
Alphanumeric senderID preservation: Not preserved on common current routes
Domestic longcode: Route- and use-case-dependent; commonly unsuitable for marketing
Two-way SMS: Route- and sender-dependent
Number portability: Available
Marketing: Direct opt-out, No Molestar suppression and route review required; we require documented opt-in
Concatenation: SenderID- and route-dependent; not assumed on domestic longcode routes
Last reviewed: 31 July 2026

Route-dependent: “Route-dependent” means the behaviour is decided by the supplier and operator path your traffic takes, not by Chilean statute. Two providers can behave differently on the same day, and a route can change its policy. Confirm before launch.

Law, route policy and recommendation

Chilean consumer and data law, supplier route rules and our own operating standard are three different things. Every statement on this page is labelled so the right team can act on it.

Law / regulation
Law and regulation
Binding obligations from Chilean legislation and the telecoms regulator. These apply whichever supplier you use.
Carrier or route policy
Carrier or route policy
Rules enforced by operators, aggregators or your provider on the specific A2P path your traffic takes. Widely applied on current international routes, but supplier-dependent and subject to change.
Flowstates recommendation
Flowstates operational recommendation
What we ask customers to do because it protects deliverability and keeps you comfortably inside both the law and route policy. Deliberately stricter than the legal minimum.

Numbering and networks

The basics your validation layer and templates need to get right before the first send.

Law / regulationNumber format
Chilean telephone numbers use nine national digits. Mobile numbers begin with 9 and are written in E.164 as +56 9 XXXX XXXX.
Law / regulationDialling code
Country dialling code +56. Mobile country code 730.
Law / regulationNumber portability
Number portability is available in Chile, so the operator behind a number can change. Never infer the current network from the original number range.
Carrier or route policyNetworks
The main national mobile operators are Entel, Movistar, Claro and WOM. Smaller brands and MVNOs ride on host-network coverage, so route performance is usually best read per host network.
Flowstates recommendationValidation
Validate to E.164 and run mobile-number validation or lookup before sending. Standard SMS routes target mobile numbers, so fixed-line destinations should be validated out rather than submitted and failed.
Flowstates recommendationPortability handling
Because portability is widespread, resolve the current network at send time instead of caching an operator against a contact record.

E.164 example

+56 9 XXXX XXXX

Country code 56, mobile prefix 9, then the eight remaining digits — nine national digits in total.

SenderID options

In Chile what the recipient sees is decided by the route, not by the value in your API call. On common international A2P paths the submitted senderID is rewritten, so design the message body around that.

Carrier or route policy

Best for, what the recipient sees and replies describe carrier or route behaviour on current A2P paths in Chile — not Chilean statute. They vary by supplier and operator and are confirmed before launch.

Rewritten international A2P sender

Best for: Quick launch of one-way OTP and transactional traffic on a validated route
What the recipient sees: A route-assigned numeric or local longcode, not the brand you submitted
Replies: Not assumed

Domestic Chilean longcode

Best for: Approved transactional, service or selected two-way use cases
What the recipient sees: A local Chilean number where the route preserves it
Replies: Route-dependent

Dedicated short code

Best for: Scale, a recognised numeric identity and possible two-way programmes
What the recipient sees: An approved short code
Replies: Potentially available

Alphanumeric senderID

Best for: Not a dependable branding option on common Chile routes
What the recipient sees: Generally a rewritten numeric senderID rather than your brand name
Replies: No

SenderID options
Option	Best for	What the recipient sees	Replies
Rewritten international A2P sender	Quick launch of one-way OTP and transactional traffic on a validated route	A route-assigned numeric or local longcode, not the brand you submitted	Not assumed
Domestic Chilean longcode	Approved transactional, service or selected two-way use cases	A local Chilean number where the route preserves it	Route-dependent
Dedicated short code	Scale, a recognised numeric identity and possible two-way programmes	An approved short code	Potentially available
Alphanumeric senderID	Not a dependable branding option on common Chile routes	Generally a rewritten numeric senderID rather than your brand name	No

SenderID availability, throughput and lead time are route- and operator-dependent. We confirm all three against live supplier data before you commit to a launch date, and we avoid quoting fixed provisioning times.

What changes by traffic type

Chile is not one rulebook. The same destination behaves differently depending on the category you send and the route it takes.

OTP / authentication

Suitable on validated high-quality routes.

Flowstates recommendation
Keep the copy purely transactional and short — no offers or upsell inside a verification message.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the brand in the body, because the senderID is commonly rewritten on Chilean A2P routes.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not rely on concatenation: fit OTP copy into a single segment wherever practical.
Flowstates recommendation
Monitor latency, delivery, verification conversion and per-operator performance rather than submitted counts.
Flowstates recommendation
Configure route failover so a degraded Chilean route does not become a failed login queue.

Transactional / service

Suitable for alerts, confirmations and account or service updates.

Flowstates recommendation
Identify the brand and state the purpose of the message clearly.
Flowstates recommendation
Use a branded domain for links instead of a public shortener.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep promotional copy out of transactional templates — mixed content invites category re-classification.
Carrier or route policy
Enable replies only where a two-way route and a provisioned local longcode have been explicitly configured. Two-way is not universal in Chile.

Marketing / promotional

Opt-out handling, No Molestar suppression and route review before launch.

Law / regulation
Chilean consumer law gives recipients the right to request suspension of promotional communications sent by telephone messaging; once requested, further promotional messages are prohibited.
Law / regulation
SERNAC's No Molestar platform lets a consumer ask a named company to remove their number or email from that company's promotional call and message lists.
Flowstates recommendation
We require documented, timestamped, source-attributed opt-in before a promotional launch. This is our conservative operating standard, not a claim that Article 28B imposes universal prior consent.
Flowstates recommendation
Provide a simple free opt-out, suppress both direct and No Molestar requests, and schedule by recipient local time.
Carrier or route policy
Marketing may not be permitted over domestic longcode routes. Use an approved campaign path and have content and route reviewed before launch.

Chilean law, data and consent

Chile is often summarised as “you need opt-in”. That overstates the current position, and understates what is coming in December 2026. Here is the distinction we hold customers to.

Law / regulation
Consumer Protection Law 19,496, Article 28B requires promotional or publicity communications sent through telephone messaging services to provide an expeditious way for the recipient to request suspension. Once suspension is requested, sending further promotional communications is prohibited.
Law / regulation
No Molestar is a SERNAC mechanism: the consumer selects a company and asks for a phone number or email to be removed from that company's promotional lists. It is a consumer-request register, not a universal technical network block.
Law / regulation
As at 31 July 2026, Law 19,628 remains the personal-data framework. Where authorisation is relied upon it must be properly informed, recorded and revocable — but the law also contains exceptions, including certain public-source and direct-marketing processing. So it is wrong to state that every marketing SMS legally requires prior opt-in.
Law / regulation
Forthcoming legal change: Law 21,719 was published on 13 December 2024 and is scheduled to enter into force on 1 December 2026, materially reforming Chile's data-protection regime and creating a data-protection authority. Campaigns launching or continuing on or after that date must be revalidated against the new regime.
Flowstates recommendation
We nevertheless require demonstrable opt-in for promotional SMS: it is safer operationally, matches provider expectations and makes purpose and suppression evidence auditable.
Flowstates recommendation
No particular stop keyword is presented here as mandated by Chilean statute. Support Spanish-language requests such as BAJA or SALIR because recipients use them, not because a law names them.
Carrier or route policy
Individual routes may impose stricter consent evidence, content review or category restrictions than the statutory minimum, and some prohibit promotional traffic outright. Confirm before launch.

Operational compliance checklist

What we expect to see in place before a Chile route goes live.

Law / regulation
Record the legal basis and the source of every recipient record.
Flowstates recommendation
For promotions, retain the recipient, timestamp, source, wording or version, and the purpose the opt-in covered.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the sending brand and the purpose of the message in the body, because the senderID is commonly rewritten.
Law / regulation
Provide an easy, free opt-out route so recipients can request suspension of promotional messages, and stop sending once they do.
Flowstates recommendation
Support Spanish-language stop requests such as BAJA or SALIR and suppress promptly. We do not present any single keyword as a statutory requirement.
Law / regulation
Ingest and honour applicable SERNAC No Molestar requests for your company.
Flowstates recommendation
Maintain an internal suppression and do-not-disturb list across every sending system, not per campaign tool.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not use purchased lists.
Flowstates recommendation
Schedule by recipient local time and avoid late-night non-urgent traffic. We do not invent a universal statutory campaign window for Chile.
Flowstates recommendation
Use a branded short domain rather than a public or shared URL shortener.
Carrier or route policy
Validate the exact sender, use case and route before launch — behaviour differs between suppliers on the same destination.
Carrier or route policy
Rate-limit by sender and route. A domestic long number is not a high-throughput campaign senderID and some routes apply very low per-number anti-spam limits.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep template, consent, campaign, suppression and route-approval records.

Encoding and delivery

Spanish copy makes encoding a real cost and delivery question in Chile, and concatenation cannot be assumed on every route. Test it rather than trusting a generic table.

GSM-7, single segment: 160 characters
GSM-7, concatenated: 153 characters per segment
Unicode / UCS-2, single segment: 70 characters
Unicode / UCS-2, concatenated: 67 characters per segment

Flowstates recommendation
Spanish diacritics, smart punctuation and formatting copied from a document can push a template into Unicode, which shortens the segment and raises cost. Check the encoding your template actually produces.
Carrier or route policy
Concatenation is route- and senderID-dependent in Chile, and some domestic longcode routes do not support it at all. Confirm before you design multi-segment templates.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep OTP templates to a single segment and run an end-to-end test across the selected routes and operators with your real copy before launch.
Flowstates recommendation
Validate mobile numbers with lookup before sending — portability is widespread, so the original range tells you nothing reliable about the current network.

A country guide is only useful when the route follows it

Knowing Chile's rules is the easy half. Keeping every send inside them, on supplier routes that change their policy, is the operational half — that is the part we run.

Per-country and per-category routing
OTP, transactional and marketing A2P traffic take different Chile routes, with the right policy applied to each category.
SenderID management
We manage sender presentation where a route supports it, and design templates for the common Chilean case where the sender is rewritten.
Carrier-grade failover
When a Chile route degrades, traffic moves before your verification funnel does.
Per-route visibility
Delivery, latency and OTP conversion measured per route and per operator, so a route policy change shows up as data rather than complaints.
24/7 vendor escalation
We chase the supplier and the carrier. You get the update, not the ticket queue.
BYOV / BYOG
Keep your Chilean supplier and contracts and let us operate the routing, or use ours.
Branded short links
Links on your own domain instead of a shared shortener, which route filters treat very differently.

Developer docs Branded short links

What we need to validate your Chile route

Send us these and we will come back with the route options, the sender behaviour you should expect and the policy that applies to your category.

Company or legal entity and website
Traffic category and use case
Spanish and English sample templates
Expected monthly volume and peak TPS
Opt-in journey and evidence for promotional traffic
SenderID preference
Link domains you intend to use
Whether you need replies or two-way messaging
Target launch date

Validate my Chile route Book a messaging review

Frequently asked questions about SMS in Chile

Can I send SMS to mobile numbers in Chile?

A quick operational read on Chile. Anything marked route-dependent is set by the supplier and operator path your traffic uses, and is confirmed during route assessment. SMS to mobile: Supported. Sender presentation: Rewritten to a numeric / local longcode on common international A2P routes. Alphanumeric senderID preservation: Not preserved on common current routes. Domestic longcode: Route- and use-case-dependent; commonly unsuitable for marketing.

Which sender ID options work for SMS in Chile?

In Chile what the recipient sees is decided by the route, not by the value in your API call. Rewritten international A2P sender — Best for: Quick launch of one-way OTP and transactional traffic on a validated route. Domestic Chilean longcode — Best for: Approved transactional, service or selected two-way use cases. Dedicated short code — Best for: Scale, a recognised numeric identity and possible two-way programmes. Alphanumeric senderID — Best for: Not a dependable branding option on common Chile routes.

What are the consent and opt-out requirements for SMS in Chile?

Chile is often summarised as “you need opt-in”. Consumer Protection Law 19,496, Article 28B requires promotional or publicity communications sent through telephone messaging services to provide an expeditious way for the recipient to request suspension. Once suspension is requested, sending further promotional communications is prohibited. No Molestar is a SERNAC mechanism: the consumer selects a company and asks for a phone number or email to be removed from that company's promotional lists. It is a consumer-request register, not a universal technical network block. As at 31 July 2026, Law 19,628 remains the personal-data framework. Where authorisation is relied upon it must be properly informed, recorded and revocable — but the law also contains exceptions, including certain public-source and direct-marketing processing. So it is wrong to state that every marketing SMS legally requires prior opt-in.

How many characters fit in an SMS to Chile?

Spanish copy makes encoding a real cost and delivery question in Chile, and concatenation cannot be assumed on every route. GSM-7, single segment: 160 characters. GSM-7, concatenated: 153 characters per segment. Unicode / UCS-2, single segment: 70 characters. Unicode / UCS-2, concatenated: 67 characters per segment.

Sources and change control

Regulator, statute and provider references behind this guide. Provider documentation reflects one supplier's current route policy, not Chilean law.

Regulator
SUBTEL — nine-digit numbering and the +56 9 mobile format
Official reference for Chile's nine national digits and mobile dialling format.
Regulator
SUBTEL — current operator and market information (2026)
Market data used to describe the Chilean mobile network landscape.
Regulator
SUBTEL — number portability report (2 June 2026)
Confirms the scale of number portability and why the original range cannot identify the current network.
Statute
SERNAC — Consumer Protection Law 19,496, Article 28B
Right to request suspension of promotional communications sent by telephone messaging.
Regulator
SERNAC — No Molestar
Consumer mechanism for asking a named company to remove a number or email from its promotional lists.
Statute
BCN — Law 19,628 on the protection of personal data
Current personal-data framework, including authorisation conditions and its exceptions.
Statute
BCN — Law 21,719, in force 1 December 2026
Reform of Chile's data-protection regime, published 13 December 2024, creating a data-protection authority.
Provider documentation
Twilio — Chile SMS guidelines
Current provider guidance on sender rewriting and route behaviour for Chile.
Provider documentation
Vonage — Chile SMS features and restrictions
Second provider view of Chilean sender, reply and content restrictions.
Provider documentation
Telnyx — Chile SMS guidelines
Third provider view, including domestic long-code use-case and throughput restrictions.

Change log

31 July 2026 — Initial publication; separated Chilean consumer and data law from live sender and route policy.

Last reviewed 31 July 2026

Disclaimer

This is operational guidance, not legal advice. Operator, route, sender type, traffic category and customer configuration can change the applicable path. Flowstates confirms it during onboarding.

Chile SMS guide