Success Rates of 55-89%: What They Actually Do to Your Verification Cost
2026-08-30 · SMS-GO Research Team · 6 min read
Written by the team that operates SMS-GO. Figures reflect first-hand operation and an August 2026 audit of 16 providers\u2019 published price data. Pricing moves, so treat specific numbers as a snapshot.
Across the verification market, delivery success commonly lands between about 55% and 90%. That sounds like a detail, but it is the single biggest driver of your real cost. Here is the arithmetic, with worked examples.
The core formula
Effective cost per success = sticker price ÷ delivery rate. Everything else about pricing flows from this one line.
Worked example: 100 accounts at one price
Say the number is $0.50 and you need 100 working accounts. The number of numbers you must buy is 100 ÷ delivery rate.
| Delivery | Numbers to buy | Total spend |
|---|---|---|
| 90% | ~111 | ~$55 |
| 80% | ~125 | ~$63 |
| 70% | ~143 | ~$71 |
| 60% | ~167 | ~$83 |
| 55% | ~182 | ~$91 |
The spread is 65%
Same number, same goal: $55 at 90% delivery, $91 at 55%. The delivery rate moved your total cost by about two-thirds. This is why pool quality dominates price.
What a refund does
If failed numbers refund, you only pay for delivered ones. Your spend collapses toward $50 regardless of delivery, because every failure is returned. At scale, a refund window is worth more than a small price difference.
The time cost too
Failures are not just money. Each failed attempt is a retry, a delay, and sometimes a flagged attempt. A 55% pool roughly doubles your operational effort versus a 90% pool.
Questions, answered
What is a typical delivery success rate?+
Commonly reported between about 55% and 90% across the market, depending on pool quality and how strict the platform is.
How does delivery rate change my cost?+
Cost per success = price ÷ delivery rate. For 100 accounts at $0.50, that is about $55 at 90% but $91 at 55%.
Does a refund really matter that much?+
Yes. With refunds you only pay for delivered numbers, so failures stop costing you. It is worth more than a small price gap.
Should I optimize for price or delivery?+
For anything you keep, delivery. A cheaper number that fails half the time costs more overall.
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