10DLC Brand Registration: What You Need to Submit

A 10DLC brand is your business's registered identity for texting from local numbers. To register one you submit your legal business name, EIN, business type, address, website and a contact, exactly as they appear in IRS and public records. Once the brand is verified, you can register campaigns that describe what you text.

Most brand problems come from a single mismatch: the name or address you typed is not the one the IRS has.

What a brand registration includes

Brand registration is submitted to The Campaign Registry (TCR) through your phone or messaging provider. The fields are broadly the same everywhere.

Field	What to enter	Tip
Legal company name	Name on your IRS EIN letter (CP 575 or 147C)	Not your DBA
DBA / brand name	The name customers know	Use in messages
EIN / tax ID	9-digit federal EIN	Must match legal name
Entity type	Private for-profit, public for-profit, nonprofit, government, sole proprietor	Public companies also give a stock symbol and exchange
Industry / vertical	Closest category	Affects review for some industries
Address	Address on IRS records	Match the format exactly
Website	Live site for the business	Should show the business name and contact info
Contact email and phone	A person who can be reached	Use a business domain email if possible

Brand types and what they unlock

Twilio's fee schedule describes three brand types, which map to how most providers structure 10DLC.

Brand type	Who it is for	One-time fee (Twilio)	Notes
Sole proprietor	Individuals or small businesses without an EIN	$4.50	No secondary vetting; limited to sole proprietor use case
Low volume standard	Businesses with an EIN and lower traffic	$4.50	No secondary vetting; Twilio describes it as for under 6,000 messages/day
Standard	Businesses with an EIN needing more throughput	$46	Includes secondary vetting

Fees are TCR and carrier charges passed through by providers. TCR raised brand registration from $4.00 to $4.50 and standard vetting from $40 to $41.50 on August 1, 2025, according to Twilio. Your provider may bundle these into its own registration fee. For a full list, read 10DLC fees explained.

Verification and vetting

After submission, TCR checks your identity details against data sources.

• Verified: your name, EIN and address matched. You can register campaigns.
• Unverified: something did not match. Campaigns generally cannot proceed until you fix it.

Secondary vetting is an additional third-party review available for standard brands. It produces a trust score that carriers use to set throughput. A higher score generally means you can send more messages per second and per day.

Twilio also lists an Authentication Plus step for public for-profit brands, with a fee of $12.50 charged each time the step must be retried, and a vetting appeal fee of $11.

How to avoid an unverified brand

1. Pull your IRS letter. The CP 575 (issued when you got your EIN) or a 147C verification letter shows your legal name exactly as the IRS has it.
2. Use that legal name, punctuation and suffix included. "Acme Plumbing, LLC" and "Acme Plumbing LLC" can be treated differently.
3. Use the IRS address on file, or update it with the IRS first if it is outdated.
4. Choose the right entity type. An LLC is usually private for-profit. A registered 501(c)(3) is nonprofit.
5. Have a working website that names the business and shows contact details.
6. Use a contact email on your domain rather than a free webmail address when possible.

Fixing a failed brand

If your brand comes back unverified:

• Compare each field against your IRS letter, not your memory.
• Correct the mismatch and resubmit through your provider.
• Ask your provider whether resubmission or an appeal carries a fee.
• If your business recently changed its name, the IRS record may not have updated yet. Resolve that with the IRS first.

Sole proprietors

If you do not have an EIN, the sole proprietor brand lets you register with personal details instead. Providers typically verify sole proprietors by sending a one-time code to a mobile number. The trade-off is lower throughput and a limit of one campaign of the sole proprietor type. If you plan to grow, getting a free EIN from the IRS and registering a standard or low-volume brand is usually worth it.

Industries that get extra scrutiny

Some industries draw more review or are restricted by carriers, such as lending, debt collection, cannabis and gambling. If you are in one of these, expect additional questions and plan for longer review. Your campaign description and sample messages need to be especially clear.

After the brand: campaigns

A verified brand does nothing on its own. You still need at least one approved campaign that describes your messages, consent method and opt-out language. Continue with 10DLC campaign registration. If the campaign fails, see why 10DLC campaigns are rejected.

Information to gather before you start

Having everything ready avoids the most common rejections. Collect your legal business name exactly as it appears on IRS records, your EIN, your business address, a live website that shows your business name, and the name, email and phone number of an authorized contact, ideally with an email on your business domain. If you operate under a trade name, have the DBA ready too. Mismatches between these items, such as a website that shows a different name than the IRS record, are a frequent reason brands fail verification.

Brand registration checklist

• IRS letter (CP 575 or 147C) in hand
• Legal name copied exactly
• EIN double-checked digit by digit
• Address matches IRS records
• Correct entity type selected
• Website live and showing business name and contact
• Business email for the contact
• Brand type chosen for your expected volume

Keep it current

If your legal name, address or EIN changes, update the brand. A brand that no longer matches your records can cause trouble with future campaigns, and carriers expect registration details to stay accurate. Set a reminder to review the brand whenever you change your business registration or move offices.

Do you need a brand if you only reply to customers?

If customers text you and your team replies from a business messaging platform, that traffic is still A2P in the carriers' view because it runs through an application rather than a personal phone. Registration covers replies as well as messages you start. The good news is that a simple customer care campaign is one of the most straightforward to get approved, provided your description and samples match what you actually send.

How Callata handles brand registration

In Callata, you register business texting from the app. You enter your business type, legal business name, EIN, website, business address and a contact name, phone and email, describe what your business does and why you text customers, and optionally add an example message. Callata submits the brand and campaign to the carriers for a one-time $49 fee. The app shows the status: submitted, approved, or rejected with a prompt to update details and resubmit. Callata Office is $99 a month with five users included, and each additional user is $20 a month. Read what 10DLC is for the background, then sign up.