Terms & Conditions

1.The agreement

These Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”) are an agreement between SMS21 (“we”, “us”) and the person or organisation that creates an account or uses SMS21 (“you”). Together with our Privacy Policy, Refund Policy and the prices shown in your dashboard, they form the whole agreement.

By creating an account, ticking the box to accept these Terms or using the service, you accept them. If you accept on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to bind it. The service is for business use by people aged 18 or over; it is not a consumer messaging service.

These Terms are an electronic record under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and need no physical or digital signature.

2.Accounts and security

• Give accurate, current information, including business and KYC details we ask for, and keep it up to date.
• Keep your password, two-step verification device and API keys secret. Use test keys for development and restrict live keys to your servers’ IP addresses where you can.
• You are responsible for everything done through your account and keys, including by members you invite, until you tell us of unauthorised use.
• Tell us immediately at our contact page if you suspect a key or account has been compromised, and revoke the key from the dashboard.

3.The service

SMS21 provides APIs and a dashboard to send and verify one-time passwords, send SMS and WhatsApp messages, receive replies and delivery reports, and manage templates, contacts, campaigns, webhooks and billing.

• Sandbox. Test keys run against a sandbox: nothing is delivered and nothing is charged.
• Live traffic. Live keys send real messages through telecom operators and messaging providers we choose and may change, including to fail over when one is unavailable.
• Changes. We improve the service continuously. We will give reasonable notice before removing a feature or making a breaking change to a published API version.
• Availability. We aim for high availability but do not promise uninterrupted service. Planned maintenance is announced in advance where possible.

4.Messaging rules

You are the sender of every message you send through us. You must:

• Have consent. Send messages only to people who have agreed to receive them from you, keep proof of that consent, and honour opt-outs (STOP) promptly.
• Follow TRAI rules for India. Comply with the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018: register your entity, headers (sender IDs), templates and consent on the DLT platform, send only approved template content, respect the National Customer Preference Register and promotional time windows. We reject messages that do not match an approved template, and operators may block them.
• Follow WhatsApp’s rules. When using WhatsApp, comply with Meta’s WhatsApp Business Terms, Business Messaging Policy and Commerce Policy, including template approval and the customer-service window.
• WhatsApp Connect. The WhatsApp Connect plugin sends from WhatsApp numbers you link yourself. WhatsApp may restrict or ban numbers used for bulk or automated messaging; you use it at your own risk and remain responsible for the number and its messages.
• Follow local law. Comply with the laws of every country you send to, including rules on sender IDs, content and quiet hours.

5.Acceptable use

You must not use SMS21 to send or do anything that:

• is spam, unsolicited bulk messaging, phishing, smishing or impersonation of another person, brand or authority;
• is unlawful, fraudulent, defamatory, obscene, hateful or harassing, or promotes gambling, drugs, weapons or other restricted goods where they are prohibited;
• is prohibited by the Information Technology Act, 2000 or the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021;
• infringes intellectual property or privacy rights, or discloses personal data without a lawful basis;
• contains malware or links to it, or attempts to probe, overload, reverse-engineer or bypass the security, rate limits or billing of the service;
• resells the service without our written agreement, except through the reseller features we provide.

We may review traffic patterns, not the content of individual messages beyond automated checks, to detect abuse, and we may block messages or accounts that break these rules.

6.Data protection

For the personal data of your recipients and end users (“Customer Data”), you are the Data Fiduciary and we are your Data Processor under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. You confirm that you have a lawful basis, including any consent needed, for every number and message you give us. We will:

• process Customer Data only to provide the service and on your documented instructions (your API calls, dashboard actions and settings);
• keep it confidential and protected by reasonable security safeguards;
• use carriers and sub-processors only under obligations equivalent to these, and tell you on request which ones we use;
• notify you without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting Customer Data, and help you meet your obligations to the Data Protection Board and your users;
• help you respond to requests from your Data Principals, and delete Customer Data according to our retention schedule or when the agreement ends, except records the law requires us to keep.

Our handling of your own account data is described in the Privacy Policy.

7.Prices, wallet and payment

• Prepaid wallet. Live usage is paid from a prepaid wallet in Indian rupees. Top up by card, UPI or net banking through our payment gateway, or by UPI transfer reviewed by our team.
• Prices. Each message is priced by channel, message type and destination country. Your current prices are shown in the dashboard; our list prices are on the Pricing page. We may change prices with at least 7 days’ notice by email or in the dashboard, except where a carrier or Meta changes its charges at shorter notice.
• When you are charged. A live message is charged when we accept it for sending. Where a price is marked “refunded on failure”, the charge is returned to your wallet automatically if the message is not delivered.
• Taxes and invoices. Prices exclude GST unless shown otherwise. We issue GST-compliant invoices for top-ups, available in the dashboard. Give us your GSTIN to claim input tax credit.
• Insufficient balance. Messages are refused when your balance is too low. Set low-balance alerts in the dashboard to avoid interruptions.

8.Plugins and subscriptions

Optional plugins (such as WhatsApp Official and WhatsApp Connect) may be billed per message or by a monthly or yearly plan. Plan fees are debited from your wallet at the start of each period and renew automatically until you cancel. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the plugin stays available until the end of the period you paid for. If a renewal cannot be paid, the subscription becomes past due and is suspended after the grace period shown in the dashboard.

9.Refunds

Refunds of wallet balances, failed payments and subscriptions are governed by our Refund Policy.

10.Intellectual property

We own the service, software, documentation and brand. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use them for your business during the agreement. You own your content, templates and Customer Data and grant us the rights needed to provide the service. If you send us feedback, we may use it without obligation. Our SDKs and code samples may be used under the licence published with them.

11.Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other’s non-public business, technical and pricing information confidential, use it only for this agreement, and disclose it only to people who need it and are bound to keep it confidential, or when the law requires.

12.Suspension and termination

• By you. You may stop using the service at any time and ask us to close your account.
• By us. We may suspend traffic, keys or accounts immediately where needed to stop spam, fraud, a security threat or a breach of these Terms, or when a regulator, operator or court requires it. We will tell you why unless the law prevents it, and restore access once the issue is resolved. We may end the agreement for a material breach that you do not cure within 15 days of notice, or with 30 days’ notice for any reason.
• Afterwards. Sections that by their nature should survive (payment, data protection, liability, indemnity, disputes) continue. Refunds of any remaining balance follow the Refund Policy.

13.Disclaimers

Delivery depends on telecom operators, Meta and recipients’ handsets and networks, which are outside our control. We do not guarantee that any message will be delivered, or delivered within a particular time. OTP should be one factor of your security, not the only one. Except as stated in these Terms, the service is provided “as is” and “as available”, to the extent the law allows.

14.Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, neither of us is liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or loss of profits, revenue, goodwill or data. Our total liability arising out of this agreement in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us for the service in the 3 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply to your payment obligations, your breach of the messaging rules or acceptable use, your indemnity, or liability that cannot be limited by law.

15.Indemnity

You will indemnify us against claims, penalties and reasonable costs (including those imposed by regulators or operators) arising from messages you send, your Customer Data, your lack of consent or DLT registration, or your breach of these Terms or the law.

16.Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. We will first try to resolve any dispute in good faith through the grievance process below. If it is not resolved within 30 days, the competent courts at the place of our registered office in India have exclusive jurisdiction.

17.Grievance redressal

Complaints about the service, billing, content or personal data can be sent to our Grievance Officer, at the address on our contact page or through the grievance form. We acknowledge complaints within 48 hours and resolve them within one month of receipt, as the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 require.

18.General

• Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms. We will give at least 15 days’ notice of material changes by email or in the dashboard. Continuing to use the service after that means you accept them.
• Force majeure. Neither of us is liable for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control, such as network or operator outages, natural disasters, or government action.
• Assignment. You may not transfer this agreement without our consent; we may transfer it to a successor of our business.
• Severability and waiver. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in force. Not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.
• Notices. We send notices to the email address on your account; send yours to us through the contact page.

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