Photon Pricing: The Shared Pool, and What $250 Buys
The short answer
Photon pricing, verified 27 Sep 2026 from photon.codes/pricing: a free tier and a $25-a-month Pro tier that run on managed shared-pool numbers, a Business tier at $250 per dedicated line per month with cold outreach supported up to 50 new contacts a day, and a custom Enterprise tier where you own the numbers. RCS and SMS fallback ride every tier, and the open-source core can be self-hosted with no Photon cloud bill at all.
Key takeaways
- Photon is a developer platform for putting agents on iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram, and the tiers price the number model rather than message volume.
- The cheap tiers are cheap because the number is not yours.
- Engineering time is the real second line item: Photon sells primitives, so sequences, CRM sync and pacing discipline are code your team writes and operates.
What each Photon tier includes
Photon is a developer platform for putting agents on iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram, and the tiers price the number model rather than message volume.
- The distinction that matters is the number type. Free and Pro assign each of your users a fresh number from a managed shared pool. Business allocates dedicated numbers just for your project.
Free
- Price
- $0
- What it is
- Shared-pool numbers, up to 10 users, unlimited daily messages with Auto Scale
Pro
- Price
- $25/month
- What it is
- Shared-pool numbers, up to 100 users, priority ticketing
Business
- Price
- $250 per line/month
- What it is
- Dedicated lines, cold outreach up to 50 new contacts a day, group messaging API, unlimited users
Enterprise
- Price
- Custom
- What it is
- Everything in Business plus custom configuration, SLA, and numbers you own
Open source
- Price
- $0
- What it is
- Self-host the core with community adaptors; no Photon cloud service required
Costs the sticker does not show
Engineering time is the real second line item: Photon sells primitives, so sequences, CRM sync and pacing discipline are code your team writes and operates.
- Cold outreach exists only on Business, capped at 50 new contacts per line per day, the ceiling every credible dedicated-line vendor runs. Volume planning is lines multiplied by that cap.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Photon cost per month?
Per photon.codes/pricing on 20 Sep 2026: $0 on Free, $25 on Pro, both on managed shared-pool numbers; $250 per dedicated line per month on Business; and custom Enterprise terms. The open-source core self-hosts for free without the cloud service.
Does Photon support cold outreach?
On the Business tier, up to 50 new contacts per line per day on dedicated lines, per its published comparison table. The Free and Pro shared-pool tiers are built for agent conversations, not outbound identity. What no tier ships is the sales motion itself: campaigns and CRM wiring are yours to build on the API.
Is Photon cheaper than Blue Reacher?
Below the dedicated tier, far cheaper, on shared numbers. At the dedicated tier they are a dollar apart: $250 against $249. Blue Reacher's price includes the campaign build, six native CRMs and managed pacing; Photon's includes the category's best developer platform. Different buyers, same sticker.
Who is Photon actually for?
Engineers building agent products: open-source core, multi-channel APIs, group messaging, mini apps, a real free tier, and a large GitHub following. A B2B sales team without engineers is buying the wrong shape there; the managed lane exists for exactly that buyer.
Same dedicated-line price, campaigns included
If you were pricing Photon Business for a sales motion, Blue Reacher costs the same $249 and arrives with the campaigns built, the CRM wired and the pacing managed. Book a demo and compare the two bills like for like.