# SMS coverage

Which countries the A2P Messaging API can send SMS to, what each country asks of your sender, how that shows in the sender's sheet in the dashboard, and how coverage differs from the destination countries you allow.

**Language:** en
**Audience:** developer
**TLDR:** Coverage is where Instasent can deliver your SMS and on what conditions; destination countries are where you choose to allow sending. Every country and what it asks for is in the countries catalog, also published as JSON. In most countries creating the sender is enough; countries with a regulator in force, such as Spain, need an accepted registration for that country, and without it delivery is best-effort and billed. The sender's sheet shows each country under Needing your attention, In review or Approved countries.
**Search keywords:** coverage, sms coverage, supported countries, which countries, country requirements, country registration, regulator, cnmc, registration required, approved countries, in review, needing your attention, country-requirements.json, best effort, price per country
**Related pages:** /platform/en/channels/countries, /platform/en/channels/sms/coverage-and-delivery, /a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/senders, /a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/destination-countries
**Docs index (every page):** https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/llms.txt
**This zone's index:** https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/a2p-messaging-api/llms-full.txt
**This page:** https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/coverage/ (HTML) · https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/coverage.md (Markdown)

**Coverage** is where Instasent can deliver your SMS and on what conditions: which countries
you can reach, and what each of them asks of your sender before it accepts it as yours. It is
decided by each country's regulator and operators, not by you — and it is a different thing
from your [destination countries](/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/destination-countries), which
are where *you* choose to allow sending.

## Where SMS can be sent

The countries and what each one asks for are documented once, in the countries catalog, for the
dashboard and the API alike:

- [Countries](/platform/en/channels/countries) - Every destination, with what it asks for on SMS and RCS.
- [Coverage & delivery](/platform/en/channels/sms/coverage-and-delivery) - What best-effort delivery means while a registration is pending, and how it is billed.

The same catalog is published as JSON, so your integration can read it instead of copying it:
[`country-requirements.json`](https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/data/country-requirements.json), with its
[JSON Schema](https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/data/country-requirements.schema.json). Each country states whether a
channel is available there and whether we have documented its requirements; a country marked as
not reviewed means we haven't documented it yet — not that it asks for nothing.

What each country costs for your account is a separate question, answered by
`GET /sms/price-profile/me/countries` (see the [API Reference](/a2p-messaging-api/http/reference)).

## What each country asks of your sender

There are two cases:

- **In most countries, creating the sender is enough.** Once it is
  [registered in your account](/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/senders), you can send to them.
- **Countries with a regulator in force, such as Spain, need an accepted registration** of your
  sender for that country. You request it with your company's **legal profile**, which the
  regulator and the operators check before approving, and they may ask for more documents.

While a required registration isn't accepted, the message is still attempted: delivery is
**best-effort**, the recipient may see a different sender, and it is billed — see
[Coverage & delivery](/platform/en/channels/sms/coverage-and-delivery). The country's page in
the catalog says which case applies, and what to prepare.

Your reports, exports, DLRs and webhooks always show the sender **you sent**. Where the sender is
substituted, what changes is what reaches the handset — never what your integration reads back.

## How it shows in the dashboard

Each sender's registrations are in its **sheet**, in the SMS channel's **Senders** tab. That is
where you request a country and follow it, grouped in three sections:

- **Needing your attention** — countries where something is waiting on you.
- **In review** — registrations submitted and not yet decided. A country in review **doesn't
  count as approved**.
- **Approved countries** — where the sender is registered.

## Coverage and your destination countries

The two settings answer different questions, and a message needs both:

- **Coverage** — can Instasent deliver there, and under which conditions for your sender? It
  doesn't refuse your request: a message to a country whose registration is pending is attempted
  best-effort, and its outcome arrives in the [DLRs](/a2p-messaging-api/http/dlrs).
- **[Destination countries](/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/destination-countries)** — have you
  allowed sending there? A country outside your lists is refused with `422` on `to`, and nothing
  is sent or charged.

Wholesale providers on the [wildcard route](/a2p-messaging-api/channels/sms/wildcard-route) have
one more layer: the transit registration per country, explained on that page.

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This is one page of the Instasent documentation. For the complete machine-readable index of every guide and API reference, fetch https://staging-instasent-docs-nextjs.oscar-284.workers.dev/llms.txt — start there for full context.