Android SMS Gateway & Text Message API, free to start

What is textbee?

textbee is a free, open-source SMS gateway that uses an Android phone and its SIM card to send and receive SMS. Your code talks to a REST API, the API pushes each message to the phone, and the phone sends it over the carrier network. Incoming messages flow back to you through the API, the web dashboard, or webhooks.

It is a drop-in Twilio alternative for OTP codes, alerts, reminders, and two-way SMS, at the cost of your carrier plan. Over 40,000 developers and businesses use it, and the whole stack is in this repository: the NestJS API, the Next.js dashboard, and the Kotlin Android app. textbee is built and maintained by Nuver Labs, a small software studio.

Table of contents

• Why textbee?
• Features
• Quick start
• Send an SMS
• Receive SMS
• Webhooks
• Use with AI agents (MCP)
• SDKs and integrations
• Use cases
• Screenshots
• Stay up to date
• Self-hosting
• Architecture
• FAQ
• Contributing
• Community and support
• Who builds textbee
• Security
• License

Why textbee?

	textbee	Twilio and similar SMS APIs
Cost per SMS	Your carrier plan, often free or unlimited	Per-message fee plus a monthly number fee
Sender number	Your own SIM. Recipients see a real local number	Rented number, often flagged as unknown
Setup	About 2 minutes: install the app, scan a QR code	Account approval, compliance forms, number registration
Receive SMS	Yes, on the same SIM	Yes, on the rented number
Self-hostable	Yes, full control over your data	No
Open source	Yes, AGPLv3	No
Works with AI agents	Yes, official MCP server	Third-party only

Features

Send

• Send SMS from a REST API, the web dashboard, or the official JavaScript and Python SDKs
• Bulk SMS with a CSV upload, paced to stay within carrier limits
• Scheduled messages up to 72 hours ahead
• Multi-device and multi-SIM: pick the phone and the SIM per message
• Delivery status for every message: pending, dispatched, sent, delivered, failed

Receive

• Receive SMS on the phone and read them from the API or dashboard
• Account-level message history: one call covers every device
• SMS filters on the phone: forward only the messages you need, with allow or block rules on sender and text

Integrate

• Webhooks for received messages and delivery reports, signed with HMAC-SHA256
• Official MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents
• Guides for n8n, Zapier, Make, Home Assistant, Node-RED, Google Sheets, Slack, Shopify, WooCommerce, and GoHighLevel

Operate

• API keys with per-key revocation
• Web dashboard for devices, usage, history, and webhooks
• Self-host with Docker Compose, or use the hosted service at textbee.dev

Quick start

You need an Android phone (Android 7.0 or newer) with a SIM card. The app is distributed as an APK from textbee.dev/download, not through the Play Store.

1. Create an account at textbee.dev.
2. Install the Android app from textbee.dev/download and grant it the SMS permissions.
3. In the dashboard, click Add device and scan the QR code with the app. This creates an API key and registers the phone.
4. Send your first message from the dashboard, or from your code as shown below.

That is the whole setup. The getting started guide covers each step with screenshots.

If textbee saves you money or time, star the repo. It helps other developers find it.

Send an SMS

One request. Messages go out through your default device, or the enabled device with the most recent heartbeat. Pass deviceId to pick a phone, simSubscriptionId to pick a SIM, or scheduledAt to send later.

curl -X POST "https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "recipients": ["+12025550123"],
    "message": "Your verification code is 481920. It expires in 10 minutes."
  }'

npm install @textbee/sdk

import { Textbee } from '@textbee/sdk'

const textbee = new Textbee({ apiKey: process.env.TEXTBEE_API_KEY })

await textbee.sendSms({
  recipients: ['+12025550123'],
  message: 'Your verification code is 481920. It expires in 10 minutes.',
})

Zero dependencies, typed, runs on Node 18+, Bun, Deno, Cloudflare Workers, and Vercel Edge. See textbee/textbee-js.

await fetch('https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'x-api-key': process.env.TEXTBEE_API_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    recipients: ['+12025550123'],
    message: 'Your verification code is 481920. It expires in 10 minutes.',
  }),
})

pip install textbee

import os

from textbee import Textbee

textbee = Textbee(api_key=os.environ["TEXTBEE_API_KEY"])

textbee.send_sms(
    recipients=["+12025550123"],
    message="Your verification code is 481920. It expires in 10 minutes.",
)

Zero dependencies, typed, runs on Python 3.9+. See textbee/textbee-python.

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗