Sophie
30 October 2026 · 12 min read
You want to let your mother in Casablanca know something, confirm an arrival time in Algiers, wish someone a happy birthday in Dakar. You type the number exactly as it was dictated to you over the phone, you hit send — and nothing. Or it does go through, and three weeks later you discover an "international SMS" line on your bill. A text message sent from France to Africa always goes out in international format (+212, +213, +216, +221…) without the leading 0 of the local number, and it is almost never included in a French plan: expect to pay between €0.13 and €0.30 per message outside your allowance, depending on the carrier and the destination.
Updated 30 October 2026.
Which dialling code goes in front of the number?
The one for the destination country, preceded by a +, and without the zero from the local number. That is the rule set out in recommendation E.164 from the International Telecommunication Union, which manages the global numbering plan.
Here are the dialling codes for the destinations most often requested from France, as they appear in the ITU's official list:
| Country | Dialling code | Example of a local number | What to dial from France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morocco | +212 | 06 12 34 56 78 | +212 6 12 34 56 78 |
| Algeria | +213 | 0550 12 34 56 | +213 550 12 34 56 |
| Tunisia | +216 | 20 123 456 (no 0) | +216 20 123 456 |
| Senegal | +221 | 77 123 45 67 (no 0) | +221 77 123 45 67 |
| Ivory Coast | +225 | 01 23 45 67 89 | +225 01 23 45 67 89 |
| Cameroon | +237 | 6 12 34 56 78 | +237 6 12 34 56 78 |
| Mali | +223 | 70 12 34 56 | +223 70 12 34 56 |
| Egypt | +20 | 010 1234 5678 | +20 10 1234 5678 |
Two traps come up again and again.
The extra zero. In Morocco and Algeria, mobile numbers are written locally with a leading 0 (06…, 05…). That zero is a national prefix: it disappears as soon as you use the country code. +212 06 12… is an invalid number, and depending on the network it either fails silently or comes back as "undeliverable". We covered this in the opposite direction in our article on foreign numbers saved incorrectly in your contacts.
The missing zero. In Tunisia, Senegal and Ivory Coast, numbers have no national zero: you simply add the dialling code in front of the complete number. And watch out for Ivory Coast, which moved to eight digits in 2021 with a 01, 05, 07 or 27 prefix: an old eight-digit number without that prefix no longer works at all.
+ or 00?
Both work from a French mobile, but + is preferable. It is interpreted by the handset itself, which converts it into the international access prefix appropriate for the network you are on. 00 is the European international access prefix: it works from France, but becomes wrong as soon as you travel abroad yourself — some countries use 011, 010 or 009. A contact saved as +212… stays valid everywhere; a contact saved as 00212… does not.
What does a text to North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa really cost?
International texts are almost never included in consumer plans in France. What your plan calls "unlimited texts" means "unlimited texts from France to France" — sometimes extended to the European Union and the French overseas departments, never to North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.
Here are the ballpark figures, to be checked against your own carrier's price list (out-of-allowance rates change without notice):
| Carrier | Texts to North / sub-Saharan Africa | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Orange | "international SMS" rate, billed per message | mobile price list on orange.fr |
| SFR | "SMS sent abroad" rate, per message | out-of-allowance rates on sfr.fr |
| Bouygues Telecom | "SMS to international zone" rate, depending on the zone | rate sheet on bouyguestelecom.fr |
| Free Mobile | international SMS billed per message, Free Mobile plan | rate sheet on mobile.free.fr |
| MVNOs (Prixtel, YouPrice, La Poste Mobile…) | generally follow the host network's price list, sometimes dearer | the carrier's own rate sheet |
Three rules worth remembering instead of prices that keep moving:
- The price depends on a "zone", not on the country. Every carrier divides the world into pricing zones. Morocco and Tunisia often sit in a cheaper zone than Mali or Madagascar. Check the zone before you assume.
- An MMS to Africa is not a text. It is billed separately, often at a higher rate, and requires mobile data to be switched on. If your photo won't send, the mechanism is the same one described in our article on MMS not received while roaming.
- A long message counts double, or even triple. Beyond 160 characters, the phone splits the text into several concatenated messages, each one billed. And if you use Arabic characters, an
œor an emoji, the message switches to UCS-2 encoding and the limit drops to 70 characters per segment. That is the arithmetic we explained in why there is a 160-character limit for a text message.
In other words: three sentences with a heart and an accented first name, sent to Tangier, can cost you three units instead of one.
Can you send a text to Africa for free?
Yes, in two cases, but they involve different tools.
Over the internet, from a computer or a browser. An online text-sending service goes through a gateway that hands the message over to the destination network: that is what our free text messaging page offers for the destinations covered, and our rates and available destinations spell out what is supported. The upside: you don't open an "international SMS" line on your mobile bill. The limit: some international gateways don't accept every African destination, because local carriers filter so-called "A2P" (application-to-person) messages coming from outside.
Through an internet messaging app, if the person you're writing to is online. WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and RCS run over data and cost nothing beyond a few bytes. By far, that is the dominant way people communicate with North Africa and West Africa. But it is also precisely why the real text message remains essential: it depends on no installed app, no internet connection and no account. For a grandparent with a button phone, for a contact in a rural area with no data, for a confirmation code, texting remains the only universal channel.
One detail that matters: several African countries have seen occasional restrictions on access to messaging apps or mobile internet, notably during exam periods or elections. When WhatsApp goes down, texts still get through. For a loved one travelling in a poorly covered region, a portable solar charger or a high-capacity power bank makes more difference than a bigger plan: a dead phone receives nothing, even with full coverage.
Why isn't my text to Morocco or Algeria arriving?
Because an international text crosses several networks and several contracts: any link in the chain can block it. Here are the real causes, in order of frequency.
The number is badly formatted
This is the number one cause, and it is invisible: the phone doesn't display "invalid number", it displays "not sent" or nothing at all. The surplus 0 after +212 or +213, a forgotten dialling code, a number copied with the international access prefix of the country of origin.
The destination carrier filters incoming texts
African carriers — Maroc Telecom, Orange Maroc, inwi, Djezzy, Ooredoo, Mobilis, Orange Sénégal, MTN, Moov — apply anti-spam filters to texts coming from international gateways. A message with a link, excessive capital letters or an unregistered alphanumeric sender can be rejected without any notification. Texts sent from your own mobile, with your +33 number as the sender, get through far more reliably.
Your "international" option is switched off
Several French carriers block international sending by default on prepaid lines, capped plans, and plans intended for minors or taken out with a spending limit. This is bill protection, not an outage: you have to lift it from your online account or through customer service.
The recipient has changed carrier
Number portability also exists in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal. A ported number stays the same but changes network, and routing then depends on a portability database that not all international carriers query correctly. The mechanism is exactly the one we described in texting a ported number: the carrier is no longer the same.
The phone is switched off or out of coverage
The text isn't lost: it is stored by the destination carrier's message centre (SMSC) for a validity period, often 24 to 72 hours. It goes out again as soon as the phone is switched back on. If nothing arrives after three days, it has expired. We went into this mechanism in detail in texting a switched-off phone: how long it waits.
And the other way round: replying to a text received from North Africa?
Replying costs the price of an international text from your French plan, exactly as if you had started the conversation. The fact that the message was incoming changes nothing: receiving a text is free in France, sending is billed according to the destination.
Watch out for one special case: if you reply from abroad, you pay for sending from the country you are in, not from France. And if the number writing to you is a premium-rate number or a value-added service, the bill can climb for other reasons — that is the subject of Replying to a text received from abroad: who pays?.
How can you cut the bill without giving up texting?
A few concrete habits, in order of effectiveness.
- Check the price list beforehand, not afterwards. All four carriers publish a complete rate sheet as a PDF, as required by consumer law. Look for the "SMS sent to international destinations" line and the zone for your destination.
- Save all your African contacts in
+codeformat. Once and for all, in your address book. That alone removes the majority of sending failures, and makes the numbers usable from any country. - Ask for a "World" add-on if you write often. Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom sell add-ons that include an allowance of texts, calls or data towards certain zones. They only pay off above a certain monthly volume: do the maths on your last three bills.
- Use the web for one-off messages. A birthday message or a time confirmation doesn't need to leave your mobile.
- Set an out-of-allowance cap. Every carrier lets you set an alert threshold by text. It is the best safeguard against an end-of-month surprise.
- For someone leaving for a long stay, a local or regional eSIM set up in a dual-SIM phone avoids international back-and-forth: your contact keeps a local line that is reachable on the ground. A practical guide to mobile telephony while travelling, worth leafing through before departure, prevents most configuration mistakes; and a universal plug adapter remains the first thing forgotten in a suitcase.
What will change over the coming years
Two developments will shift the picture.
RCS is spreading, but not internationally. RCS works between subscribers whose two carriers have both enabled it and whose two handsets both support it. Between France and North Africa, RCS interconnection remains partial: the conversation therefore falls back to SMS, often without the user noticing. We compared the two channels in RCS versus SMS: why texting is declining in France.
The switch-off of 2G and 3G isn't moving at the same pace everywhere. In France, the timetable is under way; in several African countries, 2G remains the backbone of the network and serves millions of basic handsets. The practical consequence: your contact may well receive your texts on a network that France will have shut down. That gap works in favour of texting as a universal channel for years to come. To understand the French timetable, see The end of 3G in France: the 2028-2029 timetable.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to drop the 0 to send a text to Morocco?
Yes. A Moroccan number 06 12 34 56 78 becomes +212 6 12 34 56 78. The 0 is a national prefix; it is never combined with the +212 dialling code.
Are texts to Algeria included in unlimited plans? No, unless explicitly stated. "Unlimited texts" covers mainland France, sometimes the European Union and the French overseas departments. Algeria, like all of North Africa, falls under international texting billed per message.
Why does my text to Senegal send but never arrive? Most often, the destination carrier has filtered it (a link, an unrecognised sender) or the phone stayed off-network beyond the message's validity period. Resend a short text, with no link, and check the number format.
Can you receive a reply for free? Yes. In France, receiving a text is free, whatever the origin of the message. You only pay for what you send.
Does an MMS to Africa cost more than a text? Yes, in the vast majority of price lists, and it requires mobile data to be active at both ends. For a photo, an internet messaging app remains simpler and cheaper.
For recurring questions about sending, delivery times and the destinations covered, our FAQ brings together the up-to-date answers.
