SMS Mac

GSM Alphabet

Standard SMS can contain 160 characters. However, the characters typed must be part of the so-called 7-bit default alphabet as specified by GSM 3.38. You can see in the table below that this alphabet contains all ASCII characters and some accented characters.

For example, u umlaut (ü) and e with grave (è), are in this set. Please study the table below to have a complete overview. Using any character not in this set, will make the SMS a Unicode SMS and limit the length of the SMS to 70 characters.

Note: a few characters actually count as two characters. These characters are:

{}[]~|\ and the Euro symbol: €

You can also see that in the table below in the hex column. These characters need to be escaped.

Below is the 7 bit default alphabet as specified by GSM 03.38. The corresponding ISO-8859-1 decimal codes are shown in the rightmost column. Note that the euro sign (€) is also included.

Hex	Dec	Character name	Character	ISO-8859-1 DEC
0×00	0	COMMERCIAL AT	@	64
0×01	1	POUND SIGN	£	163
0×02	2	DOLLAR SIGN	$	36
0×03	3	YEN SIGN	¥	165
0×04	4	LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE	è	232
0×05	5	LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE	é	233
0×06	6	LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE	ù	249
0×07	7	LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE	ì	236
0×08	8	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE	ò	242
0×09	9	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA	Ç	199
0×0A	10	LINE FEED		10
0×0B	11	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE	Ø	216
0×0C	12	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE	ø	248
0×0D	13	CARRIAGE RETURN		13
0×0E	14	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE	Å	197
0×0F	15	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE	å	229
0×10	16	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA	Δ
0×11	17	LOW LINE	_	95
0×12	18	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI	Φ
0×13	19	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA	Γ
0×14	20	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA	Λ
0×15	21	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA	Ω
0×16	22	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI	Π
0×17	23	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI	Ψ
0×18	24	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA	Σ
0×19	25	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA	Θ
0×1A	26	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI	Ξ
0×1B	27	ESCAPE TO EXTENSION TABLE
0×1B0A	27 10	FORM FEED		12
0×1B14	27 20	CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT	^	94
0×1B28	27 40	LEFT CURLY BRACKET	{	123
0×1B29	27 41	RIGHT CURLY BRACKET	}	125
0×1B2F	27 47	REVERSE SOLIDUS (BACKSLASH)	\	92
0×1B3C	27 60	LEFT SQUARE BRACKET	[	91
0x1B3D	27 61	TILDE	~	126
0x1B3E	27 62	RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET	]	93
0×1B40	27 64	VERTICAL BAR	\|	124
0×1B65	27 101	EURO SIGN	€	164 (ISO-8859-15)
0×1C	28	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE	Æ	198
0×1D	29	LATIN SMALL LETTER AE	æ	230
0×1E	30	LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (German)	ß	223
0×1F	31	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE	É	201
0×20	32	SPACE		32
0×21	33	EXCLAMATION MARK	!	33
0×22	34	QUOTATION MARK	"	34
0×23	35	NUMBER SIGN	#	35
0×24	36	CURRENCY SIGN	¤	164 (ISO-8859-1)
0×25	37	PERCENT SIGN	%	37
0×26	38	AMPERSAND	&	38
0×27	39	APOSTROPHE	'	39
0×28	40	LEFT PARENTHESIS	(	40
0×29	41	RIGHT PARENTHESIS	)	41
0×2A	42	ASTERISK	*	42
0×2B	43	PLUS SIGN	+	43
0×2C	44	COMMA	,	44
0×2D	45	HYPHEN-MINUS	-	45
0×2E	46	FULL STOP	.	46
0×2F	47	SOLIDUS (SLASH)	/	47
0×30	48	DIGIT ZERO	0	48
0×31	49	DIGIT ONE	1	49
0×32	50	DIGIT TWO	2	50
0×33	51	DIGIT THREE	3	51
0×34	52	DIGIT FOUR	4	52
0×35	53	DIGIT FIVE	5	53
0×36	54	DIGIT SIX	6	54
0×37	55	DIGIT SEVEN	7	55
0×38	56	DIGIT EIGHT	8	56
0×39	57	DIGIT NINE	9	57
0×3A	58	COLON	:	58
0×3B	59	SEMICOLON	;	59
0×3C	60	LESS-THAN SIGN	<	60
0×3D	61	EQUALS SIGN	=	61
0×3E	62	GREATER-THAN SIGN	>	62
0×3F	63	QUESTION MARK	?	63
0×40	64	INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK	¡	161
0×41	65	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A	A	65
0×42	66	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B	B	66
0×43	67	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C	C	67
0×44	68	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D	D	68
0×45	69	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E	E	69
0×46	70	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F	F	70
0×47	71	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G	G	71
0×48	72	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H	H	72
0×49	73	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I	I	73
0×4A	74	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J	J	74
0×4B	75	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K	K	75
0×4C	76	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L	L	76
0×4D	77	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M	M	77
0×4E	78	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N	N	78
0×4F	79	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O	O	79
0×50	80	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P	P	80
0×51	81	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q	Q	81
0×52	82	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R	R	82
0×53	83	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S	S	83
0×54	84	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T	T	84
0×55	85	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U	U	85
0×56	86	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V	V	86
0×57	87	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W	W	87
0×58	88	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X	X	88
0×59	89	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y	Y	89
0×5A	90	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z	Z	90
0×5B	91	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS	Ä	196
0×5C	92	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS	Ö	214
0×5D	93	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE	Ñ	209
0×5E	94	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS	Ü	220
0×5F	95	SECTION SIGN	§	167
0×60	96	INVERTED QUESTION MARK	¿	191
0×61	97	LATIN SMALL LETTER A	a	97
0×62	98	LATIN SMALL LETTER B	b	98
0×63	99	LATIN SMALL LETTER C	c	99
0×64	100	LATIN SMALL LETTER D	d	100
0×65	101	LATIN SMALL LETTER E	e	101
0×66	102	LATIN SMALL LETTER F	f	102
0×67	103	LATIN SMALL LETTER G	g	103
0×68	104	LATIN SMALL LETTER H	h	104
0×69	105	LATIN SMALL LETTER I	i	105
0×6A	106	LATIN SMALL LETTER J	j	106
0×6B	107	LATIN SMALL LETTER K	k	107
0×6C	108	LATIN SMALL LETTER L	l	108
0×6D	109	LATIN SMALL LETTER M	m	109
0×6E	110	LATIN SMALL LETTER N	n	110
0×6F	111	LATIN SMALL LETTER O	o	111
0×70	112	LATIN SMALL LETTER P	p	112
0×71	113	LATIN SMALL LETTER Q	q	113
0×72	114	LATIN SMALL LETTER R	r	114
0×73	115	LATIN SMALL LETTER S	s	115
0×74	116	LATIN SMALL LETTER T	t	116
0×75	117	LATIN SMALL LETTER U	u	117
0×76	118	LATIN SMALL LETTER V	v	118
0×77	119	LATIN SMALL LETTER W	w	119
0×78	120	LATIN SMALL LETTER X	x	120
0×79	121	LATIN SMALL LETTER Y	y	121
0×7A	122	LATIN SMALL LETTER Z	z	122
0×7B	123	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS	ä	228
0×7C	124	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS	ö	246
0×7D	125	LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE	ñ	241
0×7E	126	LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS	ü	252
0×7F	127	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE	à	224

GSM Alphabet

Requirements

Support