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The SMS API lets you programmatically send SMS messages to end users and handle inbound replies through your PolyAI agent. It supports two directions:
  • Outbound — your system triggers an SMS to a user via the Send SMS endpoint. Each request creates a new conversation session.
  • Inbound — users reply to an outbound SMS (or message your agent’s number directly). The agent handles the conversation automatically over SMS.

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Prerequisites

  • An API key provisioned via Agent Studio — create one in the API keys tab under your account section (passed as X-PolyAi-Auth-Token)
  • A connector ID for the target project (passed as X-TOKEN-ID). Contact your PolyAI representative.
  • At least one Twilio phone number provisioned for the project. The API automatically selects from the project’s available numbers for the token’s environment (dev, sandbox, live) unless you specify one via agent_number.

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Base URL

Replace <cluster> with the region for your deployment:
ClusterRegionBase URL
us-1United Stateshttps://api.us-1.platform.polyai.app
uk-1United Kingdomhttps://api.uk-1.platform.polyai.app
euw-1EU Westhttps://api.euw-1.platform.polyai.app

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Authentication

All requests require two headers for authentication: 
curl -X POST https://api.<cluster>.platform.polyai.app/v1/outbound-sms \
  -H "X-PolyAi-Auth-Token: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-TOKEN-ID: YOUR_CONNECTOR_ID" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

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How it works

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Outbound flow

  1. Send message — POST to /v1/outbound-sms with the recipient number and message text.
  2. Session created — The API creates a new conversation session. The message behaves like a greeting message, so it is fully part of the conversation context that the agent can access.
  3. User replies — If the user replies, the agent handles the conversation as a normal SMS session.
  4. Inactivity timeout — If the conversation is engaged (the user has replied) and goes idle for 24 hours, a warning message is sent. If the user replies within 10 minutes the session stays open; otherwise it terminates.

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Inbound flow

When a user sends an SMS to one of your provisioned Twilio numbers:
  1. Twilio routes the message — Twilio forwards the inbound SMS to PolyAI via the configured webhook.
  2. Session created or resumed — If there’s an active session with that user number, the message is added to the existing conversation. Otherwise, a new session is created.
  3. Agent responds — The agent processes the message and replies via SMS automatically.
  4. Conversation continues — The user and agent exchange messages over SMS until the conversation ends or times out.
Inbound SMS requires Twilio webhook configuration. This is handled automatically when you provision a number through PolyAI. No additional API calls are needed — the agent handles inbound messages through the same conversation engine used for voice and webchat.

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Agent number selection

By default the API picks from the Twilio numbers provisioned for the connector token’s environment. You can override this by passing agent_number in the request body — the number must be one of the provisioned numbers or the request is rejected with a 400.

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Number availability & compliance

Not every country supports SMS, and the number type you use affects throughput, cost, and lead time. Before sending SMS in a new country, check Number availability & compliance for country-by-country details, regulatory links, and the A2P Campaign Pre-Scanner to validate your setup against carrier requirements. For US and Canadian numbers, A2P 10DLC registration is required — carriers block messages entirely without it.

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Rate limits

Rate limits are applied per project. If you receive a 429, back off and retry with exponential backoff.
Last modified on June 26, 2026