Skip to main content
To crack down on spam and other unwanted messaging, carriers must know the legal entity responsible for every text message sent from software to a device on their network. Before your messages will be delivered at scale from a dedicated number, you need to register two things: a brand (your business identity) and a campaign (what you’re sending and why). Surge’s Account → Campaign model maps directly to what carriers call a brand and its associated campaigns. Registration typically completes in 24–48 hours, with a 72-hour maximum response window.

​
Two paths to registration

Register via API

The preferred path. Use it if you’re provisioning accounts for customers, automating onboarding, or just prefer working in code. Covers account creation through phone number purchase.

Register via Dashboard

The form-based alternative at hq.surge.app. Mirrors the API fields. Toll-free number verification is currently only available here (API support is planned).
Pick the API path unless you need toll-free verification today, in which case start with the dashboard.

​
What you’ll need

To complete registration you need:
  • Your business’s legal name, EIN (US) or CBN (Canada), and registered address
  • A publicly accessible website that clearly reflects your business
  • A privacy policy and terms of service (both must be publicly accessible, not behind a login)
  • A clear description of how users opt in to receive your messages
  • 2–5 sample messages that represent what you’ll actually send

​
What happens after you submit

After you submit a campaign, Surge sends it to The Campaign Registry (TCR) and your carrier network for review. The campaign enters in_review immediately and moves to active once approved:
If reviewers find issues with your registration, the status becomes rejected with details about what needs to change. See Fixing a Rejected Campaign for how to read that feedback and resubmit. Once your campaign reaches active, Surge fires a campaign.approved webhook event and starts attaching any phone numbers on the account to the campaign. Phone numbers can’t send production messages until they’re attached to a campaign: even on an active campaign, attachment runs as a follow-up step. Listen for the phone_number.attached_to_campaign webhook event for each number; that’s the signal a specific number is ready for production traffic.

​
Before you register

If you’re building software that registers brands on behalf of your own customers, read Building on Surge: One Account per Customer before you start. The architecture decisions you make at this stage are difficult to undo. Want to understand what trips up most registrations? Avoiding Rejection covers the seven most common failure patterns with real reviewer feedback.