Technical Tip: Explanation of SMS credits in FortiIdentity Cloud

Description

The article describes how SMS credits are allocated and used when sending SMS from FortiIdentity Cloud. 

Scope

FortiIdentity Cloud (FortiToken Cloud).

Solution

The SMS credit allocation follows a prorated model based on the remaining duration of the license term. The license 'FC1-10-IDCLD-44502-12' is used as an example. This is a license for 1 year of FortiIdentity Cloud usage, for 25-499 users, and includes 125 SMS
credits per user, as well as one year of FortiCare Premium Support.

The total number of SMS credits is calculated:

Total = round(quantity × months × 125 / 12).

months = number of months from the reference date (e.g., when the license was added or last synced) to end_date.

quantity = number of users.

For a full twelve months: 25 × 12 × 125 / 12 = 3,125.

However, if the remaining time on the license is less than the fully licensed time (as an example, if the account is created in January, but the license start date is set to December), this will affect the total prorated allocation:

For eleven months: 25 × 11 × 125 / 12 = 2,864.58… → Rounded to 2,865.

Additionally, the number of credits does not represent the total number of SMS messages; it represents the SMS rate. An SMS may require more than one credit to be sent.

For example:

• For Austria, the SMS rate is 10 credits per SMS.
• For the first token activation, typically, the length of these exceeds the length of a single SMS segment. Thus, usually double will be charged for these.
• The token activation SMS, therefore, consumes 20 credits.
• The remaining balance (assuming the activation SMS to Austria was the only one sent) would be 3105 credits.

Related documents:
How Resource quota is calculated 
SMS licensing