How much do picture messages (MMS) cost on UK networks?

Picture messages (MMS) on Vodafone cost between 66p and 75p per message when sent outside your plan allowance. Pay Monthly customers pay 75p per MMS as of April 2026, while Pay As You Go 'Simply' users now pay 70p following a price rise in September 2025. These charges apply only when your tariff does not include MMS or you have exhausted your allowance.

Most Vodafone plans today treat picture messages as an out-of-bundle cost. Basics plans do not support MMS at all. If you send photos regularly, switching to a data-based app like WhatsApp or iMessage will save you money, since a 1MB photo uses just 1MB of data rather than costing 75p.

Current Vodafone MMS pricing

Vodafone applies different rates depending on whether you are on a monthly contract or a prepaid tariff. Here are the official charges for sending a picture message (up to 300KB) within the UK:

• Pay Monthly (out-of-bundle): 75p per message. This rate came into force on 14 April 2026, up from 70p. Details appear on Vodafone's out-of-bundle price changes page.
• Pay As You Go 'Simply': 70p per message. The price increased from 66p on 3 September 2025, as confirmed in Vodafone's Pay As You Go charges guide.
• Vodafone Basics: MMS is not available. These plans exclude picture messaging, international calls, and premium services to keep costs low.

Standard SMS text messages are cheaper. Pay Monthly customers pay 48p per SMS (as of April 2026), and Pay As You Go 'Simply' users pay 27p (up from 26p in September 2025). The gap between SMS and MMS pricing is substantial: a Pay Monthly customer pays 27p more for a picture message than a text, while a Pay As You Go user pays 43p more.

Which Vodafone plans include picture messages?

The claim that most Vodafone plans bundle unlimited MMS is outdated. Many current tariffs offer unlimited standard texts but exclude picture messages from that allowance.

Vodafone's Basics plans explicitly bar MMS. Pay As You Go 'Big Value Bundles' typically include unlimited SMS but not MMS. If you send picture messages often, Vodafone offers an 'Unlimited Picture Messages' Extra that you can add to your plan for a monthly fee. Whether this is worthwhile depends on your usage: sending eleven picture messages a month on Pay Monthly would cost £8.25, so an add-on priced below that figure would save you money.

To check whether your plan includes MMS, open the My Vodafone app and review your plan details, or dial 191 from your Vodafone mobile to speak with customer services.

Sending picture messages abroad

Roaming charges apply when you send a picture message while outside the UK. Vodafone's official charges guide states that sending an MMS while roaming in Rest of World Zones 1, 2, 3, and 4 costs 66p per message. This is separate from the cost of sending a message from the UK to an international number.

Roaming rates change periodically. Before you travel, check the specific rates for your destination on Vodafone's travelling abroad page.

Three ways to avoid MMS charges

At 75p per message for many users, costs can mount quickly if you send photos regularly. Here are practical alternatives.

Switch to internet messaging apps. WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Messages (with RCS chat features enabled), Facebook Messenger, and Signal all send media files using your mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. If you are on Wi-Fi, sending photos is free. If you use mobile data, a 1MB photo consumes 1MB of your allowance, which on most monthly plans is far cheaper than a 75p MMS fee. For example, a typical 30GB monthly allowance would let you send 30,000 one-megabyte photos before running out of data.

Connect to Wi-Fi before sending. Ensure your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network before you share a photo. This guarantees that apps like iMessage and Google Messages will use the free internet connection rather than defaulting to the mobile network's MMS service if your data signal is weak.

Review your plan. If you frequently need to send picture messages to contacts who do not use modern messaging apps, it may be cheaper to adjust your mobile plan. Contact Vodafone to see if moving to a different tariff or adding the 'Unlimited Picture Messages' Extra would cost less than paying the per-message rate. Sending just ten picture messages a month on Pay Monthly would cost £7.50, which may exceed the cost of a plan add-on.