State texting laws: which ones reach your small business?

Short answer: Federal texting law is the floor, not the whole rulebook. Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia have their own laws, and they apply based on where the recipient is, not where you are. They differ on sending hours, how many messages a day, opt-outs and, in Texas, registration. The practical answer is to build to the strictest rule you can reach: written consent, a 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. window in the recipient’s time zone, and an opt-out you honor at once and for good.

A business does the federal part right. It collects written consent, registers its number, and assumes it is done. Then a customer who moved two states away gets a Sunday evening text, and a different law applies.

This page covers four states whose rules we read, not all fifty. For federal consent and carrier registration, see our guide to marketing automation for small business in the US. This is general information, not legal advice.

Why following federal rules is not enough once you text across a state line

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act sets a minimum. States can and do add their own telemarketing laws, often called mini-TCPAs. They attach to where the person receiving the message is.

So a home-services business near a state border, or one whose customers move, is covered by laws of states where it has no office. Our marketing automation guide names these laws in one paragraph. This is the detail.

Area codes travel with people, so you often cannot know where a recipient is. That argues for one strict rule for everybody.

Florida: the law that started the copycats, and its 15-day fix

Florida’s law is the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, section 501.059. A “telephonic sales call” includes a text message, and prior express written consent is required for one made using “an automated system for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers”.

A 2023 amendment (HB 761, signed May 25, 2023) changed “selection or dialing” to “selection and dialing”, so a system must automate both to be covered. Per the law firm Quarles, click-to-dial tools and CRMs that automate only one were arguably covered before and are not now. Our reading: a scheduled automated sequence from a list automates both, so do not assume you are outside the law.

The same amendment added a 15-day rule for texts. Before suing, the recipient must reply STOP, and the sender then has 15 days to stop. A suit can be brought only if texts continue after that. Damages are actual damages or US$500, whichever is greater, and up to three times that for a willful violation.

A separate provision, section 501.616, bars commercial telephone solicitation calls before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. local time in the called person’s time zone, and more than three on the same subject in 24 hours. It is worded for phone calls and does not mention texts. Our advice is to hold texts to it anyway, because that costs close to nothing.

Our view: the 15-day fix makes Florida more forgiving than its reputation, but only for a business whose STOP handling works in every tool.

Oklahoma copied Florida and kept the stricter wording

The Oklahoma Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022 has been in effect since November 1, 2022. According to Venable’s summary, it is modeled on Florida’s law.

It requires prior express written consent for a sales call involving “an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers”. Note the “or”. Oklahoma kept the broader wording Florida later narrowed. We have not read of an Oklahoma amendment, so take that as enacted.

Calls are barred before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. local time, with no more than three in 24 hours. A rebuttable presumption says a call or text to an Oklahoma area code reaches someone in Oklahoma. Damages are US$500 per violation, up to three times if willful or knowing.

Venable also describes an exemption for people with an existing business relationship with the business, or who previously bought from it. In our view that helps when texting your own past customers. Do not lean on it for a bought or shared lead list.

Texas made texts count as telephone solicitation in 2025

Texas SB 140 took effect September 1, 2025. According to Morgan Lewis, it widened telephone solicitation to include “transmission of a text or graphic message or of an image”, which brought marketing texts under rules that used to cover voice calls. A second law firm’s summary says it applies to messages sent to Texas residents or sent from Texas.

Telephone solicitors register with the Texas Secretary of State, with a US$200 filing fee per business location and US$10,000 in security. Morgan Lewis lists these exemptions: publicly traded corporations, insurance companies, supervised financial institutions, companies regulated by the FCC, nonprofits, companies soliciting former or current customers, and businesses that get their sales primarily from brick-and-mortar stores.

Most small businesses texting their own customers will look at the customer exemption first. It is an exemption from registration as described, not from the hours or the rest. The wording is worth a lawyer’s hour.

The hours come from section 301.051 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code: after 9 a.m. and before 9 p.m. on a weekday or Saturday, and after 12 noon and before 9 p.m. on a Sunday. Consumers can sue under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Morgan Lewis says private claims can reach US$1,500 per violation, with treble damages for willful violations, and the attorney general may seek US$5,000 per violation. The second firm’s summary notes a consumer can bring more than one action if the conduct continues. These are the firms’ figures, not our reading of the statute.

Virginia: one word stops you for ten years

Virginia amended its Telephone Privacy Protection Act (SB 1339), effective January 1, 2026. According to a local news report, a person can reply STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE to a solicitation text, and the sender must honor that for at least 10 years. The same report says solicitation calls and messages can be sent only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. We did not verify Virginia’s damages figures, so we state none.

Ten years means “permanent” for any practical system. A suppression list wiped when you change texting platforms breaks this law.

Four states side by side

State	Sending hours (recipient’s local time)	Opt-out rule	Registration	Private lawsuit
Federal floor	8 a.m. to 9 p.m.	Any reasonable means, within 10 business days	Carrier registration only	Yes
Florida	8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (written for calls)	STOP reply, 15 days to stop before a suit	Not covered here	Yes, US$500
Oklahoma	8 a.m. to 8 p.m.	Not covered in our source	Not covered in our source	Yes, US$500
Texas	9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon to Sat, noon to 9 p.m. Sun	Not covered in our sources	Secretary of State, US$200 and US$10,000 security, with exemptions	Yes, under the DTPA
Virginia	8 a.m. to 9 p.m.	STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE, honored 10 years	Not covered in our source	Not verified

Maryland and other states have their own versions that we did not review for this article, so treat the table as four examples, not the whole map.

The late-night text lawsuits, and what a 2026 ruling changed

FCC rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the called party’s local time. This section draws on a May 2026 analysis from Squire Patton Boggs.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed a wave of class actions over texts sent outside those hours, including to people who had signed up. In March 2025 the Ecommerce Innovation Alliance and others petitioned the FCC to clarify that people who gave consent cannot claim damages for messages outside those hours. As of that article, the FCC had not acted.

Many cases settled without a ruling. On April 30, 2026, the federal district court in Delaware, in King v. Bon Charge, held that where the recipient had consented by knowingly giving her number to the sender, the texts were not “telephone solicitations”, so the quiet-hours provision did not apply.

Our view: good news, not a reason to text at 10 p.m. It is one district court, other courts are not bound, the state hours above rest on their own statutes, and a late text annoys the customer whether or not it is lawful.

What the federal opt-out rule requires now, and what is on hold until 2027

Per Burr and Forman: since April 11, 2025, a sender must honor a revocation of consent made by any reasonable means, within 10 business days. Words such as stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel and unsubscribe count.

On hold is the “revoke-all” rule, under which an opt-out from one kind of message would count for all automated calls and texts from that sender. It was first due April 11, 2025, then delayed a year. On January 6, 2026 the FCC delayed it again to January 31, 2027 while it reviews comments on possible changes.

Our advice: build for revoke-all now. One suppression list across email, text and CRM tools is cheaper than rebuilding in 2027, and Virginia’s ten-year rule needs it anyway. Our marketing automation guide said these details were still moving. This is where they stood in October 2026.

A worked example: a Tulsa roofer with customers in three states

This example is hypothetical. A Tulsa, Oklahoma roofing company has 900 past customers who agreed in writing to marketing texts: 700 with Oklahoma numbers, 150 in north Texas from a hail season two years ago, and 50 who have since moved to Florida (700 + 150 + 50 = 900).

The owner wants to send a fall inspection offer at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, when she does admin. Oklahoma’s hours end at 8 p.m., and she holds her Florida texts to Florida’s 8 p.m. limit for calls, so for 750 people it is out. The Texas Sunday window is noon to 9 p.m., and the federal window runs to 9 p.m., so either alone would allow it.

On Texas registration, the 150 appear to be “former or current customers” for the exemption, and she should confirm that.

The result: one message, scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in each recipient’s time zone, after she tests STOP on her own phone.

One set of rules that clears all four states

This is our composite of the rules above, not a legal standard.

1. Written consent for marketing texts, kept with date and wording. Our marketing automation guide shows what that looks like.
2. Send only 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone, Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. or not at all. That is Texas’s later start with Florida’s and Oklahoma’s earlier finish.
3. No more than three marketing texts on one subject in 24 hours. In practice, one.
4. STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE and any plain request to stop work at once, in every tool, permanently.
5. If you text Texas residents, settle the registration question before the first send.
6. Do not text bought or shared lists at all.

Most texting platforms can enforce a sending window by recipient time zone. We compare them in marketing automation platforms compared for US small businesses. A phone number typed into a website chat is not consent for promotions, as our guide to AI chatbots for lead capture explains.

When to leave texting alone

Leave it alone if you cannot say where each number came from, or if no one owns the suppression list.

If your list is small enough to text by hand, one at a time, as a person, that is another case. A personal reply to a customer’s own question is different from a campaign. We are not saying hand-sent texts are exempt from any law.

For businesses in these positions, email is the lower-risk channel. This is general information, not legal advice. If you want help with consent capture and a clean suppression list, see our AI automation service or request a free audit.

Frequently asked questions

Do state texting laws apply if my business is not in that state?

Yes. State texting laws follow the person receiving the text, not your office address. Oklahoma’s law presumes a text to an Oklahoma area code reaches someone in Oklahoma. Texas’s covers messages sent to Texas residents or sent from Texas. So a business based in one state with customers in four states has four sets of rules to follow, on top of the federal floor.

What hours can I send marketing texts in the US?

The federal rule is no marketing texts before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time. Florida’s and Oklahoma’s limits end at 8 p.m., though Florida’s is written for phone calls. Texas allows 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday. Our advice is one window that clears all of them: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Do I have to register with Texas before texting customers there?

Possibly. Texas requires telephone solicitors to register with the Secretary of State, with a US$200 filing fee per business location and US$10,000 in security, and since September 1, 2025 that law counts texts. Exemptions listed by the law firm Morgan Lewis include companies contacting current or former customers and businesses that sell mainly through physical stores. Confirm which applies with a lawyer.

What do I have to do when a customer replies STOP?

Stop, in every tool. Federal rules, in force since April 11, 2025, give you at most 10 business days and accept any reasonable way of asking. Florida gives 15 days after a STOP reply before a suit over texts can be filed. Virginia requires honoring STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE for at least 10 years. Treat an opt-out as immediate and permanent.

Can a customer who agreed to texts sue over one sent late at night?

People have sued on that theory. In April 2026 a federal court in Delaware held that texts sent with the recipient’s consent were not telephone solicitations, so the federal quiet-hours rule did not apply. It is one district court’s decision, as of May 2026 the FCC had not ruled on a petition asking the same question, and state hours are separate. Keep to the hours.

How much can breaking a state texting law cost?

In Florida and Oklahoma, it is US$500 per violation, and up to three times that if willful. Florida’s figure is actual damages or US$500, whichever is greater. In Texas, according to the law firm Morgan Lewis, private claims under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act can reach US$1,500 per violation, and the attorney general can seek US$5,000 per violation. These sit on top of federal damages.