A system for symbolic communication including a communication system, a sender communication device including a processor and a memory, a symbolic communication software module stored in the sender communication device memory, the symbolic communication software module including a database of symbols, with some of the symbols being billable, each billable symbol being associated with a merchant and having a billing rate associated with its use in a message, the symbolic communication software module comprising executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to allow a user to select symbols to compose a message; send the message to a receiver communication device using a communication system; count and record each symbols used in the message in the symbol server, and bill the merchant for the use of the billable symbol in a message, using the billing rate associated with the billable symbol.