Toll-Free Numbers: Every Prefix, and How to Spot Them in a List

In the US and Canada, toll-free numbers start with 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 or 888. In the UK, freephone numbers start with 0800 or 0808. Calls to them are paid for by the business that owns the number, not the caller. To find toll-free numbers in a contact list, convert every number to E.164 and filter on those prefixes, or run the list through a validator that tags each number's line type, where they show up as toll-free.

Toll-free prefixes in North America

North America shares one numbering plan, so the same toll-free codes work in the US, Canada and the other countries in the North American Numbering Plan.

Toll-free code	Example	E.164
800	1-800-555-0199	+18005550199
888	1-888-555-0199	+18885550199
877	1-877-555-0199	+18775550199
866	1-866-555-0199	+18665550199
855	1-855-555-0199	+18555550199
844	1-844-555-0199	+18445550199
833	1-833-555-0199	+18335550199

The codes were opened one after another as each one filled up, starting with 800. They are not tied to a place: a business anywhere can hold any of them. The FCC explains how toll-free numbers are assigned in its toll-free numbers guide.

Look-alikes to watch for: area codes such as 809 and 876 look similar but belong to Caribbean countries (the Dominican Republic and Jamaica) and are charged as international calls. They are not toll-free.

Freephone numbers in other countries

Country	Freephone prefix	Notes
United Kingdom	0800, 0808	Free from landlines and mobiles since 1 July 2015
Ireland	1800	Freephone
Australia	1800	Freecall; 13 and 1300 numbers are not free
Germany	0800	Free to call
France	0800 to 0805	"Numéro vert"
India	1800	Toll-free
International	+800	Universal International Freephone Numbers, assigned by the ITU

Watch for numbers that look free but aren't. In the UK, 03 numbers cost the same as a call to a normal landline, and 084 and 087 numbers carry a service charge. In Australia, 13 and 1300 numbers are charged.

Google's open-source libphonenumber, which almost every validator uses, knows each country's freephone ranges and labels those numbers TOLL_FREE.

How to spot toll-free numbers in a list

With a validator

The simplest way: run the list through a phone validator that returns a line type for every number. Toll-free numbers come back as toll_free, for every country at once, with no prefix list to maintain.

With a formula

If your numbers are already in E.164 (see E.164 phone number format), you can flag North American toll-free numbers in Excel for Microsoft 365 with:

=REGEXTEST(C2,"^\+1(800|833|844|855|866|877|888)\d{7}$")

In Google Sheets, use REGEXMATCH with the same pattern. For UK freephone:

=REGEXTEST(C2,"^\+44(800|808)\d+$")

Formulas only work if every number is in the same format first. Our guides for Excel and Google Sheets show how to get there.

With code

In Python's phonenumbers or JavaScript's libphonenumber-js, parse the number and check whether its type is toll-free. Examples are in validating phone numbers in Python and in JavaScript.

Why toll-free numbers matter in a contact list

A toll-free number reaches a company, not a person. That changes what it's good for:

• Cold calling: a toll-free number usually reaches a switchboard, a sales line or a support queue. For direct outreach, a direct dial or mobile is worth more. See phone validation for cold calling.
• SMS: many toll-free numbers are voice-only. Some are text-enabled, but you can't tell from the digits. Don't put toll-free numbers in an SMS campaign without checking. See validating phone numbers for SMS.
• Lead quality: a list where most "phone numbers" are toll-free was probably scraped from company websites. That's useful context when you judge the source.
• De-duplication: many contacts at one company can share the same toll-free number. Remove duplicates carefully, as we explain in removing duplicate phone numbers.

Find toll-free numbers in a list with SimpleVerifier

1. Export the list as a CSV with a phone column. Email columns can stay in the same file.
2. Upload it on the verifier. Numbers without a + and country code are read as US numbers.
3. Every valid number gets phone_e164, phone_country and phone_type. Toll-free numbers, from any country, show toll_free.
4. Filter on phone_type to separate toll-free lines from mobiles and landlines.

Format and line-type checks are unlimited on the $29.99 Pro plan. The Email + Phone plan ($49.99/month) adds a live carrier lookup on every number: the current carrier and the real line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), with 5,000 lookups a month and failed lookups not counted. That's the step that splits US mobiles from landlines among the numbers that aren't toll-free.

To check a single number now, paste it into the free phone number validator.