Free Carrier Lookup Tool
Find out if a phone number is a mobile, landline, or VoIP line. And find out if it can actually receive your texts.
How to Use this Carrier Lookup Tool
- Enter the phone number you want to check. US and Canadian numbers, any format.
- Click Check the carrier.
- You get the line type and the carrier back in about a second.
That's the whole thing. No account, no email, one number at a time. Use it to check a phone number's carrier before you call, or to run a cell phone carrier lookup on a contact you aren't sure about.
When to Run a Carrier Lookup
Most people land here for one of three reasons.
Before a text campaign. If your list has landlines in it, those messages fail without telling you. Running a lookup on the numbers you're least sure about tells you how big the problem is before you spend anything.
After a text didn't go through. Someone says they never got your message. A carrier lookup is the first thing to check, and landline is the most common answer.
While cleaning up a contact list. Numbers drift over the years. People port them, businesses switch providers, and a mobile number you collected in 2019 might be a landline now.
Mobile, Landline, or VoIP: What the Difference Means for Texting
Mobile numbers
Mobile numbers live on a wireless carrier's network. They send and receive texts by default. So if a lookup comes back mobile, the number isn't your problem. Delivery trouble at that point comes from your side, usually an unregistered sending number.
Landlines
Landlines were never built for text messages. Send one anyway and your provider takes it, then it gets dropped somewhere downstream. No bounce. No error. No delivery receipt telling you what happened.
You can text-enable a landline. That adds messaging to the number you already have, without changing it and without touching voice service.
VoIP numbers
VoIP numbers come from internet-based providers instead of traditional wireless carriers. Most can receive texts. But carriers filter VoIP traffic harder, because a lot of spam comes from VoIP numbers.
A VoIP result doesn't mean your texts will fail. It means delivery is less predictable, so registration matters more.
Why the carrier name might not match the provider you expect
A carrier lookup returns the carrier that owns the network a number runs on. That's not always the company that sold it. If a business bought its number through a reseller or a cloud phone platform, you'll usually see the underlying carrier instead. That's just how number ownership gets recorded.
It also means a carrier lookup can't tell you what platform a business uses for phone service. If you need to know that, you have to ask them.
Phone Line Management Resources
Check out these additional SMS marketing resources.
What Happens When You Text a Landline?
Porting Phone Number vs. Hosted Number | How to Port Numbers
How to Get a Business Text Number Without a New Line
FAQs
Frequently asked phone number management questions.
Run the number through a carrier lookup. It checks the number against carrier records and returns the line type: mobile, landline, or VoIP.
You can't tell from the number itself. Area codes and prefixes stopped being reliable once number portability let people keep a number when they switched providers.
Not by default. A standard landline can't receive SMS, so the message never shows up. You can text-enable the line, which adds messaging to the number without changing it. After that, texts sent to the landline land in whatever inbox you've connected. Voice calls keep working the same way.
Run it through a carrier lookup. The line type comes back as VoIP if the number was assigned by an internet-based provider instead of a wireless carrier. You can't tell by looking at it. VoIP numbers use the same formats and area codes as mobile numbers.
A carrier lookup checks a phone number against carrier records and returns two things: which carrier the number belongs to, and what type of line it is. It's how you find out whether a number is a mobile, a landline, or VoIP before you send anything to it.
Not on this page. Bulk lookup tools get abused, so we don't run them in the browser. Use the list request form instead. Send us your list and we'll run it, then email back a spreadsheet showing which numbers are mobile, which are landlines, and which are VoIP.
Because carrier records point to whoever owns the underlying network, not whoever sold the number. Plenty of businesses buy numbers through resellers or cloud phone platforms that ride on a bigger carrier's network. The lookup sees the network owner. That's expected, not a mistake.
No. We run the lookup and return the result. The number isn't saved to a contact list, added to a database, or used for anything else. If you request a list check, that's different, and we tell you exactly what happens to your file before you send it.
Very accurate on line type. Carrier records are the same source your phone provider uses, so mobile, landline, and VoIP come back reliably. Carrier name is where it gets fuzzy. If a number was bought through a reseller, you'll see the underlying network carrier instead of the company that actually sold it.
Nothing. Your provider accepts the message and it gets dropped somewhere downstream. You won't get a bounce or an error, so your reports will show it as sent. The person you texted never sees it. That's why landlines sitting in a contact list are so easy to miss.
Neither. VoIP numbers run over the internet instead of a wireless or copper network, so they're their own line type. Most can receive texts. But carriers treat VoIP traffic with more suspicion than mobile traffic, so delivery is less predictable.
Usually, yes. Most VoIP providers support SMS. The catch is that carriers filter messages headed to VoIP numbers harder, because spammers use them heavily. Your delivery rate to VoIP numbers will typically run lower than to mobile numbers, especially if your sending number isn't well registered.
Yes. No account, no email, no credit card. Enter a number and you get the line type and carrier back. If you need a whole list checked, use the request form and we'll run it for you.
Because carrier records point to whoever owns the underlying network, not whoever sold the number. Plenty of businesses buy numbers through resellers or cloud phone platforms that ride on a bigger carrier's network. The lookup sees the network owner. That's expected, not a mistake.
No. A carrier lookup returns line type and carrier. That's it. DNC status lives in a separate registry and needs its own check. If you're sending marketing messages, you need consent records regardless of what the DNC list says.
Yes, as long as it ported to a line type that supports texting. Porting moves a number between providers, and the new line type is what decides whether texts get through. Run the number through a lookup once the port completes to confirm what it is now.
No. A carrier lookup reads carrier records. It doesn't place a call, send a text, or touch the number in any way the owner could see. Nothing shows up on their bill or their phone.
