US area codes, and what it costs to call one
Every ordinary US number costs $0.02 a minute here whatever area code it carries, because the United States is sold at one flat national rate rather than priced region by region. What changes between area codes is not the price. It is which exchanges inside them we can carry at that price at all.
01The table
24 area codes, priced and checked
The last column is the one nobody else publishes: 85 exchanges across these 24 codes carry a wholesale cost the flat US rate cannot absorb, so they are refused rather than billed at a price you did not agree to. 6 of the codes below are completely clear; 707 carries the most at 17.
| Code | Where | Per minute | Refused |
|---|---|---|---|
| 206 | Seattle, Washington | $0.02 | 3 |
| 212 | Manhattan, in New York City | $0.02 | none |
| 213 | downtown Los Angeles, California | $0.02 | 2 |
| 305 | Miami, Florida | $0.02 | 4 |
| 312 | downtown Chicago, Illinois | $0.02 | 1 |
| 346 | Houston, Texas | $0.02 | 8 |
| 404 | Atlanta, Georgia | $0.02 | none |
| 415 | San Francisco, California | $0.02 | 5 |
| 469 | Dallas, Texas | $0.02 | 4 |
| 562 | Long Beach, California | $0.02 | 1 |
| 602 | Phoenix, Arizona | $0.02 | none |
| 619 | San Diego, California | $0.02 | 2 |
| 646 | Manhattan, in New York City | $0.02 | none |
| 659 | Birmingham, Alabama | $0.02 | none |
| 702 | Las Vegas, Nevada | $0.02 | 16 |
| 707 | the North Coast of California | $0.02 | 17 |
| 713 | Houston, Texas | $0.02 | 3 |
| 718 | New York City | $0.02 | 1 |
| 720 | Denver, Colorado | $0.02 | 4 |
| 747 | the San Fernando Valley, California | $0.02 | 4 |
| 786 | Miami, Florida | $0.02 | 3 |
| 832 | Houston, Texas | $0.02 | 6 |
| 917 | New York City | $0.02 | none |
| 929 | New York City | $0.02 | 1 |
Prices per minute in US dollars from a US caller ID, read live from the published card. Refused counts are the NPA-NXX exchanges inside each code that the card blocks, counted from the same file, so both columns move when the card does.
02The selection
Why these and not all of them
There are around 350 area codes in service. Publishing a page for each is an afternoon’s work and it is also how a site gets classified as mass-produced, which is a judgement made about the whole domain rather than about the pages that earned it. So these twenty-four are chosen, each carries something written about it and something derived from the rate card, and the set grows only where both of those stay true.
03Call one
Price a US number
Type the whole number and the exact price appears before anything dials. The first minute is free and needs no card.
Type a number to see its exact price.
Sign up and call. First minute on us, no card details.
04Questions
Questions
Does the area code change what a call costs?
No. The United States and Canada are sold at one flat national rate rather than priced region by region, so every ordinary US number costs $0.02 a minute whichever area code it carries. What an area code can change is whether a particular exchange inside it is carried at all: a small number of high-cost ranges are refused rather than billed at a surprise rate.
Can you tell if a US number is a mobile or a landline?
Not from the number, and neither can anyone else honestly. North American numbering never separated the two, so an area code carries both and a number can be ported between them without a digit changing. Almost everywhere else in the world the band is readable from the digits and it decides the price, which is why the keypad here resolves it rather than asking. For a US number it makes no difference to the bill.
How do I call a US number from another country?
Dial your country's international access code, then 1, then the ten digits. From a browser you skip that entirely: type the number with a plus and the country code and it dials. Either way it costs $0.02 a minute here, published before you dial, and the person you are calling needs no app and no account.
Why are only some area codes listed here?
Because this is a selection rather than a directory. There are around 350 area codes in service and publishing a page for each would produce hundreds of near-identical pages, which is a thing search engines classify at the level of the whole site rather than the page. Each of these carries editorial and derived data specific to it, and the set grows only where that is true.
Call a US number from anywhere in the world
$0.02 a minute whatever the area code, published before you dial, with nothing to install at either end. The first minute is free without a card.