Free tool · 200+ countries

Phone carrier lookup

Enter a mobile number to see which network it was issued to, together with its country, line type and formats.

What you get

Mobile network the number block was assigned to
Valid or invalid, mobile or landline
Country and calling code
All standard number formats

Private by design

The check runs in your browser with Google's libphonenumber data. The numbers you enter are not sent to our servers or stored.

Building this into an app? Use the Carrier lookup API and its validate endpoint documentation.

How carrier lookup works

Telecom regulators hand out phone numbers to operators in blocks. In Nigeria, for example, numbers starting with 0803 were issued to MTN, and numbers starting with 0802 to Airtel. The lookup compares your number with more than 30,000 of these blocks from Google’s libphonenumber data and returns the operator.

When you need a live lookup

Prefix data shows where a number came from. For SMS routing, fraud checks or cost control you usually need the current carrier and line type. The numlookupapi API returns carrier, line type and location in one request:

{
  "valid": true,
  "international_format": "+12069220880",
  "country_code": "US",
  "location": "Seattle",
  "carrier": "",
  "line_type": "landline"
}

See the mobile prefix lists for every network in a country.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find out which carrier a phone number belongs to?

Enter the number above. The lookup compares the number with the blocks of numbers that regulators assigned to each mobile network. For most countries outside North America this identifies the network the number was issued to.

Why does the carrier lookup not work for US numbers?

In the US and Canada, number blocks are shared between carriers and numbers are ported very often, so the first digits do not identify the carrier. A live lookup against the porting databases is needed, which the numlookupapi API provides.

Is the carrier still correct if the number was ported?

No. With mobile number portability, people can take their number to another network. The free lookup shows the original network. Use a live API lookup if you need the current carrier, e.g. for SMS routing.

Can I find out who owns a phone number?

No. Carrier lookups return information about the number and network, not the name of the person. Subscriber names are personal data and are not published by carriers.

Phone number API

Validate numbers like this in your app

numlookupapi checks any phone number worldwide in one request and returns validity, line type, carrier, location and every standard format as JSON.

Read the documentation

100 free requests every month. No credit card required.

GET https://api.numlookupapi.com/v1/validate/+12069220880

{
  "valid": true,
  "number": "12069220880",
  "local_format": "2069220880",
  "international_format": "+12069220880",
  "country_prefix": "+1",
  "country_code": "US",
  "country_name": "United States of America",
  "location": "Seattle",
  "line_type": "landline",
  "e164_format": "+12069220880",
  "national_format": "(206) 922-0880"
}

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