How to receive an SMS online

A personal phone number belongs only to you for years. A free phone number here is shared: it belongs to nobody, and anyone on the same page can read its inbox. That is what keeps these numbers free, with no SIM card and no monthly bill. Use a free number once to receive a code, then treat the job as done. None is private, so keep banking and work logins off it.

Why go free instead of personal? To skip handing a real phone number to a site you do not fully trust. Wifi, mobile data or a VPN all reach the free numbers the same way, and none change which numbers show active. If the page will not load, reload once before you assume the number is down.

Most codes land within a couple of minutes: send a message to a temporary number below and get your free sms shortly. Refresh the page if the inbox looks empty; the list of numbers updates as new messages arrive, newest on top.

If five minutes pass with nothing, stop refreshing the same phone number. Get a different active temporary number from the list of numbers and try again, since the first was likely busy with someone else's sms request. A slow inbox is not a network setting you can fix, but a second free number usually clears it.

It happens: the site may block numbers it flags as shared, another visitor may have grabbed the same one of the numbers at the same moment, or it may be near the end of its active window. Get a different active temporary number and repeat the sms request before blaming your connection — it rarely is the cause.

For a full walkthrough of every reason a code goes missing, see: what to do when a temporary phone number is not receiving SMS — checks worth running before giving up on free numbers.

People reach for a temporary phone number to sign up for an app account, test verification, or keep a personal phone number out of a form they do not trust. This free number works to receive sms codes from websites and apps on any connection. WhatsApp verification is one common case, and the same steps apply on most other sms services.

See the full list of covered apps on the services page, or browse every free temporary number active by country. Each service has its own quirks on which numbers it accepts — check that service's page if a sign-up keeps failing.

Most sign-ups people run through here want a US phone number, and most of the numbers on this page are from the United States. To receive an SMS online for a US service, open United States, pick a temporary US number marked active, enter it in the form, and read the code in the inbox on that temporary number's page. Canada shares the same +1 country code, so a Canadian number reaches most US forms the same way if no US number is free right now.

A free US phone number is enough to receive an SMS from a website that only checks that the code arrives. Free phone numbers fall short where the service also checks who the phone number belongs to, which is what the next section covers.

Every site here hands you a shared temporary phone number: its inbox is open to anyone on the same page, and the number has verified other accounts before you. That is fine for a throwaway sign-up and useless once a service checks the number's history. The names that keep coming up all share these limits:

• tempnum.org, 24sms7.com, smscodes.io — a short list of shared numbers that rotate out fast; the phone number you want is often already used.
• anonymsms.com — a handful of countries; strict services reject its numbers on sight.
• tardigrada.io, smsbnb.com — US-only, with few numbers and no say over which phone number you get.
• sms-acktiwator.ru — narrow coverage; the same code you read is readable by everyone.

None is a bad pick so much as a limited one: shared temporary numbers are the whole category, and the code is never really private. When a number keeps getting refused, the fix is not another site but a phone number that belongs only to you. That is the next section.