Local or toll-free?

What a toll-free number is

A toll-free number is one the called party pays for rather than the caller. In North America they use a defined set of codes: the FCC lists them as "800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 and 833."2

They carry no geography. An 800 number says nothing about where you are, which is exactly the point for a national business and exactly the problem for a local one.

Who actually controls them

This is where toll-free diverges sharply from an ordinary number, and it explains almost everything else on this page.

Toll-free numbers live in a central database. 47 CFR § 52.101 defines a Responsible Organization, or RespOrg, as "The entity chosen by a toll free subscriber to manage and administer the appropriate records in the toll free Service Management System for the toll free subscriber."1 The database itself "enables Responsible Organizations to enter and amend the data about toll free numbers within their control",1 and it is run by a Toll Free Numbering Administrator appointed by the Commission.1

The FCC's guidance adds the practical detail: "Somos, Inc., administrator of the toll free number database, certifies RespOrgs",2 and notes plainly that "the FCC is not involved in the actual assignment of toll free numbers and cannot access the number database."2

So your toll-free number is not held by your phone provider in the way a geographic number is. It is a record in a shared database, and a RespOrg controls that record on your behalf.

Moving a toll-free number is not a port

Because of that architecture, changing providers means changing which RespOrg controls the record. The FCC puts it directly: "The FCC requires that toll free numbers be portable, meaning that a subscriber can 'port,' or move, their number to a new RespOrg when changing service providers."2

There is a second consequence worth knowing before you commit to a toll-free number as your main line: not every provider accepts one. Google, for instance, lists toll-free numbers first among the numbers you cannot port into Google Voice.4 A number you cannot take with you is a number that constrains your future choices.

Vanity numbers and why the good ones are gone

A vanity number spells something on the keypad. They are memorable, and the memorable ones in the 800 code were claimed decades ago.

The FCC's rules anticipate the obvious abuse. Subpart D contains explicit provisions on warehousing and hoarding of toll-free numbers,5 which exist precisely because numbers that spell useful words have speculative value. There is also a permanent cap on number reservations.5

In practice a small business looking for a vanity number today is choosing between a newer code, a less obvious word, or buying an existing number on a secondary market at a price set by whoever holds it.

Which one should you actually get?

For most small businesses reading this, the answer is local, and the reasoning is not subtle.

Choose local when

• Your customers are local and proximity is part of the sale. Trades, clinics, restaurants, anything where somebody might want you to drive to them. A number in the area code where you work says "I am nearby" before anyone speaks.
• You rely on local search. A local number is consistent with a local business listing and a local address, which is the shape of business a local search result is looking for.
• You want to avoid sounding like a call centre. For a two-person firm, an 800 number can read as corporate in a way that works against you.

Choose toll-free when

• You genuinely serve a whole country and a single area code would misrepresent you or put off callers elsewhere.
• You want to look larger than you are, which is a legitimate positioning choice for some B2B businesses.
• You already advertise one and it is printed on things you cannot recall.

You do not have to choose permanently, and plenty of businesses advertise a local number locally and a toll-free number nationally. Just be aware that every number you publish is a number you have to keep working and keep answering.

Outside North America

The codes above are North American. The UK uses 0800 and 0808 for freephone, and other countries have their own ranges and their own rules about who pays and from which networks. We have not set those out here because we could not verify the current positions against the regulators' own material to the standard the rest of this site is held to. Check your own regulator rather than assuming the North American pattern transfers.