How to Get a US Phone Number in Minutes (2024)

Looking to get a US phone number for your business? Now is a great time to switch to the cloud. Instead of using a traditional SIM card to make calls, you can use a virtual US number to build relationships with your customers.

A US virtual phone number can help you call and text US contacts with a country code and area code they’re already familiar with. US phone numbers are a great option to grow your business and help customers connect with your brand.

The best part about getting a virtual phone number? It’s easier than buying a landline or cell number. You’re not tied to a device or glued to your desk — as long as you have a WiFi connection, you can use your US virtual phone number to call your customers in the US.

In this article, we’ll share how you can get a US number in minutes, why you should get a virtual US phone number, and which virtual number providers you should consider.

How to get a US phone number from almost anywhere

Getting a US phone number for your business is an easy process and only takes a few minutes to complete.

Watch the video below to learn how to sign up for an OpenPhone account and select a US, toll-free, or Canadian phone number.

1. Create an account with OpenPhone.
2. Select your city or area code in the US to pick your phone number — you can pick a specific phone number in virtually any city or state in the US.
   Virtual Phone number look-up

3. Once the signup process is complete, you’re done.
4. You now have a US phone number.

Five US phone number providers you should consider

You can choose from dozens of US phone number providers, so choosing a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider can be confusing. Here’s a breakdown of the providers you should consider and what makes each of them unique:

1. OpenPhone: Best US phone number provider for small businesses and growing teams

*Nearly all virtual phone numbers share this problem. For safety reasons, companies like Facebook, Uber, and Google rarely let you authenticate accounts through a virtual phone number.

OpenPhone is a VoIP phone system for startups and small businesses. You can make free calls to the US and Canada, send free texts to US numbers, and make international calls at affordable rates.

What makes OpenPhone stand out? It’s easy to use and highly collaborative. Businesses can share phone numbers so team members can share responsibility for incoming calls and messages, tag team members in specific customer conversations for help, and review calls with AI call summaries and transcriptions.

OpenPhone also gives you access to advanced messaging features that can save you time texting, like auto-replies, scheduled messages, and automated text flows. Connect OpenPhone to your HubSpot or Salesforce CRM and connect it to any tool in your stack with our Zapier integration.
Get access to the business phone features you need with OpenPhone. Sign up today for our seven-day free trial.

Key features of OpenPhone

• Free calls and texts in the US and Canada
• Text and call from your computer, smartphone, or tablet
• Free phone number porting
• Shared phone numbers
• IVR
• Call recording
• Call routing
• Voicemail transcriptions
• Automated texts

OpenPhone pricing

• Starter: $15 per user per month for unlimited calls in the US and Canada, on-demand call recording, shared phone numbers, one free local or toll-free US or Canadian number per user, and more
• Business: $23 per user per month for phone menus (IVR), AI call summaries and transcripts, ring groups, analytics, and more
• Enterprise: Contact for a custom plan and price to unlock priority support, a dedicated account manager, an audit log, and more

2. Google Voice: Best for Google Workspace users

Google Voice needs no introduction: it’s one of the most popular tools for getting a free US number. That said, it’s not a perfect solution — the free version of Google Voice is only available in the US.

The only way to get a US mobile number outside the US is to buy a Google Voice for Business plan and add an active Google Workspace subscription (a minimum of $6 per user per month). Even if you do decide to get a paid account, keep in mind texting is still only available to US customers.

Google Voice for Google Workspace does offer free calls to the US (and Canada, if you’re a US user). But beyond voicemail transcriptions and business hour settings, it provides limited features to help your business grow. You won’t be able to get access to toll-free numbers and vanity numbers, which can be a limitation for your customer support operations. And without auto-replies, you won’t be able to respond to customers quickly after business hours. There’s not even a desktop app available — you have to use your browser to call with the Google Chrome extension.

Google Voice pricing

Google Voice’s paid plans require you to have an active Google Workspace subscription (starting at $6 per user per month) on top of one of these three Google Voice plans:

• Starter: $10 per user per month (maximum of 10 users)
• Standard: $20 per user per month to access on-demand call recordings, ring groups, and phone menus
• Premier: $30 per user per month to access automatic call recordings and advanced reporting

3. TextNow: Best for plans with high-speed data

TextNow is a WiFi texting app you can also use to make and receive calls. If you want to send texts without WiFi, you can purchase a TextNow SIM card for an additional fee.

TextNow’s free calling and texting service is ad-supported, but you can always upgrade to an Ad Free Lite plan ($1.99 per month). Plus, your phone call recipients aren’t required to have TextNow installed on their device, which means you can directly call their cell phone or landline without communicating through the app.

Unfortunately, TextNow is only available in the US and Canada. If you’re located outside the US, you have to sign up with a VPN installed on your device. Plus, it’s possible to lose your phone number due to inactivity unless you pay an extra $4.99 per month to ‘lock in’ your number. You can also upgrade to a Premium Number (also $4.99 per month) to protect your number from deactivation.

TextNow pricing

TextNow is free to use with ads. To make calls without WiFi, you first need to purchase a SIM card ($4.99). Then you have the option to purchase three data bundles:

• Month Pass: $39.99 for one full month of unlimited talk, text, and data
• Hour Pass: $0.99 for 60 minutes of unlimited talk, text, and data
• Day Pass: $4.99 for 24 hours of unlimited talk, text, and data

Additional plan options from TextNow include locking in your number and removing ads from their app:

• Lock in Number: $1.99 per week
• Ad-Free+: $6.99 per week

4. RingCentral: Best if you need desk phone rentals

RingCentral is a VoIP service provider that offers unified communications to businesses. This means you can access call, text, and video calling tools on your mobile phone, laptop, or desktop computer.

Unfortunately, RingCentral’s service has many drawbacks, even if you’re located in the US. Many of their basic business features require upgrades to a higher tier — for example, the base plan only includes 25 messages per user per month. And since you can only have up to 20 users on the basic plan, you may feel pressured to upgrade before you’re ready.

Similarly, RingCentral limits businesses with how many toll-free minutes are included in each plan. The base plan only includes 100 toll-free minutes in your account, after which you have to pay for toll-free calling minutes.

You’ll have to upgrade to the Ultra plan — nearly twice the cost of the base plan — for 10,000 pooled toll-free minutes, 200 texts per month, and unlimited storage for call recordings and files. This is still nowhere near enough for growing businesses.

RingCentral pricing

• Core: $20 per user per month to access unlimited calls in the US and Canada and 25 SMS messages per user per month
• Advanced: $25 per user per month to get 100 SMS messages per user per month, automatic call recording, and CRM integrations
• Ultra: $35 per user per month to get additional storage, device analytics, and 200 SMS messages per user per month

5. Grasshopper: Best for multi-digit extensions

Grasshopper is a popular choice in the world of virtual phone providers, especially if you want to get extensions with your US phone number. You can add unlimited users to any plan except for the True Solo tier, which is designed for self-employed folks. Since every available feature is included with every plan, you won’t have to pay for upgrades to access more features.

On the downside, Grasshopper’s platform is a bit outdated and doesn’t come with modern features such as call recording and shared phone numbers. It also costs nearly twice as much to purchase additional numbers compared to OpenPhone.
Keep in mind Grasshopper is only available to customers in the US and Canada. This means you need to be physically present in the US or Canada to sign up or you need a VPN to create a Grasshopper phone number for your business.

Grasshopper pricing

Grasshopper offers three plans — True Solo, Solo Plus, and Small Business. While each plan offers all its features, they differ in the number of users and extensions you can access.

Here’s how much each plan costs:

• True Solo: $14 per month for one user, one phone number, and one extension
• Solo Plus: $25 per month for unlimited users, one phone number, and three extensions
• Small Business: $55 per month for unlimited users, four phone numbers, and unlimited extensions.

Why you need a US phone number

If your business isn’t based in the US but you’re currently working with US customers (or want to work with US customers), you should have a US phone number.

There are many benefits to having a US phone number, including:

• Your company looks bigger and more legitimate to US customers.
• No international calling fees when calling US-based customers, whether you live in another country or are just temporarily elsewhere.
• US customers are more likely to answer calls from recognizable US area codes (you can even select a local phone number in specific cities with a large concentration of your customers).
• Better call quality since you don’t need to worry about long-distance ping or jitter.
• More privacy means you and your team can share a second phone number while directing callers to your customer support number.

Most international businesses think a free Google Voice number can help them reach US customers, but this isn’t possible. You can’t create a free Google Voice account unless you already have a US phone number to verify it. Fortunately, you can use plenty of Google Voice alternatives to get a US phone number.

Getting a US phone number is an easy process with the right virtual phone number provider. Instead of working with traditional phone services, setting up expensive infrastructure, or waiting for implementation, you can use virtual US phone number services to get a US business phone number much faster.

Get started with a US number on OpenPhone for free

With essential business phone features like shared numbers, unlimited calls and texts to the US and Canada, call recording, CRM integrations, and more, OpenPhone is the only VoIP phone number provider you need to get your US number today.

Get started with our seven-day free trial and see OpenPhone in action.

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Nikhil Venkatesa

Nikhil is a Content Producer at OpenPhone. In his free time, he loves writing screenplays and watching obscure films on The Criterion Channel.

Words by Nikhil Venkatesa

Nikhil is a Content Producer at OpenPhone. In his free time, he loves writing screenplays and watching obscure films on The Criterion Channel.