What is a fax number, and how do you get one

Printed prices, verified

Getting a fax number in four steps

1. Choose a provider by allowance and compliance, not by the number. Every receiving plan in the table includes a number, so the number does not decide the purchase. The monthly page allowance, the overage rate and whether HIPAA compliance is stated with a BAA do, and those are the columns the table compares vendor by vendor.
2. Pick local or toll-free. Most providers offer both at the same price; FAXAGE prints identical prices for its Local and Toll-Free plans. A toll-free number is free for the sender to reach and looks corporate; a local number in your area code looks established locally. Neither changes how the fax works or what a page costs.
3. Port an existing number if clients know it. A business fax number that clients already have is worth keeping, and most providers will move it onto their service. WestFax prints the fee plainly, $20 one time per number to provision or port; the fax number porting guide on this site sets out the process and what to check before you cancel the old line.
4. Count the numbers and users you need. One number is standard on entry plans. Extra numbers and users are priced separately where the page says: eFax at $5 a month per extra line and $10 per extra user, WestFax at $4.95 a month plus the $20 setup, Documo at $3.00 per additional number or user. A team receiving for several departments needs the plan that prices extras, not the cheapest entry.

What a free fax number offer includes

Free fax numbers come in two shapes. The first is a number included in a paid plan and described as free, which is every provider in the table: the number costs nothing beyond the plan. The second is a genuinely free tier, and it is rarer than search results suggest. FaxZero, the one free service in the catalog, provides no number at all: it sends up to three pages free, at most five times a day, and cannot receive anything. A free number that receives on your behalf almost always sits on a trial, and the trials are dated: MyFax prints a 14-day trial, Fax.Plus and Documo print a free trial beside their plans, and each ends on the paid plan's printed price.

The honest reading of 'free fax number' is therefore 'included with a plan'. What the plan costs, and what a page over its allowance costs, is what the verified table records.

What a fax number looks like, and how to tell it from a phone number

It looks like any phone number in its country: a US number is ten digits with the area code, a UK number eleven, an international number carries the country code. Nothing in the digits says fax. The only way to know is that the owner labels it, or that a call to it answers with a fax tone. Businesses print 'Fax:' beside it for that reason, and a fax cover sheet carries both the sender's and the recipient's so a misdial is caught.

Because it is a real number, it can be dialled from a phone (you hear the tone), texted (nothing useful happens, because a fax line has no messaging), and emailed only through an online fax service that bridges the two, which the fax-by-email guide on this site explains.

Common questions

What is a fax number?

A telephone number that terminates on fax equipment instead of a handset. With an online fax service the equipment is the provider's server, the number is assigned to your account, incoming faxes arrive as PDFs, and the number can be ported between providers like any phone number.

Is a fax number the same as a phone number?

It has the same shape and lives on the same network, but it answers with a fax tone rather than a person. The digits alone cannot tell you which it is; the label beside it does.

Can I get a free fax number?

A number is included free with the paid plans in the table. A genuinely free receiving number is rare: FaxZero, the free service here, provides none and only sends. Free trials that include a number end on the printed plan price.

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