817 Area Code: Fort Worth, TX — Location, Overlays & Spam Check
The 817 area code covers Fort Worth, Arlington, and most of Tarrant County, Texas — the western half of the DFW metroplex. The 1953 214 split, the 682 overlay, and how to check any 817 number.
Is the 817 area code spam or a scam?
No — 817 is a legitimate Fort Worth and Tarrant County area code, not a "scam code" in itself. The catch is the same one that applies to any familiar local code: an 817 caller ID looks like it is coming from a neighbor, a Fort Worth-area office, or a local business, which is exactly why fraud operations spoof it. Faking a recognizable local number is a cheap way to lift pickup rates, so an 817 on your screen could be a real business in Arlington, a person in Mansfield, or a scammer overseas. In recent FTC reports, the most common complaints about numbers displaying 817 involved medical & prescriptions, dropped or silent calls, and uncategorized nuisance calls, with a 61% robocall share. Because caller ID is routinely faked, the only reliable move is to check the specific number before you trust it.
Consumers filed 2,795 FTC complaints about numbers displaying the 817 area code between 2026-03-03 and 2026-05-28 (61% flagged as robocalls). Caller IDs are often spoofed, so this reflects reports, not the callers' true location.
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The 817 area code covers Fort Worth, Arlington, and most of Tarrant County in Texas — the western half of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. That includes Grand Prairie, Mansfield, the HEB mid-cities, Keller, Southlake, and North Richland Hills. It was created in 1953, when the original North Texas code, 214, was split to keep up with a booming region — and an 817 number reads instantly as Fort Worth.
What makes 817 distinctive is the identity it now anchors. This is "Cowtown" — Fort Worth has a character all its own, built around the historic Stockyards, its cattle-drive heritage, and a downtown that feels nothing like Dallas a half-hour east. An 817 number is the calling card of that whole western side of the metroplex: Fort Worth's Western-heritage identity and Arlington, the entertainment hub midway between the two cities that is home to the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. That is a deliberately separate world from Dallas's 214, 469, and 972 codes on the eastern half of the region. Since 2000, 817 has been overlaid by 682, so both codes ring the same neighborhoods.
This guide covers where the 817 area code is, the split-and-overlay story behind 214, 940, 254, and 682, why an 817 number became a Fort Worth and Tarrant County calling card distinct from Dallas, why a familiar local code still gets spoofed, and how to get or dial an 817 number.
817 Area Code Quick Facts
State
Texas
Coverage
Fort Worth & western DFW metroplex
Major Cities
Fort Worth & Arlington
Time Zone
Central (CT / UTC-6)
Type
1953 split from 214
Introduced
1953
Overlay Code
682 (2000)
Dialing
10-digit (since the 682 overlay)
Where is the 817 area code?
The 817 area code covers Fort Worth, Arlington, and most of Tarrant County — the western half of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. That includes Grand Prairie, Mansfield, the HEB mid-cities (Hurst, Euless, Bedford), Keller, Southlake, and North Richland Hills, along with parts of neighboring Parker, Johnson, and Hood counties. It shares that entire footprint with its 682 overlay. Dallas and the eastern metroplex use 214, 469, and 972.
When it was created in 1953, 817 covered a much larger band of north-central Texas. That changed in 1997, when a three-way split moved the northern region around Wichita Falls and Denton to 940 and the southern band including Waco, Temple, and Killeen to 254 — leaving 817 focused on Fort Worth and western Tarrant County. These are some of the places that fall inside the 817 footprint (alongside its 682 overlay):
| City / Community | Known for |
|---|---|
| Fort Worth | “Cowtown” — the western anchor of the metroplex and home of the Stockyards |
| Arlington | Midway between Fort Worth and Dallas; home of the Cowboys and Rangers |
| Grand Prairie | Fast-growing city straddling the Fort Worth–Dallas line |
| Mansfield | Booming southern Tarrant County suburb |
| Bedford, Euless & Hurst | The “HEB” mid-cities cluster northeast of Fort Worth |
| Keller & Southlake | Affluent northern Tarrant County suburbs |
| North Richland Hills | Established suburb just north of Fort Worth |
| Weatherford & Granbury | Western Parker and Hood County communities outside the city |
817, 682, and the Dallas–Fort Worth area codes
817 and 682 cover Fort Worth and the western metroplex, while Dallas and the eastern side use 214, 469, and 972. The metroplex is split down the middle by area code: the Fort Worth / Tarrant County side carries 817 and its 682 overlay, and the Dallas side carries 214 and its 469 and 972 overlays. 682 was stacked directly on top of 817, sharing the same neighborhoods. Which code a metroplex line carries tells you which half of the region it belongs to — and, for 817, signals Fort Worth itself.
1953 — Original
Created in 1953 when 214 — the original 1947 code for North Texas — was split to keep up with the booming Dallas–Fort Worth region. 817 took the western half of the future metroplex, anchored on Fort Worth, plus a large swath of north-central Texas that has since been carved away.
2000 — Overlay
Activated on October 7, 2000, the 682 overlay was layered onto the exact same Fort Worth / western-metroplex footprint as 817 to supply more numbers as the region exhausted its 817 pool. It rings the same neighborhoods and made ten-digit dialing the norm across western Tarrant County and beyond.
Fort Worth Area Code Timeline
1947 — Original
One of the original 86 NANP area codes. As assigned, 214 covered all of northeast and north-central Texas, including both Dallas and Fort Worth, before the region grew too large for a single code.
1953 — Split
In 1953, demand across the fast-growing Dallas–Fort Worth region forced a split. The western side — Fort Worth and a wide band of north-central Texas — moved to the new 817 area code, leaving Dallas on 214.
1997 — Split
On July 25, 1997, the still-oversized 817 was trimmed in a three-way split. The northern reaches around Wichita Falls and Denton went to 940, while the southern band including Waco, Temple, and Killeen became 254 — leaving 817 focused on Fort Worth and western Tarrant County.
2000 — Overlay
With the western metroplex booming and the 817 number pool tightening again, a 682 overlay went live on October 7, 2000 across the same Fort Worth footprint, stacking new numbers on top of 817 without changing anyone’s existing line.
Why an 817 number became a Fort Worth and Cowtown calling card
An 817 number reads as Fort Worth and Tarrant County — and in the metroplex, that distinction carries real weight. Even though Fort Worth and Dallas sit a half-hour apart, they are different cities with different identities, and the area code is part of how locals tell them apart. 817 maps to "Cowtown": the historic Stockyards, the cattle-drive heritage, and a downtown with a Western character all its own. It also covers Arlington, the entertainment hub between the two cities that is home to the Cowboys and the Rangers. For a business that wants to feel genuinely rooted on the Fort Worth side of the metroplex rather than read as "Dallas," an 817 line on a card is part of the story. It functions the way a Manhattan 212 number signals the city core or a downtown Chicago 312 number signals the Loop.
That demand is real, and it is why 817 filled up in the first place. Decades of explosive growth across Fort Worth, Arlington, and the western metroplex exhausted the easy supply of 817 numbers, which is exactly why the 682overlay was added in 2000. New western-metroplex lines may now be issued in either code — but a fresh 817 number is harder to come by, which only sharpens the sense that 817 is the "classic Fort Worth" line rather than just a phone prefix.
The familiarity trap: the very recognizability that makes 817 desirable also makes it useful to scammers. Because an 817 caller ID looks like a local business or a Fort Worth-area neighbor, fraud operations spoof it to make robocalls and nuisance pitches feel trustworthy — which is why a perfectly legitimate, sought-after code still shows up in spam complaint reports.
How to get and dial an 817 number
Because 817 is in high demand and its easy supply ran short years ago, fresh 817 numbers are harder to come by than 682 — many brand-new Fort Worth-area lines are now issued in the 682 overlay. You can still establish a Fort Worth and Tarrant County presence by getting a local number from a provider, and some carriers and VoIP services hold 817 inventory or let you request a specific area code when one is available.
Dialing an 817 number
- Within the US: dial all 10 digits — 817 plus the 7-digit number. Ten-digit dialing is the norm across the 817/682 region.
- From abroad: dial your exit code (00 in most countries), then 1, then 817, then the 7-digit number. From a mobile, use +1-817-XXX-XXXX.
- Time zone: Fort Worth is on Central Time (UTC-6 in winter, UTC-5 in summer) — factor that in when calling from another region.
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